Dwayne Johnson On Telling His Own Story In Young Rock: “Let’s Not Take The Easy Route” - 27th April 2021

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Ask one of the world’s biggest stars what the key to success is and his answer’s clear.

“The key is there is no key,” says Dwayne Johnson, the man behind the Fast & Furious and Jumanji movie franchises, as well as HBO series Ballers (watch all On Demand). “Be humble, hungry and the hardest worker in the room.”

You need only take a look at his social media or the list of blockbuster films this likeable Hollywood heavyweight has to his bow to know Johnson lives by those words. He doesn’t shy away from his harrowing past, including being a juvenile delinquent – stealing, fighting and getting arrested – and being evicted with his parents and forced to leave Hawaii when he was just 14. But he also wholeheartedly lives in the moment, soaking up every spare minute he has with his top priority: family. We’ve seen him dress up as Pikachu and dance up a storm just to win a laugh from his cute kids.

“I will do honestly anything to bring a smile to my babies’ faces,” he says of his three daughters – Simone, 19, from his first marriage, and Jasmine, five, and three-year-old Tiana with his wife Lauren Hashian.

“They teach me so much, and continue to check me. They’re the equaliser... I see the world in a different way, through a different lens. The taste for an idea of success is different. I still chase it today, but with different perspective and a different anchoring.”

And it’s memories of family – as heartbreaking but character-building as some of those moments have been – that find the man known as ‘The Rock’, who turns 49 on May 2, telling his life story in new 11-episode, single-camera comedy Young Rock, which coincidentally premieres on that date on FOX8.

“I thought, ‘Well, let’s not take the easy route,’” explains the co-creator, star and narrator of the series.

“It was incredibly tough… growing up, and you know we specifically went with these timelines in my life that were very defining times at 10 years old, 15 and 18. There’s a lot of things in between those years that took place... but it was complicated and the relationship that I had with my dad was incredibly complicated – that was fuelled by tough love.”

Johnson’s Canadian-born father, Rocky – a professional wrestler who inspired his son to get into the ring, leading to his successful WWE career – sadly passed away in January last year of a pulmonary embolism, aged 75.

“He died suddenly,” the actor reflects. “He’s obviously featured throughout the show and Joseph [Lee Anderson] did a tremendous job playing [him].”

Johnson speaks candidly of his father and recalls some harsh confrontations between the pair – including one sparked by The Rock’s desire to follow in Rocky’s footsteps.

“We had the biggest fight between a father and a son,” he remembers. “He said, ‘Look around, look what I have after all these years... I want more for you.’ We fought and fought and fought [about it].”

It was Johnson’s mother Ata stepping in to support her son that saw Rocky change his mind. Being headstrong clearly runs in the family.

“I was a pain in the butt...as a little kid,” Johnson recalls with a laugh. “I was just full of energy, but from what I am able to gather from my parents over the years, I was a good boy.”

In Young Rock, Johnson’s distinctive voice is the thread that weaves together the episodes in his “wildly Forrest Gump-ian life”, as he likes to put it, and digging into his past took plenty of Dutch courage.

“I poured myself a lot of tequilas and I was able to jog my memory,” he reveals. “I would leave [co-creator] Nahnatchka [Khan] voice notes after my second or third drink and say, ‘Listen, you’re never going to believe this. But I’ll tell it to you anyway.’”

As well as narrating, Johnson appears in Young Rock playing a version of himself running for President of the United States in the year 2032. While Kim Kardashian’s estranged husband Kanye West famously makes controversial headlines about a possible political career, Johnson takes the idea a little more seriously.

“I would consider a presidential run in the future if that’s what the people wanted,” he admits. “Truly, I mean that and I’m not flippant in any way with my answer. That would be up to the people… So I would wait and I would listen. I would have my finger on the pulse, my ear to the ground.”

Not afraid to roll up his sleeves, Johnson has been instrumental in bringing Young Rock to the small screen and was heavily involved in casting those who portray him: Adrian Groulx (playing Johnson aged 10), Bradley Constant (at 15) and Australian star of FOXTEL Original productions The End and Devil’s Playground (watch both On Demand) Uli Latukefu from ages 18 to 20.

“I was able to spend some time with them prior to shooting and let them know what I was like during that time,” says Johnson. “That was surreal, in and of itself.”

By telling his truth through laughter, Johnson hopes to benefit or inspire others: “[It’s] unlike anything I’ve ever participated in. It required real specificity and an attention to detail. And nuance, to find the comedy and make sure that some of these lessons that I learnt a tough way would hopefully help audiences, too.”

YOUNG ROCK Starts May 2, Sundays at 6.30pm on FOX8 [108] and watch On Demand

Words: Erin McWhirter

(Foxtel)