The Rock Joins the Gridiron Gang

Handsome, powerful and friendly wrestling icon Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has proven himself as an actor multiple times in action and comic films. He was hilarious playing a wacky actor in Be Cool and both funny and "action dude supreme" in The Rundown. Now, in The Gridiron Gang, Rock takes on a very serious role as Sean Porter, a real life probation officer at a juvie offender camp who manages to give troubled teens pride and turn their lives around by forging them into a football team. Yes, we're talking Bloods and Cripps on the same team!

For our recent interview in Beverly Hills, Rock looked hunky in black jeans and long-sleeved black knit top accessorized with a leather cuff and tasteful-sized chain bracelet and necklace. His black hair is a bit longer than usual. It suits him and his smile can light up the room. You DO want The Rock smilin' at you. Anyone that powerful, we stay on their team! Dwayne talked about the fact that his own young life paralleled the crime-filled and angst-ridden lives of many of the kids in the film. Rock was also "saved' from going down the wrong path in life by his mother's tears and getting into football. He let us know how he is raising his daughter and how devoted he is to helping kids in trouble.

TeenHollywood: You seem perfect for this role. How did you get involved in doing the film?

Rock: What attracted me to the project was when I watched the documentary [the producers had made a documentary on the camp and the real coach]. I sat down with [Producer] Neal Moritz prior and he said 'listen, you're my guy. Here's the script and here's the documentary. All I ask is that you watch the documentary'. I watched the documentary. I was moved. I was motivated. Inspired. I laughed. I cried. I cheered. All of those things.

TeenHollywood: And did you identify with the young kids at the facility?

Rock: I was one of these kids. I understood this world. I had gotten arrested multiple times by the time I was 17 so I understood that and I also understood the value of having somebody in my life that cared and invested a little bit of time in me. I also understood, by the way, the value of sports and what that does for a youth. What that did for me. The difference between this movie and other sports movies is the fact it's kids accomplishing incredible things. It's one thing when adults accomplish incredible things and that's great. But when kids do it's special. They come from a world of neglect and failure, when they decide and make that decision [to succeed] , there's that power of decision. I was in.

TeenHollywood: What was the worst thing you did as a kid that made you change?

Rock: When I was 17, it was around my eighth or ninth arrest, my mom came to pick me up and when she got me out of jail, when we were leaving, she was in the car crying. She had cried all the other times (I was arrested) and had given me tongue-lashings. She was just doing the motherly thing. This time she was crying but there were no more words. When there are no more words, and there's silence, it hit home with me. I understood then, I'm 17; I'm a junior in high school. I'm playing pretty good at football. I'm getting some scholarship offers. We had no money so there was no way I could afford to go to (college). My grades weren't good enough either for me to get an academic scholarship at that time so that was very defining for me. I knew I had to change, to do something. I gotta stop getting in trouble.

TeenHollywood: Was your life ever at risk? What kind of trouble were you in as a kid?

Rock: It was all fighting, theft and assault and stuff like that. A good amount.

TeenHollywood: Were you in a gang?

Rock: No. There are a lot of gangs in Hawaii and that's where all the arrests were. You're at risk anytime you get in a fight. Someone pulls out a knife, you're at risk.

TeenHollywood: Was there someone when you were 17 that you had as a mentor?

Rock: It actually came earlier than that for me. When I was 14 my arresting officer was the one who told me, 'Listen, you're going to stop screwing up and you're going to play football for your high school freshman football team.' I didn't learn then. I was a work in progress. I continued to get in trouble. I had a great coach. His name was Jody Cwik. At 17, when I was a junior, he said you have a great opportunity, you're really good at football, we're getting scholarship offers, don't screw this up. Between him and my parents, I had loving parents at home, it wasn't until later on in life that I realized the value of that: having a consistent love at home and how important that is. Being a dad now, I really understand how important that is.

TeenHollywood: How will you raise your own daughter?

Rock: Exactly how we are right now: with a lot of love and support. As a Parent, you want to shield your child from all the bad things in the world but at the same time they have to experience life and have to go out there. The best you can do, the most important thing to us is having that consistent love at home and how important that is. There are a lot of kids I know and kids I grew up with that came from broken homes and didn't have that consistent love. Not only that but they didn't have the necessary tools, the knowledge to make proper decisions.

TeenHollywood: Has your daughter seen your movies?

Rock: No. She sees edited versions. But the next movie I do is going to be a family comedy with Disney and I'm excited about that. She can see that. It's called Game Plan. I play a professional quarterback. I discover a knock on the door from a seven-year-old girl that calls me daddy.

TeenHollywood: That sounds good. Did you sit down and talk to the real kids at the juvie camp?

Rock: I talked to them every day.

TeenHollywood: Are some of the kids in the background in the film real inmates?

Rock: Yeah. By California law, you can't shoot the kids that are actually locked up. So what we did was when the kids got out, if they wanted to, they could come back in and be part of the background. We talked to those kids every single day. We're allowed to talk to the kids but they weren't allowed to talk to us. They couldn't yell and shout things at us. It was very strict and controlled. We would. Myself, Phil, Sean Porter [the real-life coach Rock plays], when he would come to the set, we'd talk to the kids. Every day.

TeenHollywood: There are a lot of very excellent young first-time actors in the film. Did you find yourself becoming a mentor to these young actors?

Rock: The relationship was good. I give a lot of credit to those young actors, kid actors. This is not a broad comedy we shot. It's a very serious movie and the content is serious. You get these kids who are preparing to play kids who died. A couple of them died. A couple of them are serving life sentences right now. A couple of them got out and did well for themselves. There's that added responsibility. So I give it up for those kids. It was great. When we first got onto the set there wasn't a lot of laughing and joking or anything like that. To know Sean Porter, the respect he gave and got from the kids, was earned over time. When we got to the set, the kids addressed me as Mr. Porter. There wasn't a lot of videogame playing.

TeenHollywood: Isn't this the first time you were credited as Dwayne Johnson?

Rock: It's the first time I've been credited as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. In Southland Tales, which is coming out in January or February, it's just Dwayne Johnson. Look, I love the name "The Rock." It's a name that I earned. When I first started acting five or six years ago, I never wanted to say 'from this day forward I only want to be known as only Dwayne Johnson, the actor. Like 'please don't call me "The Rock."' I never wanted to do that. That didn't feel right. I'm The Rock. Over time, it naturally happened. Actually, it was you guys [in the press] that wrote 'Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.' I would read that and, before you know it, I said, 'why not bill me as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for this movie?'

TeenHollywood: So you'll always be The Rock?

Rock: What I'm saying is I'm lucky to sit with you today and do a wide array of roles that could either be Dwayne Johnson, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson or... It's interchangeable now. If there's a great action movie that I'll do that's funny and self-deprecating, then I'm The Rock. It's interchangeable. I never want to make a big deal out of it.

TeenHollywood: Didn't you get injured badly as a football player?

Rock: The worst hit I took was in college. I had a couple of them. And it was with my own team in practice because our practices were very intense. In one hit I took, I was making a tackle and as I came down, a guy landed on top of me. I tore everything away from the bone here [he indicates a shoulder] and I had to have complete reconstruction. It popped out. It didn't sublux. It hung there. Everything that holds it together, the ligaments and all that [At this point I'm grimacing with an 'ewwwww' look on my face. This makes Rock start teasing me with a little boy evil grin] I also ruptured three discs in my back like if you take a jelly doughnut [he smacks his hands together].

TeenHollywood: Ewww, okay, sorry you went through that. How closely did you try to bring your performance to the real Sean Porter?

Rock: What I wanted to do was study the documentary and get to know the people he knew, especially the Stanleys [Producers of the documentary]. They dedicate their lives to kids and know Sean intimately, and then speaking to Sean. I didn't want to imitate Sean. I wanted to capture him, his essence and his passion, and his intensity. He's an intense guy. He's a no b.s. guy. I thought if I could get that, then I could get a shot.

TeenHollywood: Is this sports or football program being implemented in other facilities?

Rock: I'll help out in any way I can, but in truth, it's Sean that did an incredible job. He oversees five prisons for kids and that program has now blossomed into all the other camps/prisons, it's added basketball and baseball. He did an incredible job. He's a selfless guy. He didn't do it for the celebrity. He didn't do it because they were going to make a movie about him 15 years later. He just did it because he cared. And I appreciate it. He's a good man.

TeenHollywood: Is there a movie that makes you cry?

Rock: The one that just made my top five list is Love, Actually. Oh man. I love it.

TeenHollywood: You're still up for action roles. What's your game plan?

Rock: What's important to me is good material. When I first started, I knew I wanted to become a good actor. I wanted to become a versatile actor. I was in no way getting the material that was going to allow me to do that. A lot of it, frankly all of it, was action and bad comedy. Be Cool was defining for me because after Be Cool, it was just all comedy. For me, it's a matter of continuing to make a wide array of movies that are entertaining, whether they be a drama like this or a comedy. The action just has to be good. With The Rundown, I could be self-deprecating, funny, the action could be great if you work with a good director like Peter Berg. I look forward to stuff like that.

TeenHollywood: Do you like being called the new Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone?

Rock: It's flattering. Sure. Those guys are very successful. I can't say I don't like that. I like those guys. They're friends of mine.

TeenHollywood: Do you imagine yourself as governor?

Rock: No because I'm an American. I could be President!

TeenHollywood: We'd vote for you.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.