Movie star Dwayne Johnson has a laundry list of injuries he's sustained over the course of his career as a professional wrestler and a college football player. There was a ruptured Achilles tendon, a complete shoulder reconstruction and either four or five knee surgeries — he can't remember how many.
And then there was the match with John Cena which left him spitting up blood. "I landed in a way that really, for the moment, damaged my lungs and blood vessels," Johnson says.
That fight was the last of his official WWE career. It was not, however, the last time he'd be in the ring as a fighter. His new movie, The Smashing Machine, tells the story of Mark Kerr, one of the American pioneers of mixed martial arts (MMA) fighting.
The film, which Johnson produced and stars in, is about the high of having tens of thousands of fans cheering for you — and the physical pain after some fights, when muscles are torn or bones are broken.
"It takes a very unique person to become an elite MMA fighter," Johnson says. "You get locked in a cage or a ring and it's two people enter, and one's gonna lose and one is gonna win."
There was a time, early in his career, when Johnson considered pursuing the sport. But he decided against it, he says, because "I realized I don't like getting punched in the face."
Johnson worked closely with Kerr while making The Smashing Machine. He describes Kerr as a "physical anomaly," a muscular man who could "move like a cheetah" and would do anything to win. But, he adds, Kerr was a different person when he wasn't fighting.
"He is sweet and he's so gentle outside of the ring," Johnson says. "Everyone who he would beat and maul that night ... when they got to the back in the dressing room, he would go to them and say, 'Hey, are you OK? Sorry about that.'"
Interview highlights
On his physical transformation to play Mark Kerr
I gained about 30 pounds over the course of about six months. And our writer/director, Benny Safdie, he came to me early and he said, "Hey DJ, I'm 100% positive no one has ever told you this before when it comes to preparing for a role." I said, "Yeah, tell me." He goes, "I think you're gonna have to get bigger." ... And he was searching, Benny was searching for the word. He goes, "I think, is it puffier?" ... Because Mark is a big guy, bigger than I was at any time in my life. And so there was a physical transformation of about 30 pounds, which was hard to do, because I didn't have the luxury of, "Oh, I'm gonna put on 30 pounds and I can eat McDonald's every other day and milkshakes and cheeseburgers." It had to be like a certain quality and definition of that kind of muscle that I had to add.
On his "babyface" persona at the beginning of his WWE career
My original name, when I went into WWE, was "Rocky Maivia" and I hated that name because ... my grandfather was a pro wrestler, my dad was a pro wrestler, my grandmother was one of the first female promoters in pro wrestling. So it came from a long lineage. And while [I'm] very proud of my family's history in pro wrestling, I also wanted to make it on my own, and I wanted to carve my own path. And so WWE came up with this name, Rocky Maivia, a combination of my dad's name, Rocky Johnson, and my grandfather's name, High Chief Peter Maivia. So it was showing respect to my family lineage, and all part of the good guy, babyface persona.
On the origin of his "heel" persona, "The Rock"
I get the call from WWE ... "Hey, after your injury, when you heal up at the end of the summer, we're gonna bring you back as a heel." And I had a conversation again with [WWE co-founder] Vince McMahon and I said, "I love that. I just love any kind of change up here, but I have one request. ... I would love five minutes on the microphone so I can express what these past eight months have been to me and how it's affected me and how now I'm gonna utilize that in the ring as a heel." … He goes, "I'll give you two minutes." ...
I became a heel that night. And within three months, I became the hottest heel in the company. And the ascension happened pretty quick. But that moment was so defining for me, because it really allowed me to step into my power. And what I mean by that is just being real and authentic. And even in this crazy world of pro wrestling, every time I grabbed the microphone and I said something or every action that I did came from a very, very real place. And in that moment, it was like instantaneously, the crowd knew it. And they said, "Oh, this guy's holding up a mirror. That's who he is. And he is winking at us. He's entertaining us. And we love it." And then The Rock was born.
On learning to "sell the pain" in his WWE performances
There's an age-old theory in pro wrestling, which is the theater of drama, in that they can't feel your pain. People can only see it. And if you keep that in mind, in the forefront of your mind, then as you sell your pain, you sell it for the seats all the way at the top of the stadium, to everybody in the front row. Again, you keep that adage in the forefront of your mind, which is they can't feel it, but they could see it, should you choose to show them. So that's where the theatrics and the histrionics, I think of professional wrestling, can actually really be cool when you sit back and look at it and you can appreciate it for what these girls and guys do. It is the theater of pain.
On "going home" in a wrestling match
In wrestling parlance, when we say to each other in the ring, "let's go home," that means we're going into the finish and within a minute this match will end. ...
If [John Cena] would have asked me, "Hey, are you OK?" And I say, "No, there's something wrong." And he says, "OK, let's go home." We would know where to pick up our finishes. So it's almost like, if you go right to the third act of the script ... and then we would go home and then that would be the end of the match.
On his father's memoir, and why it caused a fight between them
The thing that really got me most was there were direct quotes from me that were not true. And basically the quotes were me giving my dad credit for everything that I'd ever accomplished in my life. And I was really just floored by that. …
We had a conversation and it was a heated conversation. I was very upset and he knew it. And he didn't have an answer for it, other than "I'm sorry." And I did do that. There's no lawsuits or anything like that. But [I told him] I'm going to get these removed off the shelves. And he said, "OK, I understand." … We weren't talking. And that happened around Christmas time. … That was the last time we spoke and then he died. He died about two weeks later. And he wasn't sick, he wasn't bedridden. He just, he just died. And that became something that I had to continue to work through. …
I thought about that a lot of times. I [wonder] did he die of a broken heart? … I try not to regret things in life. I really do, because you can't and they're gone and they're in the rearview. But the thing I think about is ... you can get pissed ... and then you have it out and you can have ... these conversations and they're heated and they are tough and they are hard and there's tears.
But in the end, the lesson for me here is: stay tight, stay tight. Don't not talk for weeks. Because you just never know what's around the corner.
On growing up singing and dancing
I'm half Black and half Samoan. And in my culture, especially on the Polynesian side, singing and dancing was ever present in our household, with my dad as well, and so we grew up that way. And my mom, who will listen to this and is gonna love this entire interview, she still carries a ukulele with her everywhere she goes. She's known [as] ... the ukulele lady and then she'll remind everybody, "No, I'm The Rock's mom."
Ann Marie Baldonado and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
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