The Hollywood Reporter has a new cover story up on The Rock at this link. Below are a few highlights from their interview:
Finding out about Paul Walker’s passing:
“I was driving with Lauren when she immediately turned very quiet and was looking at me, studying, wondering if I knew. I pulled over and looked at my messages and had a moment where I just caught my breath. We said a prayer right then to give his daughter strength — because we had talked about our daughters. That’s what we would talk about. Both of us were divorced, and we talked about the power of being a dad and the strong connection of a dad and his girl. Then once we got home, we started bawling.”
Finding out about another injury two days after his match with John Cena at WrestleMania 29:
“I came in for a checkup and pulled my pants down, and the doctor goes, ‘Oh! That’s a hernia. Your abdominal wall gets weak and your organs push through. The doctor said, ‘You need to lie down,’ and slowly starts to push my intestines back in my stomach. He said, ‘I would really recommend surgery.'”
Going from wrestling to acting:
“I was told that I had to conform to a standard in Hollywood that would beget me more work, better roles. Which meant I had to stop going to the gym, which meant I couldn’t be as big, which meant you had to distance yourself from wrestling. You essentially had to deconstruct yourself. Then that started to not feel good to me. It reached a point of, ‘I’m not feeling authentic.'”
Regarding a return to the ring for WWE, The Rock says the event and the payday must be equal or bigger than his return in 2013. Rock said he continues to work with WWE but movies are his real focus.
