Dwayne Johnson opened up on firing his entire team just a few years into his Hollywood career after deciding “I’ve got to be me”.
Dwayne Johnson, 51, is one of the few wrestling stars who have transitioned into acting with successful long-term impact but revealed that at the start he was told to stop everything he knew.
Speaking on The Pivot Podcast with fellow former athletes Channing Crowder, Fred Taylor and Ryan Clark when the actor explained that his “biggest pivot” in life was breaking out of the boxes Hollywood wanted to put him in.
Dwayne Johnson, 51, is one of the few wrestling stars who have transitioned into acting with successful long-term impact but revealed that at the start he was told to stop everything he knew.
Speaking on The Pivot Podcast with fellow former athletes Channing Crowder, Fred Taylor and Ryan Clark when the actor explained that his “biggest pivot” in life was breaking out of the boxes Hollywood wanted to put him in.
Dwayne Johnson made his acting debut in 1999 on an episode of That 70’s Show (Image: GETTY)
“You’ve got to stop talking about wrestling, stop calling yourself The Rock. You’re too big, go on a diet and get out of the gym’.”
The actor admitted he followed these recommendations for a few years, adding: “If you don’t know any better and trying to stay focused, you buy into it because you’re trusting the people around you.
“It’s not an indictment on them, they were just giving me advice on what the best thing to do is if you want to be a leading man.
“You can’t look like this, you can’t talk like this, not The Rock, not wrestling.”
The actor left WWE in 2004 but only officially retired from the sport in 2019 (Image: GETTY)
After “a few years”, the former WWE Champion decided “I’ve got to be me” and fired his entire team.
The liberated actor returned to all of the things he loved, including the gym and wrestling which he dubbed “my family’s saviour”, as well as regaining ownership of his stage name.
When Dwayne brought on board a new team of faces, the more-experienced actor took the reins entirely, explaining where he wanted to be, how he wanted to get there and ultimately decided: “If I fail, then I fail being myself.”
Source: express.co.uk
