Who doesn’t love “The Rock”. He is a lovable guy, after all, he is one of the most popular celebrities with a great smile to match. He has loads of charisma and an infectious personality that has earned him thousands of fans both on the WWE circuit and Hollywood. Dwayne Johnson is never out of the limelight because of his popularity and yeah!! There was also talk about him running for the presidency in 2020. Love him or hate him, you can’t deny, this man is the running high on stardom. Here are 15 facts that can be ignored about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
That’s right, in college he was a football star and no wonder when he had a body like that. Johnson struggled when he was young and wasn’t a silver spoon celeb. Faced with eviction issues and financial problems, Johnson pursued his football career so that he could help his family. Moreover, he knew football was the only way he would get a college scholarship which he did for the University of Miami.
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Johnson is a third generation wrestler. His grandfather Fanene Leifi Pita Maivia who used his stage name as Peter Maivia was a famous wrestler. The Rock’s father was also famous wrestling under the name Rocky Johnson. Johnson’s cousins and uncles were all involved in wrestling. It was only natural that Johnson followed suit and lived up to the family name.
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Although he was most noted for his debut in “The Scorpion King”. Johnson’s original acting debut was in 1999 on TV in an episode of “that 70’s Show” playing his father Rocky Johnson.
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Because he was already a star, Johnson was paid $5.5 million for his debut role as the Scorpion King in “The Mummy”. Since it went down really well with his fans, he even got an individual movie made just for him as the Scorpion King. With his first acting paycheck, Johnson now holds the Guinness world record for highest salary paid to a debut actor.
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As a sophomore in high school, he was made to shift with his family to Bethlehem Pennsylvania. He was 15 and an angry teen with raging hormones. He got into a fight with another student who had a special condition that Johnson was unaware of. Although the kid was a big made one like Johnson, his head hit the locker when Johnson hit him resulting in the boy being hospitalized. Johnson was expelled but was taken back when the boy recovered. He never fought again in high school.
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In college at Miami University Johnson did crazy things like fighting and everything else that freshman’s do in their wild days a college. He was, of course, their star because the college also won a national championship when he played for them, he was a strapping 6 feet 4 inches and weighed 225 pounds with a body of lean muscle so much so his mates thought he was actually an undercover cop.
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Physically he was well suited for the job and what’s more, he studied criminology in college with a goal to work for the CIA or the FBI. However, a huge effort is needed for such jobs in terms of education. But!! Johnson was delivered a bomb of advice from a professor whom he liked being Dr. Paul Cromwell who told him that he would also need a Law Degree. Johnson wasn’t ready for that and so he changed his mind. Well!! Lucky for his fans he did.
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Johnson trains a lot which is understood as he needs to keep in shape. When a female writer form GQ came to interview him, Johnson did not let her drive down alone but came to get her which shows that his gym is not in some glitzy location of California but in a neighborhood that is dangerous for some but that gives the Rock his privacy and the thrill of training alone without media disturbance.
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In his movie roles, he shares many things in common with his characters. His characters are typically people who are trying to get their act together and who have at one point in their lives faltered over something that they are trying to overcome. There is also an event that gives the character a spark of hope to resolve and redeem himself. In short, he can relate to his characters which are good for an actor to deliver a good performance.
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Johnson lives in Florida but he also owns a farm in Virginia where he keeps horses. However, the most interesting aspect of this was that the property also came with a piano that was owned by Ben Franklin.
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Johnson is a fan of Senator Corey Booker and looks up to him a lot. He has also had meetings with Booker and enjoyed a lunch with him too. Johnson during an interviewer told his interviewer that he should see a documentary on Cory Booker to get insight on how empathetic a man Booker was. Who knows, this could be an endorsement for Booker for 2020, you never know.
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The Rock is a big fan of The Notebook because get this!! He is a fan of romantic comedies. The Rock was highly impressed with the director Nick Casavettes and feels that everyone should see the film. In his own words "You're like 'Oh my word, this is amazing,’ and then they flipping die! I looked at my girlfriend Lauren, she's bawling. Oh, my word. Don't give me a stupid ending like that.” Well!! He hated the ending.
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This is not an understatement. The Rock is a super nice guy and a sweetheart. He is someone who makes time to go up and say hi to the sound guy’s son if he comes to visit his dad on sets. This is not a social media thing and Johnson is habituated in bringing kids with disabilities on the sets and will never post about it. He is that type of man and usually does such things for the Make-a-wish foundation.
During the filming of Skyscraper, he got hundreds of pounds of candy and with friends from Microsoft even got Xboxes for them to play where he would join in the fun. He has taken many kids on drives in Lamborghinis and Ferraris around the neighborhood. He also gave this speech onset "I just want to tell you how brave you kids are. I'm blown away by your strength, and I wish I had half of it.” The Rock is that kind of guy.
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Blair Rich the president for marketing for Warner Brothers shared a story where Johnson gave her advice on her eating habits. When they had a meeting for “Rampage” Rich had not eaten the whole day and was shaky. Rich was sitting with a packet of unopened Chicken salad in front of her and Dwayne asked her if that was her lunch. Rich replied yes but said she would eat it later Rich said, "I am, but its fine, don't worry, I'll eat after.” In front of 50 people, Johnson opens the packet and started feeding the salad to Rich which made her face turn red.
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According to Johnson "Obviously so many things have to come together for that to happen. But I have faith that one day the right thing will come along, the kind of script that makes everyone feel good but also has these awesome elements to it.” He wants to win an Oscar or at least host the event and his fans would love to see him do so.
The Rock is dedicated to both life and career and there never was a nicer celebrity in Hollywood which is why he is only The Rock in name but is actually a softie.
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