In the film, the first scene we see you in you’re acting alone, there’s stuff coming through your earpiece…
That’s the best work I did.
You could say it was pure acting. A few years ago I guess that would have been incredibly daunting. You set the story up and we instantly know what is happening and where we are. Is that a sign of how far you’ve come, as an actor?
I’m not too sure how daunting it was. I make no bones about what I think my interpretation of what Doom is. It’s a movie I’m very proud of, as part of a genre I hadn’t been a part of, which is sci-fi/horror genre. The presentation is popcorn. I get to be the big kid that I am anyway, transported to Mars, fight big monsters, and I get the biggest gun in the history of movies and I get to shoot monsters. It was awesome.
You call it a popcorn movie, but it’s been taken seriously enough to send you to boot camp. After all it is a game movie and some of those haven’t been great.
Not to demean the movie in any way by calling it a popcorn movie, but I’d be mistaken to say it has an incredible journey in the arc of the character, if you know what I mean, it’s just one of those movies. Even though I still consider it a summer popcorn movie, we still wanted to lend a sense of authenticity to the role, and if we were going to be soldiers it was important to talk like soldiers, act like soldiers, use weapons like soldiers, react to certain things like soldiers. Even though we’re dealing with monsters, and we’re in space and in the future.
The BFG, the biggest gun in the universe. Karl [Urban] said he was glad he didn’t have to hold it, because it was a bit impotent on set, because the special effects didn’t happen.
He was just jealous. Don’t let him fool you. I don’t think there’s a guy out there that wouldn’t want to hold the BFG. I had a lot of fun with that, plus he’s probably not strong enough to hold it anyway.
So size matters, is what you are saying?
Indeed it does my friend.
Have you ever actually played the game?
Of course. I was a big fan of the original game. I spent a lot of time with the guys down in Texas at Id Software, the creators of Doom. It’s not like there is a wide interpretation in the movie, with the character, it’s very straight forward. I just wanted to make sure I understood the geography and where we were, and make sure the script and their thoughts meshed together. Big fan.
Is the sci-fi/horror genre the one you watched when you were growing up?
Sure. I was a big fan of Alien when it first came out in the late 70s. And The Thing. I was a big fan of The Thing. What I loved about those movies and what I hope we’ve captured in Doom is the atmosphere of tension. You don’t know what is happening. You just hear things and you don’t necessarily see the monster and you rely on that, almost like a throw back to the days when you worked hard to get the scare. So I was a big fan, a very big fan. Still am.
You’ve got a reputation for smiling all the time and lighting up the set when you work. Was it a lot of fun making the movie?
Yeah. But there’s two parts to that. Firstly, it was the most physically demanding role I’ve done. Just being away from home, never seeing the sun, shooting on a sound stage, getting up a five, getting there for seven with no sun. Prague is beautiful, architecturally, but there is a heaviness to it. Every day it’s who’s chasing who, and there’s a monster and somebody’s dying and heads are being ripped off, and stuff like that. So physically it was pretty demanding. Did I have fun? I had fun always reminding myself that it’s moviemaking and it’s fun.
Rosamund Pike is such a contrast to all you guys; how was it working with her?
Rosamund is great, by the way. I enjoyed working with her. She added a really great anchored weight to the movie. I was very familiar with her background, did my research on her when I found out we were going to be acting together, and she was great in the movie. She’s a trooper. She put up with a lot of testosterone every day, especially from me, as both our characters never quite gelled. It was a lot of grrr, grrr, grrr, like that. She was great.
It was the number one box-office on release in the US. You seem to be making a habit of choosing winners. Do you have some sort of divine intervention?
I don’t know if it’s divine intervention. It’s great to say I got the number one movie in America, it’s awesome, because as you guys know, it’s difficult to make movies. The moviemaking process is extremely difficult. It’s difficult to make good movies. It’s just difficult to make good movies and I’m just happy, and we had a lot of competition from the Charlize Theron movie, the Dakota Fanning movie with the horse and that just seemed like the big family movie that everyone is going to see. So it was great. I’ve been fortunate to make movies that, by the way that’s my goal to do a wide array of roles, be challenged as an actor, continue to grow and hopefully have a good sensibility as to what is entertaining to the audiences.
You’ve done a different range of films. At the moment you’ve got the Gridiron Gang, a true story, sports movie, coming up, and Southland Tales, with Richard Kelly, which I assume will be organic pop corn. Are they a contrast toDoom?
Absolutely. They’re two dramas, basically, that I did back to back after I shot Doom. Gridiron Gang I’m really excited about. Every once in a while a movie comes along that’s not your $150 million dollar King Kong/War of the Worlds or something like that, that everyone knows about and anticipates, but it’s a $30 million movie and everyone’s, “What’s that all about?” It’s just one of those great movies about hope. Nothing that’s going to try and change the world but it just feels good. Richard Kelly I’m really excited about, and Southland Tales – that was an experience. I loved working with Richard and the script – there’s many interpretations to the script as you can imagine. You all know Richard Kelly’s sensibility. I’ll give you an idea about my character and from there you can sus out what the movie is all about. I play a movie star who has amnesia so I don’t know I’m a movie star. Are we searching for the truth? I’m a paranoid schizophrenic, I hear many voices, I can foresee the future and the end of the world coming, and it does, and I’m extremely neurotic, like many actors I’m sure you’ve talked to. No names. And it gets better, the guys will appreciate this, and maybe some of the ladies, Sarah Michelle Gellar is my girlfriend, who plays a porn star in the movie, and Mandi Moore is a senator’s daughter, who plays my wife, so from that you can imagine what the movie is. I’m really excited about it.
You have a very small daughter. Is she aware of what daddy does? She probably hasn’t seen any of your movies. Would you like to make a movie your daughter can go and see?
Yeah. You can’t help but feel that way, as a parent doing what I do. I’m happy to say my next movie will be called Daddy’s Girl. It’s with Disney. It’s one of those, “is that your heart, let’s pull on it a while”. As for her knowing what daddy does, she knows daddy makes movies, but she’s not aware of the immensity of what filmmaking is. Universal very kindly edited down Scorpion King to scenes she can watch, which is like, me riding a camel, and another camel.
Can you briefly tell us about Daddy’s Girl?
Absolutely. I play a quarter back in the NFL, the best quarter back in the NFL, whose very brash, but not brash to the point of being unlikable, like the brash sports heroes you have here and we have at home, but someone who’s loved. Then his life is turned upside down when he finds out he has a little girl, a daughter, then the comedy gets propelled into what it does. It’s a kind of cryptic way to describe it.
Does this come at the point where you feel confident enough to challenge yourself in another direction, because you are perceived to be big enough box-office to take that chance?
It’s probably a combination of a lot of things. We’ve talked with Disney for a long time, looking for the right project. I had passed on Pacifier, and was happy for its success, but it just wasn’t for me, and I was waiting for the right opportunity. What was great was we had the producers of The Miracle, the hockey movie, as well as The Rookie. So it gives you guys an idea, they understand how to make people feel good, that type of inspiring movie, so I’m very excited about that.
After very favourable reviews of your performance in Be Cool are you looking to do more comedy? A broader comedy that doesn’t rely on action?
Sure, I’d love to. For example, Southland Tales is a dark comedy; it’s also a musical. It’s a lot of things. I love comedy, especially self-deprecating comedy.
What sort of feedback did you get from Be Cool?
Fantastic. Really fantastic. As a movie as a whole it got mixed reviews, which was fine. The reviews I got were pretty damn good. That’s great, that’s all I care about.
Your father and grandfather were wrestlers, how did they feel when you gave it up to become an actor?
Firstly, my grandfather passed away when I was eight and my dad never wanted me to be a wrestler, because he came up at a different time in wrestling when it wasn’t as monopolised as it is today. There was no money at all back then. They’re fans and very supportive of my career. They’re happy. Making movies is special. What we do is special. We’re not changing the world, but what we do is special and it’s a privilege to do what we do. He understands that.
He didn’t see it as leaving the family business?
Not at all, because I had accomplished a good deal, a good amount of things I’d wanted to do in wrestling. He didn’t look at it that way. My Dad just wants to be in movies with me now.
As your career takes off and you get more experience under your belt will there come a time when you will leave “The Rock” behind and simply become Dwayne Johnson?
I’m sure that will happen. What I didn’t want to do was make a statement, “From this day forward I want to be known as Dwayne Johnson”. What has happened, which is nice, thanks to the press, it’s naturally happened where it’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, without my doing anything. It’s really nice that just happened and nobody made a big issue out of it, or anything like that, and I just think that over time my performances will take care of any questions about being “The Rock” and everywhere I read it just says Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Are you happy with that?
Of course. It’s my name. “The Rock” is a name I used in wrestling and it’s become just like a nickname. Dwayne Johnson, it’s just as cool, right?
It’s cool with me. Whatever you say. You’re the man.
You’re pretty well known now, internationally, is there anywhere you can go where you’re not recognised?
Anonymity has pretty much gone out the window; I can’t just fit in. I wear a hat, but then I’m “The Rock” walking around in a stupid hat. But it’s fine. No complaints from me, it’s non-negotiable.
When the DVD comes out will there be a “Rock” commentary?
I promise you, the DVD is going to be really special. I love DVDs and I try to make them as entertaining as possible. The DVD camera guys were there every day, on the set. I took them to my favourite restaurant, I got drunk, all kinds of stuff and it’s going to be really good fun. I love giving the commentary because to me the commentary is the time to have a lot of fun rather than lots of expositional things I don’t care to know. That’s when people start to get really actory, “Here my motivation was…” Shut up man. It’ll be funny.
In Walking Tall you were pointing out the plot holes.
That’s it. That’s fun.
In your movies you play some very heavy and unpleasant people, yet you come across as a really nice guy, smiling, chatting, making jokes, but fess up, what really pisses you off?
I can honestly tell you it’s…
Journalists that ask dumb questions like this one?
No, what pisses me off is actors who forget what we do is a privilege and who take themselves way too seriously; and I’m sure you’ve met a few. What we do I take very seriously, but not me. There’s a couple of actors I’ve come into contact with, just not forgetting what we do because we’re not doing the world any favours, the world’s doing us a favour letting us entertain them with movies. It’s the ones who treat the crew bad. It’s easy to be nice to me, it’s easy to be nice to the studio, but let me see how nice you are to the fans who have been standing in the cold for hours waiting for an autograph. That annoys me.
Would you care to name names?
You know who they are.