Though it’s silly to ever bet against Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson succeeding when he puts his mind to something, it’s safe to say he wouldn’t have made his way to the top of Hollywood without the fame he gained from his WWE career. Yet when he first wanted to transition to acting, the advice he was given was to distance himself from his days in the ring as much as possible.
Toward the end of a wide-ranging discussion on The Pivot Podcast, Johnson reflected on what he was told when he first wanted to give acting a serious go — and it was essentially to leave The Rock behind him.
“I was told at that time, alright, in order for this to happen, here’s the biggest stars in the world: Will Smith, George Clooney, Johnny Depp,” Johnson said. “You look nothing like them. You gotta stop talking about wrestling. Stop calling yourself The Rock. You’re too big, go on a diet, get out of the gym. I mean all this s–t that at that time, if you don’t know any better, and you’re trying to stay focused on the North Star, you buy into it, because you’re trusting the people who are around you.”
He added that he wasn’t criticizing the people who gave him that advice, as they were simply telling him what they thought it was take to become a Hollywood leading man.
But after admittedly buying into that mindset for a few years, Johnson realized he needed to pursue his new goal while staying true to himself.
“Finally I said, ‘I can’t do this any more,'” he said. “‘I gotta be me. I love wrestling, it’s my life.’ Wrestling was my family’s savior, I wanted to talk about it. And if I want to go back, I’m gonna go back. If I want to call myself The Rock, I’m going to call myself The motherf–king Rock.”
It was obviously the right call; while Johnson hasn’t batted 1.000 as an actor and producer (and no one does), he’s definitely made it big and done it his own way.
In other words, this was one pivot The Rock didn’t end up making, and millions of his fans are glad he didn’t.