Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has starred in several box office hits, including the Fast and Furious franchise, Jumanji (and the sequel) and San Andreas, among others. Apparently, chasing box office success is what’s recently altered his mindset on the movies he wants to take on. It’s also what set him up for a significant shift in the genre of film he’s commonly in, with all paths leading him to one place—The Smashing Machine.
The move into a more dramatic role is somewhat new territory for Johnson, as The Smashing Machine is considered a biographical sports drama. Johnson stars as former wrestler-turned-MMA fighter Mark Kerr, with Emily Blunt co-starring as his then-wife Dawn Staples.
Johnson’s comments at the film’s Venice Film Festival press conference quickly took the internet by storm, as the actor gave one of the most candid and open statements about not only The Smashing Machine, but his career as a whole.
Dwayne Johnson Admits ‘Burning Desire’ to Find More and Not Be ‘Pigeonholed’
During The Smashing Machine press conference, Johnson wore his emotions on his sleeve, providing a step-by-step breakdown of what led him to pursue more “deep and intense and raw” roles. However, there was one line from the 53-year-old that stood out among his emotional comments and effectively summed it all up, as Variety detailed.
“I looked around a few years ago and I started to think, you know, am I living my dream or am I living other people’s dreams?” Johnson said in the middle of his presser.
This hit the point that Johnson was trying to drive home, and it’s what led him to this role, or as he put it, “to live my dreams.’
Johnson’s statement began with the actor explaining that it had “become about box office,” leading him to feel “pigeonholed.”
“I have, for a long time, wanted this,” Johnson said. “The three of us have talked for a very long time about, when you’re in Hollywood — as we all know, it had become about box office. And you chase the box office, and the box office can be very loud and it can become very resounding and it can push you into a category and into a corner. This is your lane and this is what you do and this is what Hollywood wants you to do.”
“I just had this burning desire and voice that was saying, ‘What if there is more and what if I can?’ A lot of times, it’s harder for us — or at least for me — to know what you’re capable of when you’ve been pigeonholed into something,” he continued. “Sometimes it takes people that who you love and respect, like Emily and Benny, to say that you can.”
Johnson Says He Was ‘Scared to Go Deep and Intense and Raw’ Until ‘the Smashing Machine’
Hearing that the man known as “The Rock” is scared of anything likely comes as a surprise to everyone. But just like every one of us, Johnson goes through the same feelings and emotions, along with the tough career decisions, which he also admitted at the Venice Film Festival.
“I looked around a few years ago and I started to think, you know, am I living my dream or am I living other people’s dreams?” Johnson said, as referenced above.
“You come to that recognition and I think you can either fall in line — ‘Well, it’s status quo, things are good, I don’t want to rock the boat’ — or go, I want to live my dreams now and do what I wanna do and tap into the stuff that I want to tap into and have a place finally to put all this stuff that I’ve experienced in the past that I’ve shied away from. I’ve been scared to go deep and intense and raw until now, until I had this opportunity.”
