How Dwayne Johnson overcame tough start to become Hollywood star

With an upbeat soundtrack featuring Kool & The Gang, cheesy ’80s fashion and funny scenes that see him trying to order tequila in a restaurant aged 10, new sitcom The Young Rock shows a sugar-coated version of Dwayne Johnson’s childhood, but the reality was certainly a lot darker.  

The star of Holywood hits such as The Scorpion King and the Fast and the Furious franchise, now 48, had a tough upbringing and an ‘incredibly complicated’ relationship with his ‘bad dude’ father, professional wrestler Rocky ‘Soul Man’ Johnson, which he has since said was ‘fuelled by tough love.’

Johnson has worked with series creator Nahnatchka Khan to depict his ‘wildly Forrest Gump-ian life’, but the actor himself has admitted that the warm family comedy is ‘a PG version’ of events, including one scene in last night’s opening episode where 10-year-old Dwayne offending a group of wrestlers by calling the sport ‘fake’. 

It prompts André to lift him up by the shoulders to eye level to tell him ‘never to use the F word’, with the scene ending in a hug, however the reality was a lot more brutal with the youngster taking physical beatings from his dad’s wrestling pals.  

‘Honestly, what would happen is when I stepped out of line like that, I would be brought into the ring,’ Johnson said. ‘Their way of discipline was to take me in the ring. And beat my a** in a way that I learned actually how not fake wrestling is.’

Another scene, played for laughs, shows him buying his first car for $103 from a guy he meets at the pizza shop where he works, only for one of the guy’s friends, Waffle, to pop up in the back as he drives down the freeway.

It descends into farce when, after partying together, Waffle inexplicably dies in the back seat and the young Dwayne has to dump the car and report the death anonymously to the cops. 

While the latter part of the story didn’t really happen, the story is somewhat true and rather more alarming with The Rock revealing he bought the car ‘from a crackhead’.  

‘I had to swerve off into the shoulder because another crackhead popped up from the back. And then I pulled over and I had to kick him out, and I said, ‘This is my car now’.’

While the show is family friendly, the nuances of the real-life relationships between father and son at its heart are rather more complicated.  

Dwayne’s father passed away suddenly in January 2020 at the age of 75, and he’s admitted that his father’s passing made him want to show more of ‘the good stuff’.

‘But it was incredibly complicated and it was incredibly tough,’ he said. ‘Growing up, and you know we specifically went with these timelines in my life that were very defining times at 10 years old, 15 and 18.

There’s a lot of things in between those years that took place … but it was complicated and the relationship that I had with my dad was incredibly complicated — that was fueled by tough love.’

Those complications stemmed from his father’s unconventional upbringing, with Rocky’s father kicking him out of the house at 13. 

‘My dad was kicked out of his house at 13 and he was homeless, so that then shaped the man who then raised me,’ Johnson said.   

The Ballers star described himself as ‘a kid who had some anger issues but also thought he was really cool.’

Johnson said he ‘clearly had an identity crisis’ as he was growing up.

‘I didn’t want to be known as Dwayne when I moved from high school to high school. I called myself Tomas. Girls used to call the house and ask for Tomas and my mom would go, ‘I’m sorry. There’s no Tomas here.” 

The series also depicts his dad’s career as a professional wrestler in the territory systems of the 1970s and 80s, before Vince McMahon and Wrestlemania brought a high-profile toward the form of entertainment. 

‘And in that complication came an extraordinary life that was full of travel. I lived in 13 different states by the time I was 13 years old, also lived in New Zealand,’ Johnson added. 

In the sitcom, the wrestlers of his father’s era are depicted as glamorous in the ring, but rather mundane back at home – which was true of Dwayne’s  experience growing up.

During that time, Dwane recalled how stars were ‘adored and celebrated’ as they wrestled in 5, 000-seat arena and left in extravagant cars, which he cited as part of ‘working the gimmick.’  

But as soon they returned home, they were back to normality and their ‘small apartments’ – just like the one he lived in growing up – and would live paycheck to paycheck. 

However, at the age of 15, Dwayne’s family were evicted from their one-bed flat in Hawaii because they couldn’t afford the rent – and the family were then kicked off the island.

Settling in Nashville, Tennessee, they went to live with a WWE friend of his father’s, Bruno Lauer – and Dwayne recently thanked him by gifting him a new Ford pick-up on the set of the new sitcom Young Rock at Christmas.

But by the age of 23, Dwayne Johnson found himself battling depression.

‘I found that with depression one of the most important things you could realise is that you’re not alone,’ he previously noted. 

The Ballers star explained that the depression stemmed from being passed over by the NFL and then cut from his team – the Calgary Stampeders – in the Canadian Football League at the age of 23. 

‘The dreams I had, they’re dashed,’ he later recalled to Hollywood Reporter. ‘There is no more football. My relationship was crushed. That was my absolute worst time.’ 

Speaking on Oprah’s Masterclass, The Rock got a little emotional as he said: ‘I wish I had someone at that time who could just pull me aside and [say], ‘Hey, it’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay.’ 

He also said of his battle with depression: ‘You’re not the first to go through it, you’re not going to be the last to go through it and oftentimes you feel like you’re alone and you feel like it’s only you and you’re in your bubble.’

Dwayne also shared advice for those going through a similar time, since he had wished someone had shared such wise words with him.

‘You’ve just gotta remember, hold onto that fundamental quality of faith. Have faith, and on the other side of your pain is something good,’ he advised.

And it certainly paid off for him. Six weeks after he was cut from his football team and fell into his depression, the coach called asking to bring him back.

However, he turned it down, saying his ‘gut told him he was done’ with that and that he’d like to get into the business [of pro wrestling], and follow in his father Rocky Johnson’s footsteps. 

But when it come the process of creating his younger self through such difficult times, Dwayne said in an interview it was ‘so incredibly surreal’ that it ‘knocked me on my butt.’ 

‘Unlike anything I’ve ever participated in, it required real specificity and an attention to detail,’ he told New York Times. ‘And nuance, to find the comedy and make sure that some of these lessons that I learned a tough way would hopefully help audiences, too.’ 

Johnson initially spent time in the WWE’s minor leagues, before making his debut on TV at the 1996 Survivor Series using wrestling name ‘Rocky Maivia’ – a combination of the names of his father and grandfather.  

He went on to make his first film debut in 2001’s ‘The Mummy Returns,’ where he played a villainous ruler, before going on to reprise the role in ‘The Scorpion King’ – making $5.5 million, the most any actor has made for a first leading role, according to Business Insider. 

With his film career in full swing, he decided to drop ‘The Rock’ from his name, telling Los Angeles Times: ‘The Rock’ was a name, a character I created in TV,’ he said. ‘When I made the transition into film, I knew eventually I was going to be billed as my given name.’  

The following year, he joined Kevin Hart for the comedy ‘Central Intelligence,’ before playing the voice of Maui in Disney hit ‘Moana.’ 

Johnson shares two daughters; Jasmine, five, and Tia, two, with wife Lauren Hashian who he married in 2019.

He also has daughter Simone, 19, with his first wife Dany Garcia – who he met at the University of Miami and married on May 3, 1997. 

The two separated after 10 years but have stayed close, with Johnson previously saying to Essence magazine:  ‘Since our divorce, we’ve become pretty good at working together, and we are also raising our beautiful 11-year-old daughter, Simone.’

In 2019 Johnson discussed having three daughters as he talked about his eldest Simone meeting boys as she embarked on college.

Speaking on Live with Kelly and Ryan, he said: ‘I like to think, and it’s what girls do, they measure the men they meet in their life by their father.

‘I like to think whoever she brings home is going to be a good quality person. And if they’re not … bang!

‘As men, you know, you’re like, ‘Oh yeah I’m going to raise my son’ but having all daughters, it’s the greatest blessing I’ve ever had … It’s just the best thing … I have a house full of just strong, bada** women. 

At the end of his comedy series Young Rock, Dwayne Johnson can be seen playing himself and campaigning for president in 2032 – something which he has not ruled out before, if ‘the people’ wanted him in politics.   

The wrestler-turned-movie star first mused over a run for the White House in 2017, when he claimed he would go against former President Donald Trump in 2020, yet after shelving last year’s plans he seems to be replenishing his idea. 

He told US Weekly: ‘I would consider a presidential run in the future if that’s what the people wanted.  Truly I mean that, and I’m not flippant in any way with my answer. That would be up to the people… So I would wait, and I would listen.’ 

Dwayne is in the midst of plugging his new show Young Rock, set in 2032 and depicting his run for presidency, and during the promo trail he has revealed the next move in his wide-spanning career. 

Speaking of his plans, he revealed he would be keeping an eye out for plans from fans: ‘I would have my finger on the pulse, my ear to the ground.’ 

In 2017, Dwayne entertained the possibility of challenging Trump for the White House during an appearance on The Tonight Show. 

At the time, he had been left astonished and flattered at the public’s reaction to a statement he made in which he said he would consider running for the president.

He said: ‘I’ve been really been blown away. And it’s so flattering. And I think you have to question why. I think it’s because, you know, a lot of people want to see a different leadership today — I’m sorry, not different, but better leadership today, right?’

Dwayne said that he was surprised by the way an off-hand comment he made to a journalist at GQ magazine about perhaps running for president has reverberated.

When asked what qualities make him fit to be commander in chief, he said: ‘I think more poised, less noise.

‘And I also think that over the years I’ve become a guy that a lot of people kind of relate to: get up early in the morning at a ridiculous hour, go to work and spend time with the troops, take care of my family.

‘I love taking care of people. And I think that kind of thing really resonates with people, especially today. I love coming here to ‘The Tonight Show’ crowd.’ 

At the time, he said he believes he has what it takes to rule the US and has been considering the idea of moving into politics ‘more and more’ over the past year.

He said: ‘A year ago, it started coming up more and more. There was a real sense of earnestness, which made me go home and think, ‘Let me really rethink my answer and make sure I am giving an answer that is truthful and also respectful.”