“Stop Doing Things I Love”: $800M Worth Dwayne Johnson Went Against Hollywood to Make a Living for Himself

Being one of the most prominent actors in Hollywood, the demand for former WWE Champion Dwayne Johnson is massive. Even in the most competitive and unreliable industries, The Rock has made his mark with his own flair.

Being different from the rest of the Leonardo DiCaprio and Jake Gyllenhaal of the industry, Johnson had to make a different stamp on the viewers from the average stars of his generation.

In addition to that, The Rock’s advantage also proved to be his disadvantage. His huge fan following from his WWE days was a huge bonus for any production to hire him, but that same WWE career had given him a massive physique, which made him cornered in a certain role.

READ MORE: “You Ain’t the Only One”: Dwayne Johnson Got Brutally Owned By $450M Hollywood Star After Suffering a Minor Injury

At the beginning of his career, all of his movies were action flicks that saw him talk less and fight more. But ever since that, he has grown his filmography with comedies and romance movies as well as inventive action films like Black Adam and Red Notice. But the biggest surprise of all was when The Rock unveiled that he would be starting his own production company. Ever since its opening, the Seven Bucks Production company has shown big promise in the world of movies.

Dwayne Johnson accepting the Generation award

While accepting the Generation Award at the 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards, Johnson said in his speech, “When I got to Hollywood, they didn’t know what the hell to do with me. I was this half-black, half-Samoan, 6’4″ 270-pound pro wrestler. I was told at the time I had to be a certain way. You gotta drop some weight. You gotta be somebody different. Gotta stop working out, stop doing the things that I love. You gotta stop calling yourself The Rock.”

“For years I bought into it, that’s what I thought I was supposed to do. But I was miserable, so I made a choice; I wasn’t going to conform to Hollywood, Hollywood was going to conform to me. And now here I am, with all of you, getting the Generation Award. Holy s**t!”

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Following this speech, The Rock starred in two huge movies in 2021, Jungle Cruise, an adventure flick with Emily Blunt, and Red Notice, an espionage flick with Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot. On top of that, in 2022, Black Adam, a project announced back in 2017, is finally coming out. We can’t be more excited about the newest installation at the DCEU.