SimplyAbuDhabi XXXVIII

Your grandfather tussled with Sean Connery (or his stunt double) in “You Only Live Twice”. What kind of influence did it have on you, that your grandfather went up against James Bond? DWAYNE JOHNSON: To be honest with you, my grandfather was one of my heroes, and I thought it was just so cool that he was in a movie. We all get enamoured, or at least I did as a kid, of the movies on the big screen. But the truth is I felt early on that “that’s my grandfather and that other guy -- he’s a movie star, but he’s an actor.” My grandfather was trained as a pro wrestler during a time where the training was incredibly difficult. My grandfather was a tough, tough guy with a big, big heart. And he was one of the quiet anchors of our series, because it all started from him and my grandmother, who’s played brilliantly by Ana. Of course, looking back now it gave me a real affinity for film and filmmaking and actors. It’s great to see the diversity in the show. Can you talk about the importance of telling stories about these kinds of families? DWAYNE JOHNSON: Yes, it was important for us to showcase diversity but it was also important for us to be real and authentic, and show that it is my life and it is who I am. I’m half Samoan and half Black, and it sort of reflects the families that came together in the world of pro wrestling. I think the responsibility that we had was just to be authentic and making sure that everything felt real. We reached out to all of our wrestlers, and for the ones who are no longer here with us, we reached out to their families and made sure that they knew that they were going to be portrayed in a positive way, because that was important to us. Howwas seeing the three young actors who portray you growing up? DWAYNE JOHNSON: It’s so surreal. There’s the kid who’s playing me at 10 years old and that little, innocent boy who just needed guidance but who loved the world he was in – the bad guys of pro wrestling. I loved my dad. He was my hero. But I never understood that things were actually tougher than they appeared in terms of lifestyle. I never knew. And that’s the blessing that I have with mom and dad, who never really hinted at what was happening. And then, there’s Bradley who plays me at 15 – a kid who had some anger issues but also thought he was really cool. Clearly, I had an identity crisis: I didn’t want to be known as Dwayne when I moved from high school to high school and called myself Tomas. I was just so determined to make something of myself. That was so important to me. These young actors nailed all of it and I want to give them so much credit. Never in my wildest dreams, number one, would I have ever had the career that I’ve been lucky enough to have. Never did I ever think I’d be in this position where people are bringing to life people in my life and my loved ones. And Stacey Leilua playing my mom. Really, truly, she is the rock of this entire thing. It all comes down to my mom, who, by the way, is still going strong. You talk about there being tough times growing up. When you look back on your life, what was the hardest time? DWAYNE JOHNSON: Well, I think there’s a few layers to that answer. I would say, at first blush, the hardest time would probably be in that era of 13 to 15 years old, when I started to veer off the tracks and do a lot of things that I shouldn’t have been doing. I started getting arrested at 13 in Hawaii. And there was talk of us leaving Hawaii because times were too hard, and I was so adamantly against that I fought tooth and nail with my mom and my dad. Sometimes when you want something so badly, then the universe steps in – we got evicted off the island, so we had no choice but to leave, which I always find is one of the most ironic things in life. It’s when you want something so badly and it just doesn’t come true, years later you realize that that’s actually the best thing that never happened. So, it allowed to us leave and I wound up going to Nashville, Tenn. Then we were forced out of Nashville. Then I went up to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. So, within the course of about nine months, I was in three different cities, and there was a real instability in Bethlehem when we first got there. So I give Bradley, our actor, a lot of credit for portraying that. And then, a few years later, I did not get called up to the NFL. That was a pretty big loss, because when you’re done with your college career, you’re done. You don’t get another shot at it. You can’t come back. And there was no NFL for me. Instead, I went to the Canadian Football League, which we’ll get into a little bit of that in this series. So that was a tough time too, because then I was cut from the CFL. And then that’s when I had the infamous seven bucks in my pocket. Can you say a bit more about your dad and Joseph Lee Anderson’s portrayal of him? DWAYNE JOHNSON: For anyone who’s ever known my dad or had an inkling of the world of pro wrestling, you’ll know that Joseph’s portrayal is uncanny and so incredible. I spent a lot of time with Joseph just talking about my dad, about the relationship, that complicated, tough relationship that I had with my dad. And that’s the tricky thing about this, is to find that balance of the complication of who he was as a man and the tough love he raised me with. But one of the anchoring elements that I shared with Joseph, which I think he really nailed, I said, “You’ve got to understand this about my dad – he had friends. He had a lot of friends. He had a lot of enemies. But he had this unique ability to always make someone feel good”. There are those special people out there in the world who just have this unique ability to make you feel good the moment you come in the room. My dad was one of them, and you see that performance from Joseph throughout the pilot and throughout the entire season. I was really, really impressed by that, because that was an important quality to capture. Joseph did a great job. Finally, is there a plan for future seasons of “Young Rock”? DWAYNE JOHNSON: Yes, I think we have a real opportunity if we were to go on after this. There are so many stories there. Including, of course, playing football at the University of Miami and then making the decision that I might have something to offer the world of pro wrestling. There’s a good amount of stuff still to cover. Simply Abu Dhabi | 103