Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is the epitome of Hollywood masculinity. His on-screen magnetism and talk show couch affability have endeared him to millions. Now though, the Rock seems to be crumbling.
The Rock, who has referred to himself as ‘the hardest worker in the room’, has developed a reputation in the industry for his lateness and lack of professionalism on set. In April, the Hollywood trade publication The Wrap published a exposé, one that cast The Rock in the most unflattering of lights. According to the piece, The Rock used to pee in a bottle during movie shoots, rather than use the restroom – you know, like a respectable, housetrained human being. There were also allegations that on one production, he added $50 million to the bill by failing to appear on set. One insider told the publication: ‘The only thing Dwayne was consistent at was being chronically late’. (Although, it should be said, that other sources in the piece said that he was no more than an hour late.)
A few weeks before The Wrap expose was published, The Rock was three hours late arriving ahead of his main event match at WrestleMania 40. For WWE World, a WWE fan event in Philadelphia leading up to WrestleMania 40, Johnson showed up two hours late, drawing boos from the crowd and criticism from the local Philadelphia press. The Guardian’s Marina Hyde said in a recent edition of her podcast The Rest is Entertainment that she’d spoken to those who’d worked with Johnson who said, in no uncertain terms, that he’s ‘a diva’.
To compound matters, Matt Belloni, a prominent figure in the entertainment industry, has accused Johnson of manipulating box office statistics and feeding false narratives to the media in an attempt to bolster his films’ reception. Last month, reports surfaced detailing a purported clash between The Rock and Ryan Reynolds, arguably the most affable actor in Hollywood, on the set of the Netflix’s Red Notice. Sources suggest that tensions ran high as the two Hollywood heavyweights allegedly engaged in an on-set altercation, raising concerns about their ability to collaborate effectively.
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Johnson first forged his identity in the testosterone-fuelled world of professional wrestling, where his character captivated audiences and earned him legions of fans. In blockbuster films, he often plays characters who mirror his wrestling alter ego – men of action, moral righteousness, and almost superhuman strength. Whether he’s saving the world from imminent doom or dispatching bad guys with a single punch, The Rock’s characters are really just an extension of this persona. But The Rock was never real. He was a construct, a figment of the WWE’s imagination, designed to entertain and inspire. When Hollywood came calling, Dwayne Johnson faded into the background, and The Rock – this meticulously crafted fabrication – took centre stage. In many ways, The Rock epitomises Hollywood itself – a land of make-believe. Marlon Brando famously said that the vast majority of ‘successful people in Hollywood are failures as human beings’. One wonders what the great man would have made of The Rock.
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Some of the more mundane things they mention, like exaggerating his height and being bombastic and over-the-top are just holdovers from wrestling. Having an argument with Ryan Reynolds on set and being habitually late seems very unwise, especially if your films are no longer big box office draws.
There is a bit of advise for actors/actresses from a director (forgot their name) where they said “if the only thing about you is that you are on time/early, and you are pleasant to work with, you will always find a job in acting. If you don’t care and lack punctuality, and are hard to work with or around (if necessary) then you will find fewer and fewer opportunities as time goes on.”
That’s good advice even for people not in entertainment
When I became a supervisor at work I learned just how valuable your clock punchers were. Forget the flakey people who can be your best guy 3 weeks a month and your biggest liability the 4th week. “Turns up, does work, fucks off” is such a godsend.
Yup. We had to put a plan together for layoffs once and I immediately pointed to a group of people to keep. They said why, they’re not our top performers?
Told them those are the people that want to do OT every time no questions asked, and are always on time.
A couple of the top people were not reliable.
Thankfully we managed to not lay anyone off.
I hope so, because those are probably the only good traits I have.
The Rock is now the money behind a lot of his movies so finding work isn’t an issue. Getting people to see his movies, well, that’s trickier.
So why is he making movies if nobody’s watching them? that seems like a garbage can for the film industry to put money in.
He’s riding that career momentum from FF5. Most of his current work is just getting paid for showing up and he doesn’t care about his movies. Remember Black Atom? No one else does.
Black Atom
Black Adam, right? Or does he play an atom in another movie?
Fuck, you’re right. I’m keeping it spelled wrong because some folks will legit not remember the name either.
My Uncle told me when I was a kid that 70% of success is just showing up, and being on time. As an adult myself now, I agree with him.
Availability is the best ability.
Couldn’t really say whether this is true or not, but it also feels like a hit piece.
The fabrication part is definitely real. He has an extensive list of rules that his roles have to follow. E.g. his character can not die, can’t be a villain, and may only be punched twice or things like that.
Have a friend who is a production assistant at Kualoa Ranch where they shot the Jumanji movies and had stories that this article basically confirms.
Dwayne was chronically late most of the time, holding up shoots while he did his thing. His handler would just pass it off as " he’s a hardworking dude so his schedule is super tight"
I work in film and can also confirm the on set piss bottles.
Which role do you have? Would you like to do an AMA about your experience on film sets?
I’m a set dresser now, but have worked in most other departments as well. Right now I’m a glorified furniture mover and cleanup crew, nothing too interesting about the job lol.
like you saw Dwayne Johnson do it? or you can confirm that many people do it?
If many people are doing it then maybe toilets need to be placed closer and more convenient to the work area.
Can confirm many people do NOT do it. It’s very bad practice and an overall dick move.
So are you saying that you saw Dwayne Johnson piss in a bottle and not many other people on film sets do that? Help me out here. I’m not trying to put words in your mouth.
I did not personally see him peeing in the bottle, but have had to clean them up after the fact. Actors are typically given water bottles and are essentially the only ones who would have them handy on set. Oftentimes, they’ll forget to grab them on their way out. Typically not full of piss. I’ve worked with plenty of other actors that do NOT leave behind piss bottles. It’s disgusting and unheard of anywhere else.
There are nearly always bathrooms nearby for the crew, whether portable or otherwise, so there would be no need for them to piss in a bottle.
I also have friends who have worked on other projects with Dwayne Johnson and can corroborate the piss bottles.
As a side note fun fact, I pee in bottles fairly regularly due to my lifestyle and whenever my bladder is at max capacity & I’m about to burst, I fill an entire 1 liter bottle, no more than that, which I find interesting & convenient to know that I could never possibly overflow a 1 liter bottle 😄
If being late to work and peeing in a bottle is “crumbling,” I’d say the title of this article is blowing things out of proportion.
If you being late to work meant that dozens of other people had to work overtime, I’d say you deserve to be called out for it.
Also, he’s not exactly picking his piss bottles up after himself. Other people have to clean those up.
only an hour late
Oh, he only caused an entire production crew to sit around for an entire hour rolling their eyes and checking their watches.
If you read the whole article it continues that he also had incidents of being 2 hours late and 3 hours late.
Even just one hour is shitty, if my sarcasm is too subtle
I like your username, clever, relatable
I think the “only” is because someone claimed that he cost them $50 million by doing that
While 50 million is high, costs mount extremely quickly if things fall off schedule. Especially, if you have to start adding extra filming days, or paying for an entire crew spend time in remote areas.
I’ve never seen a more useless waste of news space.
This is long form celebrity gossip.
so like sports news but with different types of violence
Granted this is the movies community, but still
The Wrap article they are referencing: https://archive.is/UmNPh
On the set of “Red One,” Johnson’s pattern of lateness proved more damaging. Johnson was late an average of seven to eight hours per day and missed several entire days of production, ballooning costs by at least $50 million according to three insiders who insisted on anonymity for fear of being fired.
I can not imagine any other jobs in any industry where this behavior would be acceptable. At the end of the day, people want to get their work done and go home, and wasting the time and work of hundreds of people on set is regularly is unprofessional and irresponsible.
“On set, away from his trailer, if he needs to pee, he doesn’t go to the public bathroom,” one insider who knows the movie star well said. “He pees in a Voss water bottle and his team or a PA has to dispose of it.”
OK that’s just gross.
What the article doesn’t say is whether he maintains eye contact with his PA while pissing in the bottle , but we all know the answer.
I’m more worried about who’s holding the bottle really
Turns out Vin Diesel was the better between the two in their feud.
Well, I might not go that far. Other sources from the FF set suggest (checks ironimeter) that VD was late to set, as well as arrogant. And The Rock?
As for The Rock, the crew apparently love the guy and consider him the “ultimate professional,” as he was always on-time and frequently nailed his scenes.
Perhaps being late to set is a weapon “insiders” deploy as character assassination or perhaps some actors reach a point (round about when they start getting producer credits perhaps? Possibly where they reach the point in their career where everyone tells them they crap gold) where unprofessionalism kicks in.
Similar criticism was levelled at Tom Hardy on Fury Road (being late where Charlize Theron was always first in) and he has held his hands up to it.
Or maybe dude has a lot of shit going on and can’t schedule to save his life
Hence observations like these. There may be a good reason other than “they’ll wait on the star,” but that’s also a shitty way to treat others.
If he’s busy, he’s gotta deconflict or drop items from the schedule. Arriving on set late can waste the time of dozens of others and rack up unnecessary costs. Even if he pays everybody for the time wasted, that’s still time that could have been spent on other things that is just gone
Or drugs
Vin Diesel was recently accused of sexual assaulting his assistant.
Accusations don’t matter until we have a verdict from court.
Ah yes, because when a rich and powerful person sexually assaults someone you can always count on the legal system to get to the bottom of it. I’m glad we live in that reality.
I don’t need that much, rich often but their way out of shit. But, I’ll wait for more to come out.
ESH
Epitome of masculinity…
It both made me stop reading the article and it made me start thinking. But not enough to wanting to start a discussion about why he is/ has been so successful as an actor - it’s more about the people who like what he depicts than the man himself I guess.
He kind of is…
He does always publicly come across as a very friendly, intelligent, open person. He is in amazing shape (Yes, anyone with half a brain knows that theres some 1% genetics and almost certainly PEDs) but a lot of hard work too. Never seems to be short on charisma and is a great speaker. I mean… who wouldnt want all of that and his bank account?
But this is all his public persona, maybe 30 years of it is catching up to him, maybe he has always been a bit of an asshole behind closed doors and it just never got out. Maybe the dude is just tired and needs to take his foot off the gas.
Thanks for your point of view. I think I get it.
Yes, it’s his public persona, but I doubt he could fake it for so long if he was a totally different person in private.
That’s literally his job to hide his feelings.
I mean, it says “epitome of Hollywood masculinity”, obviously meaning that he’s the epitome of the action movie stereotype.
The Rubble
Sources suggest that tensions ran high as the two Hollywood heavyweights allegedly engaged in an on-set altercation, raising concerns about their ability to collaborate effectively.
Probably couldn’t agree on gin or tequila as the product placement.
That’s a hill they were both prepared to die on. Dan Ackroyd wanted to get involved too.
he often plays characters who mirror his wrestling alter ego – men of action, moral righteousness, and almost superhuman strength.
My memory could fail me, but wasn’t he a heel in his beginnings on WWE?
He started out as a face with a dull gimmick, turned heel for a bit quite quickly, then face for his famous run, then heel when he left for tinsel town, then back to face for his reappearances before his most recent heel turn.
I was wondering about
Testosterone fuelled world of professional wrestling
Is it still testosterone fuelled when it’s thinly veiled gay porn?
Or is it another hormone? Genuine question
Gay porn (male-male) is full of testosterone
Thanks, confirmed my suspicions about wrestling 😂
