Line #83 Creator/DwayneJohnson


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dj_6.png]]
2
3	Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972) is an American football player-turned-[[ProfessionalWrestling professional wrestler]]-turned-actor, also known by his ring name The Rock.
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5	He wrestled with Wrestling/{{WWE}} from 1996 to 2004, after which he retired (he has wrestled sporadically since then, however). For more on his wrestling career, see [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson his dedicated page]].
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7	Johnson began acting in the 2000s with a role as the Scorpion King in ''Franchise/TheMummy'' franchise. When he started, he often played the "[[DumbMuscle strong but silent]]"-type often given to wrestlers turning to Hollywood, but he eventually made a name for himself as an action star.
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9	He has an industry nickname of "[[SugarWiki/RuleOfSeanConnery Franchise Viagra]]", as ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'', ''Journey'' and ''Jumanji'' franchises all saw improved box office tallies with the films Johnson entered in, and ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'', a sequel to ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'', was built squarely around him despite him not being in the first film. He even netted his own ''Fast & Furious'' spinoff alongside Creator/JasonStatham, ''Film/HobbsAndShaw''. On the voice acting side, he voiced Maui in ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' and is set to reprise the role in its live-action remake.
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11	Though he's appeared in a wide range of film genres, Johnson's honed physicality from football and wrestling means he plays tough guys with ease. He's also rather ethnically ambiguous (he is of Black and Samoan descent), which allowed him to switch gimmicks in his wrestling career and now allows him to [[PlaysGreatEthnics play characters of varying backgrounds]].
12	----
13	!!Filmography:
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15	* ''Film/TheMummyTrilogy'' as Mathayus of Akkad / The Scorpion King
16	** ''Film/TheMummyReturns''
17	** ''Film/TheScorpionKing''
18	* ''Film/{{Doom}}'' as Sarge
19	* ''Film/TheRundown'' as Beck
20	* ''Film/WalkingTall2004'' as Chris Vaughn
21	* ''Film/SouthlandTales'' as Boxer Santoros / Jericho Cane
22	* ''Film/GridironGang'' as Sean Porter
23	* ''Series/Reno911: Miami: TheMovie'' as Agent Rick Smith ([[OneSceneWonder for 5 minutes]])
24	* ''Film/GetSmart'' as Agent 23
25	* ''Film/TheGamePlan'' as Joe Kingman
26	* ''Film/RaceToWitchMountain'' as Jack Bruno
27	* ''WesternAnimation/Planet51'' as Captain Charles T. Baker
28	* ''Film/TheToothFairy'' as Derek
29	* ''Film/TheOtherGuys'' as Christopher Danson
30	* ''Film/{{Faster}}'' as James "Jimmy" Cullen
31	* ''Franchise/TheFastAndTheFurious'' as Agent Luke Hobbs
32	** ''Film/FastFive''
33	** ''Film/FastAndFurious6''
34	** ''Film/FuriousSeven''
35	** ''Film/TheFateOfTheFurious''
36	** ''Film/HobbsAndShaw''
37	** ''Film/FastX''
38	* ''Film/BeCool'' as Elliot Wilhelm
39	* ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'' as Marvin F. Hinton / Roadblock
40	* ''Film/{{Snitch}}'' as John Matthews
41	* ''Film/PainAndGain'' as Paul Doyle
42	* ''Film/{{Hercules\|2014}}'' (as the titular demigod)
43	* ''Series/{{Ballers}}'' (as the lead character, Spencer Strasmore, a former football player turned financial agent for athletes; needless to say, this draws heavily on his football career, and is basically ''Series/{{Entourage}}'' [[RecycledINSPACE in Miami!]] with football players instead of actors)
44	* ''Film/{{Baywatch 2017}}''.
45	* The demigod Maui in Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' and its forthcoming live-action remake.
46	** ''WesternAnimation/OnceUponAStudio''
47	* A guest appearance in the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E15Tsunkatse Tsunkatse]]." This was actually his first dramatic acting gig, though even that was originally envisioned as a {{Dualvertisement}} for WWE and Voyager on UPN.
48	* A cameo on ''Series/That70sShow'' playing his [[RealLifeRelative real-life father]], Rocky Johnson, who was also a wrestler. The characters went to see Rocky at a wrestling event.
49	* As of the season 42 finale, he's a member of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'''s "5-Time Host Club".
50	* A guest appearance on a joke of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' where he depicts Peter and Lois having sex [[DontExplainTheJoke by banging their action figures together until one falls off screen.]]
51	* The main star in a fake trailer that was played at the end of the former ''Ride/{{Disaster}}'' attraction at [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal Studios Florida]].
52	* A minor role as Cliffjumper in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime''
53	* ''Film/SanAndreas:'' Headline role of Chief Ray Gaines, a Rescue Helicopter pilot. A movie about "The Big One" in California.
54	* ''Film/CentralIntelligence'' as Bob Stone
55	* ''Film/JumanjiWelcomeToTheJungle'' as Smolder Bravestone
56	** ''Film/JumanjiTheNextLevel'' (2019)
57	* ''Film/Rampage2018'' as Davis Okoye
58	* ''Film/{{Skyscraper}}'' as Will Sawyer
59	* ''Film/FightingWithMyFamily'' AsHimself
60	* ''Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse''
61	** ''Film/Shazam2019'' (Executive producer only)
62	** ''Film/{{Black Adam\|2022}}'' (2022) as [[Characters/DCEUBlackAdam Teth-Adam / Black Adam]]
63	* ''Series/YoungRock'' (2021-present) AsHimself
64	* ''Film/JungleCruise'' (2021) as Frank Wolff
65	* ''Film/RedNotice'' (2021) as John Hartley
66	* ''WesternAnimation/DCLeagueOfSuperPets'' (2022) as Krypto (voice role)
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68	!!Tropes in his filmography:
69	* ActionHeroBabysitter:
70	** In ''The Game Plan'' he is a rugged footballer with a young ballerina daughter.
71	** In ''The Tooth Fairy'' he's a tough guy conscripted to become a tooth fairy who makes children happy.
72	* ActorAllusion: Films and series often play with his past, both as a wrestler and as an actor:
73	** ''Film/TheMummyReturns'' has a very curious scene of two scantily clad women fighting for the audience's entertainment. [[Characters/WWEDivas Considering who his co-workers were at the time]]...
74	** In ''Film/TheRundown'', Dwayne plays Beck, an aspiring chef[[note]]Possible reference to one of his many [[CatchPhrase/DwayneJohnson catch-phrases]]: ''"If you know what the Rock is cooking!"''[[/note]], and performs a Rock Bottom on a mook during a BarBrawl.
75	** He played a pit fighter in an episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', where he used the Rock Bottom.
76	** In the ''[[Film/TheFastAndTheFurious The Fast and the Furious]]'' movies, he gets to bust out a few wrestling moves: pulls off a Doomsday Device tag maneuver in ''6'', and hits [[FinishingMove the Rock Bottom]] in ''Furious 7''.
77	** His character's [[BrattyHalfPint daughter]] alludes to Johnson's foray into the ActionHeroBabysitter genre (''Film/TheToothFairy'', ''Film/TheGamePlan'' etc).
78	** In Fate, the last few syllables of his character's haka for the Red Dragons may sound familiar for anyone who's seen ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}''. His character also gets called "[[Film/Hercules2014 Hercules]]".
79	** In ''Film/BeCool'', there's this quote about his character, a gay bodyguard who dreams of getting his big break as an actor:
80	---> '''Linda Moon:''' ''[[FascinatingEyebrow He can raise just one eyebrow at a time]]... and that's all he thinks it takes to be an actor.''
81	** From ''Film/PainAndGain'', this quote from his character alludes to a previous role of Johnson in ''Film/BeCool'' where his character is mocked for selecting an aluminium bat instead of a wood one:
82	---> ''"I used to use an aluminum [bat], but then I upgraded to wood."''
83	** In ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'', his character does [[FascinatingEyebrow the People's Eyebrow]] and pec-pops the same way Rocky would. And in one of the songs, he lampshades his tendency to [[ThirdPersonPerson talk in third person]]. The design of his character was heavily based on his late grandfather "High Chief" Peter Maivia.
84	** In his appearance on ''Series/That70sShow'', while portraying his father, Johnson makes a reference to himself, where he hopes "his son" will one day become "[[CatchPhrase/DwayneJohnson the most electrifying man in sports entertainment]]". Red Foreman simply responds with "[[ItWillNeverCatchOn Yeah, good luck with that.]]"
85	** Cliffjumper's vehicle mode in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' has bull's horns on the front of the hood, referring a previous nickname of Rocky: "the Brahma Bull".
86	** ''Film/CentralIntelligence'':
87	*** He gets a remark that his character looks, "Like [[Film/Hercules2014 Hercules]]".
88	*** His character wears a black leather fanny pack, an allusion to an infamous picture of The Rock taken in the early 90's with a perm and a fanny pack.
89	*** His character mentions he doesn't let people see him naked, even during sex. He keeps it Film/PitchBlack like Creator/VinDiesel. The Rock has worked with Diesel in the "Fast and Furious" franchise and is often compared to him in general with them both being big, muscled, bald, biracial ActionGenreHeroGuy types who are close in age.
90	* AwesomeDearBoy: Part of the reason why Dwayne Johnson agreed to voice [[PhysicalGod Maui]] in ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' was the thrill of seeing his Polynesian ancestry so beautifully depicted in a major motion picture, and he admitted to crying TearsOfJoy over it many, many times during production.
91	* BaldHeadOfToughness: By the 2010s he became bald, and it certainly helped convey how his characters are difficult to put down.
92	* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Creator/KevinHart, frequently starring in films together and maintaining a VitriolicBestBuds relationship on social media.
93	* ItsNotSupposedToWinOscars: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Johnson himself. In a [[https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/dwayne-johnson-the-pain-and-the-passion-that-fuel-the-rock-630076/ 2018 Rolling Stones interview]], he remarked that he has no interest in being a dramatic actor and doesn't believe his fans would be interested to see him in such works, with him preferring to do feel good action films and comedies. He'll even turn down film roles that are too serious or lacks a happy ending.
94	* LargeHam: Carried over from his wresling career. A few highlights are ''Film/BeCool'', where he's a prospective actor, and the ''Jumanji'' films, where his character is noted for "smoldering intensity" and spends quite some time in one of them doing a Creator/DannyDeVito impression!
95	* MoneyDearBoy: One of the main reasons he took up acting, even while his wrestling career was at a stellar level of popularity. In interviews, he's said that he enjoys wrestling more than acting, but acting pays a great deal better, has a more flexible work schedule, and is far less physically punishing.
96	* PlayingAgainstType: Sometimes goes against his macho public image in roles, like his role as Elliott in ''Film/BeCool''. In his review of the film, one of Roger Ebert's criticisms was that The Rock was not believable as gay. The Rock himself acknowledged he had not convinced himself when asked.
97	* PlayingWithCharacterType: Johnson drops a few bars in Music/TechN9ne's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9T78bT26sk Face-Off]]". While the song's theme is pretty much within his tough man image, the fact that he's actually ''rapping'' definitely counts.
98	* PromotedFanboy:
99	** He pushed ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'' extensively on his Facebook and Twitter accounts for a reason.
100	** He's a ''huge'' [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] fan, and has been the first, last, and only choice to play Cap's nemesis Black Adam for years.
101	** He's a gamer and called himself this regarding both his lead roles in game adaptations, as he liked ''Videogame/{{Doom}}'' and had ''Videogame/{{Rampage}}'' as one of his favorite arcades growing up.
102	* PlaysGreatEthnics: Johnson is Black and Samoan. He's played characters of one or both of these backgrounds, but also an Ancient Greek warrior in ''Film/Hercules2014'', an Ancient Egyptian king in ''Film/BlackAdam2022'', and a [[spoiler:(granted, adopted) Spanish conquistador]] in ''Film/JungleCruise''.
103	* {{Typecasting}}: In the 2010s, Johnson took to playing plays quippy, heavily-muscled adventurer-types. His penchant for starring in lots of [[JungleOpera jungle adventures]] became something of a meme, including ''Film/TheRundown'' (known internationally as ''Welcome to the Jungle''), ''[[Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth Journey 2: The Mysterious Island]]'', ''Film/JumanjiWelcomeToTheJungle'', ''Film/JumanjiTheNextLevel'' and ''Film/JungleCruise''. {{Invoked\|Trope}} in ''Film/{{Rampage\|2018}}'', where he's initially introduced in what appears to be a jungle setting but is revealed to be a wildlife sanctuary; ironically, it's often included in related memes for this reason, particularly as his outfit in the scene is similar to his ''Jumanji'' look.
104	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
105	** One trapped in DevelopmentHell is the live action ''VideoGame/SpyHunter'' movie, with Johnson in the lead role. However, he did manage to put in a performance in the What Would Have Been a Tie-In game ''Nowhere to Run''.
106	** Johnson pursued the role of Mr. Hinx in the ''Film/JamesBond'' movie ''Film/{{SPECTRE}}'', hoping to follow in the footsteps of Peter Mavia, who played a baddie in ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice''. However, MGM and EON thought he seemed too expensive, and cast Creator/DaveBautista (aka Wrestling/{{Batista}}) instead. Johnson [[http://web.archive.org/web/20180213094654/https://twitter.com/TheRock/status/540585514546778112 took this news in stride]].
107	** He was considered to voice [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed the Boulder]] in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' but was unavailable, so Wrestling/MickFoley ultimately voiced the character instead.
108	* WorkingWithTheEx[=/=]AmicablyDivorced: He divorced his first wife back in 2007, but since then Dany Garcia has been his manager, an integral part of most of his business ventures, and even the executive producer on several of his films.

Context Creator / DwayneJohnson