Interview with The Dead bolt

Formerly known as “The Rock” in the wrestling world, Dwayne Johnson has made huge strides as an actor. After starring in The Scorpion King and The Rundown in 2002 and 2003, Johnson set his sights on making a career as a big screen actor, adding to his Hollywood resume with roles in such films as Walking tall, Be Cool,Doom, Southland Tales, Gridiron Gang, and hugely successful family hit The Game Plan. Now, with his wrestling persona far behind him, Dwayne Johnson joins Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway as Agent 23 in the big screen remake of the classic TV series Get Smart, which hits theatres on June 20.

At the film’s press junket in Beverly Hills, Dwayne Johnson sat down with journalists to share his thoughts on everything from what it was like to kiss Steve Carell and the coolest aspect of the old Get Smart TV series to how he’s evolved as an actor and the details surrounding his transition from the wrestling world to making films in Hollywood. As well, Johnson also filled us in on how he’ll be racing to Witch Mountain in the near future.

For Get Smart, you’re the successful secret agent. So to get into your mindset for this character, did you think of James Bond?

DWAYNE JOHNSON A little bit, I thought of James Bond. I also just thought, “Well, he was a guy who was a pretty successful guy in what he does, but yet he has a dark side.” And, you know, for me, my processes for all the movies is just to get really close with the director and just make sure we’re on the same page, we share the same vision for the movie, same tone. And, it was a character that I was excited to play, and physically, too. When I first started thinking about the character - how all of our characters came together, the thought of Steve Carell and myself just side by side, it’s just funny, and it made me laugh from the get-go, and then it was funny on the page. And I thought, “Well, we’ve got a pretty good shot at making a good movie or a funny movie.”

What was it like kissing Steve Carell?

JOHNSON [laughs] It was like — you know, you ever had, like a warm apple pie with that cold ice cream, too? And you find that balance, where you’re like [utters disgusting sound]. Hey, it was great, it was great. Not too many men can say that. I had a nice big lip lock with Steve Carell. It was great. The length I go, the committed actor - Jake Gyllenhaal did it. Will Smith did it. I thought it was my turn to kiss a man [laughs].

I know you’re a big fan of self-deprecating humor. This was obviously a chance to do that. How did you approach scenes like that? Is that something you get to do in the Witch Mountain movie?

JOHNSON Well, approaching scenes like that — I love self-deprecating comedy. It’s my favorite type of comedy, and I think if there’s ways that we can do that, and in Jack — in some of these movies like those two particular scenes you mentioned, that’s great. In the ‘Witch Mountain ‘ movie, sure, there’s a lot of self-deprecating comedy too, as well. And I think if I could strike a balance between finding some arrogance with the characters regardless of whether he’s successful or whether he doesn’t have much, like in Witch Mountain, the cab driver in Las Vegas, but still try and find a balance with a guy who has a little bit of arrogance, but yet it’s not offensive. And he was a little endearing, and he could be funny, and he was trying to find that balance where we can.

Talk about shooting the final fight scene. How much of that was you and Steve?

JOHNSON Well, it was all me, and it was Steve’s double. And that was, again, the length I go, as an actor. Some guys just don’t want to commit themselves, but no - that was a lot of fun to do. And I think with a movie like this, that everybody was so excited to — everybody was so excited to come together and actually do the action, you know. And Steve, those guys are committed actors, Steve and Anne Hathaway, and they did a lot of their own stunts. I think they might’ve done most of their own stunts, and it was great to do. You get a director, who really wants to put together some great action. We had a great stunt coordinator too, as well, and I think when you have all those elements coming together — and again, I talked earlier about everybody sharing the same vision for the movie, just in terms of the action, is important too because there are some great action movies out there that have raised the bar. And I always talk about them from the Bond movie, the last Bond movie, to the Bourne series was tremendous. This is a pretty good summer with some pretty good, high-quality action stuff. So you want to make some action sequences that compete.

Did you have a chance to meet either Buck Henry or Mel Brooks? Did you watch the TV show, as a kid?

JOHNSON I watched the show, as a kid, and I was a big fan of the show. I didn’t get the chance to meet those gentlemen. I would’ve loved to have met them. I just watched Young Frankenstein the other day, too. [laughs] Werewolf. Wha– werewolf. What wolf? - And yeah, so I was a big fan of the original, but I didn’t get the chance to meet those guys. And when they first approached me with the idea about - well, when they first said they were going to remake Get Smart and turn it into a movie, I think immediately our reactions are and the natural understanding reaction is like, “Uh, oh. Here we go.” You’re messing with something that’s great. You’ve got to be careful. But the material was great. All the elements came together. You know, it was a director who I wanted to work with for some time. I really enjoyed Pete’s work in the past. And Carell, of course, I loved. Then Anne Hathaway came on, and then Alan Arkin signed on, which was wonderful. So it kind of all fell together.

Can you talk a little bit or have you thought about the idea of Dwayne Johnson, Secret Agent? What kind of secret agent do you think you’d make?

JOHNSON Uh-oh. What kind of agent do I think I would make?

What kind of secret agent? Could you keep the secret?

JOHNSON Oh, I could keep many secrets, so I would be a phenomenal secret agent [laughs]. I love secrets.

Would it be a secret? Wouldn’t everybody know you?

JOHNSON That’s a great point. I would have to go incognito, I think. What was the follow up?

What are you working on now?

JOHNSON I’ve got about four weeks left on Race to Witch Mountain, and we’re shooting in Vegas. And after that, I’ll be off for about a month or so, and then I’ll do a big comedy called Tooth Fairy, which I’m excited about.

Are you going to continue on your path to really challenge yourself, so people will see you in a way they haven’t seen you before? We’ve watched you plot this course and do it really successfully.

JOHNSON Sure. Well, I think I understand your question. You’re talking about growing? Growing? Okay. Well, that’s always the goal, and especially for me, though, too, because when I first started acting in movies - I think it was in 2000 - I didn’t have that. My background wasn’t in theater. My parents weren’t movie executives, so I didn’t have that connection, but I thought I did have pretty good instincts and I loved the entertainment world and I loved performing in the world that I came from, just in terms of television. That world allowed me — I think that benefited me greatly, just that type of four hours of television every single week was my theater. I was able to perform in front of large audiences, 20-30,000 people at times - really guerilla style of shooting that we would shoot. And so the goal is to always grow, and the goal too is to always — is to have a really large degree of movies that go from genre to genre to different genres.

I love the idea of having the ability to go from action to drama to comedy to - back to action and comedy or back to drama and hopefully find a little bit of success in all of these movies. And, I think about actors who I really admire, who have had that type of career that I aspire to have, like your Tom Hanks and your Will Smith and George Clooney, and these guys, who have a really wide foundation of work that they do.

And you guys know those guys anyway. So I love the idea of having that ability. And you step up to the plate and you don’t always smack home runs, in terms of the box office success. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you fail. But the goal, for me, is to be that type of actor and to continue to grow and entertain. With a movie like Witch Mountain, again, it’s with Disney, you know. And I love that, I love the elements that we were able to combine: a contemporary action movie - take some of my grittiness and intensity of the past that I’ve done in my action movies and combine it with elements, frankly, that I really love and appreciate, like family and heart and humor with a touch of fantasy. You know, I love that. And The Tooth Fairy, of course, is going to be a whole new, different experience, which is going to be great. And then after that, there’s a couple of dramas too, by the way, that we’re developing. So maybe that’s the case.

Tell us a little bit more about Witch Mountain.

JOHNSON It’s a contemporary action comedy, family adventure, too, you could also call it. And we set it in Vegas, and I’m a cab driver in Vegas. And, of course, the two kids with the powers, they get in my cab, and then the race is on. And we really treated the movie like a Disney ride. So from the moment you get on, the ride begins. It happens just like that. And hence the title Race to Witch Mountain. We played around with a couple of titles. That title was very befitting for the movie. And there is — there’s really a relentless drive with the movie. And it happens right away, just in terms of the race. And, for me, I love the idea of a guy who doesn’t have much now, but he’s made a lot of mistakes along the way. And he gets the opportunity to make a decision that is a very defining decision that happens to allow him to save the world.

What was the coolest thing about the series?

JOHNSON The coolest thing about the Get Smart series? The coolest thing, for me, about the Get Smart series was always the comedy. And what I mean by that was just the self-deprecating comedy. I love that because even with the kind of character that Don Adams created, there was still a great sense of assuredness to him. And, you know, he was a little bit arrogant too in his way. And of course it was always self-deprecating, but he would always get the job done, too. He was very proficient, as well.

Wasn’t he really dumb?

JOHNSON See, I never thought he was dumb. That was the thing; my interpretation wasn’t he was dumb, no [laughs]. I thought that he was bumbling at times, you know, but he would still get the job done.Were you attracted to Agent 99?

JOHNSON Who wasn’t? Yeah, sure.

Barbara Feldon or Anne Hathaway?

JOHNSON Well, because I know Annie now, personally, I think Annie is great. She’s beautiful and intelligent and she can kick ass too. So that’s what I like in a woman.

Was there an equivalent to a director in your wrestling days? How did you actually make the crossover? Who helped you?

JOHNSON There was one particular guy, who I’ve talked about. His name is Pat Patterson, who I modeled my character in Be Cool after him; very proud gay man, very funny guy. And he’s like a father figure to me, so he was that guy where creatively we spent a lot of time together and always making sure that, at the end of the day, I understood the value of just wanting to simply entertain and taking ego out of it. And I think when you approach anything like that and you take your ego out of it, since ego is a great inhibitor a lot of times to success, you take your ego out of it and you just approach it where I just want to entertain, and what’s the best thing for the audience? How can I make the audience laugh? How can I make them angry? How can I make them upset? And take them through really a myriad of emotions. I also worked with a great writer too, who I consistently challenged. The great thing about that world [wrestling] - and this is where it really helped me. It benefited me. The great thing about that world was, just in terms of being creative in the writing, what was important to me was to always find humor in that world, because at that time, there really wasn’t a lot of humor in that world of heightened conflict, over-the-top conflict. So I just want to find humor. So in challenging him — what was great was we got to a point where I would say to him, “There’s really nothing you can write that I think we can’t make work.” I always think that that’s a great place to be. It’s a rare place to be.

But in that world, that was a great place to be. So that’s why we would write just so much and it would - in front of 20-30,000 people, there’s an acumen that you have to have that keeps you on your toes because if the joke is phenomenal and it goes through the roof and 30,000 people love it, you know immediately. If it bombs, then it completely stinks up the place and you need to get out of there. Then you know that immediately, too. And how did I make the transition? I just thought that making the transition was, number one, surrounding myself with good actors. Even with my first role in Scorpion King, we had Michael Clark Duncan, we have — Grant Heslov is a great writer now too, as well. Bernard Hill. We had some great actors and help and a studio, I think, that supported me and a good director too, who’s going to help me. And through that I had to be fully prepared, as prepared as I possibly could be. Not that I was going to deliver an Oscar-winning performance. I knew that wasn’t going to happen, but as long as I could be prepared and give the best performance I can give, then I had a shot at being decent.

When you started with The Scorpion King you were this behemoth. You seem to have downsized over the years. This is obviously intentional.

JOHNSON Sure.

JOHNSON Was it for versatility’s sake?

JOHNSON Oh, sure. I think so, and I think there was just no need for me to carry all that weight. And a lot of that weight was from football. I played football for ten years and I wrestled for an additional five. A lot of that weight was still there. And once I got out of that and started changing my training around, depending on the role, eventually I just lost weight and kind of trimmed down a little bit.

Will Shazaam be happening?

JOHNSON Yeah, I think so. Whenever you talk to Pete Segal, ask him because I’ve been bothering him like every month. “What’s happening with it?” But on both ends, there’s just so much going on. But I think there’s - they continue to write and rewrite that script. But I would love to, I would love to play Black Adam.

You didn’t tell us your Tooth Fairy costume.

JOHNSON I want you to envision me right now - what would be the most funniest thing you could possibly imagine?

JOHNSON A G-string.

JOHNSON Think - but backwards, yes. [laughs] So inappropriate. Yeah, and I will give you this. The funny thing is, I have a really bad shoulder injury, and one of the wings grows. One is a beautiful wing, and the other one is like a little really messed up wing that doesn’t quite grow correctly and makes me fly around sometimes and fly into things. But it’s really, really funny. We had some great writers on it. Randy Singer had written the last draft, who’s been fantastic. The same producers of The Game Plan are on board now. Michael [Lympack] is going to direct. And Fox - I’m happy to tell you, they get it, and they understand. We’re going after heart and humor, and again, a little touch of fantasy, which elements I like. And I’m excited about it. It’s going to be funny.

credit: thedeadbolt.com

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