The Rock
Wrestler gets first lead role in ‘The Scorpion King’
By Mike Szymanski
KRT Campus

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The Rock promises he won’t be pulling a Marky Mark.

No, he laughs when asked if he’s ever going to insist that critics change his credits to Dwayne Douglas Johnson, as the rap star did when he became an actor and asked journalists to credit him as Mark Wahlberg.

“Yeah, like Mark Wahlberg did? I’ve been thinking about that,” The Rock said, taking a deep breath and holding it. “We’ve had long discussions, me and my guys, and it’s like a resounding agreement.

© 2002 Universal Studios Mathayus (The Rock) and Cassandra (Kelly Hu) are being pursued by Memnon’s army.

“We all like The Rock. We all like that name. And I love it, too. Rock Hudson did it for ‘Rock.’ Rock’s easier to say.”

Rock’s easier to spell, too. It’s not that his first lead feature role in “The Scorpion King” is necessarily the only serious filmmaking he hopes to do in his career — and it’s not like he’s saying he’s anything like Rock Hudson. But this World Wrestling Federation superstar is hoping it will help him launch a new part of his Rock career.

Many wrestlers have tried to break into Hollywood. Many action stars have started off as bodybuilders or martial arts experts. But it’s been a long time since any new star has so captivated audiences as the handsome, charming, rugged Rock.

© 2002 Universal Studios Mathayus (The Rock), trained in the deadly arts, defends the people against an evil ruler.

“I don’t know, I saw ‘They Live’ and I thought that was cool, and ‘Mr. Nanny,’” he said, dissing his fellow wrestlers’ films. “And I saw Hulk Hogan last week and I told him, ‘You owe me like $15 bucks. Me and my girlfriend went to ‘Mr. Nanny,’ and paid for parking and popcorn.’”

It’s hard to tell if he’s serious or not, but the 6-foot-5 monster of a man — 250 pounds of hard flesh — seems like he’s playing the role of the six-time WWF world champion. With close-cropped hair, a black shirt and jeans, the 30-year-old San Francisco native seems relaxed about opening his first film — rushed out for him after Universal Studio execs saw what a natural he was in front of the camera in last year’s blockbuster “The Mummy Returns.”

He comes from a pro wrestling family — his Samoan grandfather was wrestling legend Peter Maivia and his father was wrestler Rocky Johnson. He played defensive tackle for the University of Miami and graduated in criminology.

After his pro football hopes ended due to injuries, he used Rocky Maivia as a wrestling moniker which was later shortened to The Rock, and became known as “The People’s Champion.”

Although many would call his wrestling gigs a form of acting anyway, his small roles on “Star Trek: Voyager,” “That 70’s Show” and a stint last year acting and singing on “Saturday Night Live” got him hungry for more acting.

When the dailies came back from “The Mummy Returns” shooting in Morocco, the studio put together a film franchise just for him.

“I just want to thoroughly entertain the audience, whether it had $100,000 budget or a $75 million dollar budget,” he said, admitting he hopes to do bigger budget films, and knows that his movie is much bigger than most of the other wrestlers/wanna-be actors. “I just want to entertain the fans, so I’m not too sure why they didn’t relate and transcend, or what’s helped me.”

Although he’s taking the acting bug seriously, he’s not yet ready to give up his day job.

“I don’t think there will ever be an end in wrestling. I like to balance both as well as I can. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to do that, though, because it was really difficult for this movie,” he said.

He’s an heir apparent to Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the two body builders met through the film’s director Chuck Russell, who directed Schwarzenegger in “Eraser.”

“Arnold surprised me on the set on my birthday, and I got to introduce him to The Rock, it was quite exciting," Russell said. “I think they’d like to work together someday.”

Schwarzenegger’s become a kind of mentor to the guy who looks like the 21st century’s “Conan the Barbarian.” Rock finds himself playing a good guy after first appearing as a bad guy in “The Mummy Returns,” much like Schwarzenegger did in the “Terminator” films.

“I’m a good guy with bad guy tendencies. I start off as an assassin,” he said. “I don’t want to be king, like Russell Crowe’s character in ‘Gladiator.’ He didn’t want to be king.”

But king he is, and when he sneaked into the first screening with an audience and critics he was delighted with the response.

“I was knocked out, it was humbling,” he said quietly. “There I am on the screen with Michael Clarke Duncan in a movie and it was like this realization of a dream come true for me.”

Co-star Kelly Hu said, “He was always a gentleman on the set, every step of the way. He is charming, and I’ve become a big wrestling fan since I’ve worked with him.”

The Rock’s aware that his transition to acting isn’t as easy at it may look. He has an acting coach, and mentors in Hollywood.

“It you’re successful in one thing, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll say, ‘Well, he’s a natural. He’s going to be a natural.’ Well, you can naturally suck.”

Learning how to balance his performance is something he learned by wrestling.

“I’m not concerned about stepping out of the box, which has helped me in the WWF. If I felt like singing to an old lady, I’d sing to an old lady,” he said, smiling wickedly. “Then I’d go hit somebody in the head with a chair. A good balance, actually.”

In the movie, the cast works with lots of live animals, including ants, horses, camels and snakes. The outtakes of The Rock with snakes will be on the DVD, he promises.

“They are real cobras, too,” he said.

All of the shooting for this prequel of “The Mummy” series was done in Yuma, Ariz. and in the desert outside Los Angeles. At the time, his wife Dany was pregnant with their first child, a daughter.

“I’d like to give Universal credit for thinking, ‘Rock’s wife is pregnant. We won’t go to Morocco,’” he laughs. “No, I think that we really didn’t need to. They found great desert scenes here, and it looks fantastic.”

In “The Scorpion King” he plays an assassin of a tribe that’s dying out, and he befriends Michael Clarke Duncan (from “The Green Mile”) and attempts to kill a sorceress (Hu) who’s helping a murderous dictator, played by Steven Brand.

“What appealed to me about this character was that he goes on this fantastic journey of discovery, discovering that he could be king. He discovers that he can love someone else and discovers about revenge,” he explains. “The exact same thing that has helped me in wrestling, of always being vulnerable and being flawed and being in jeopardy were the same things that I contribute to the character.”

His sword play and martial arts training came from Andy Chang, who helps Jackie Chan with his moves.

“Not only did I want to break into the action-film genre, I really wanted to make an impact. If there was a way that we could create a new action-hero through the believability of my physical attributes, and kick ass the way you think The Rock should kick ass, and then inject Jackie Chanesque type of idiosyncratic movement,” he said.

His secret in doing stunts, and making falls not hurt? “Try to even out as best you can, so the majority of your body can absorb the shock,” he said. “Or, you can call in your stunt-double if you can’t do it.”

credits

TCU Daily Skiff © 2002