Dwayne Johnson: A Piece of the Rock

https://lebeauleblog.com/2020/09/27/dwayne-johnson-a-piece-of-the-rock/

Many professional wrestlers have attempted to act with varying degrees of success. But only one has become such a big movie star that it’s easy to forget his humble beginnings. Today, Dwayne Johnson is a household name. But nearly two decades ago when Johnson made his big screen debut with a largely CGI cameo in The Mummy Returns, he was still primarily known by his nom de guerre, The Rock.

This profile from the June 2001 issue of Movieline magazine came at the very beginning of Johnson’s movie career when it still seemed like a long shot that he would be anything more than the latest in a long line of wrestlers turned would-be actors.

Dwayne Johnson, better known as the World Wrestling Federation’s most popular personality, The Rock, has so far made his assault on Hollywood shrewdly. For his screen debut, he chose a small but important role in The Mummy Returns, which, as audiences are now seeing, gives him the opportunity to show screen presence without having to do much more. He then moved on to the action-adventure spin-off film The Scorpion King, locking a deal worth $5.5 million–a staggering sum for a starring debut. The question now is whether The Rock will remain a well-paid sideshow or eventually ascend, as Arnold Schwarzenegger did, into mainstream movie stardom.