Dwayne The Rock Johnson is without any doubt one of the biggest movie stars, at least these last couple of years, but he wasn’t always a movie star. Fans know that this guy used to be a professional wrestler who turned actor in what seemed to be the smoothest transition between professions ever. He made his movie debut as a Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns in 2002, and after that, things started rolling forward with titles like Walking Tall, Gridiron Gang and Get Smart right up to 2011 which is a year when he joined one big family called The Fast and Furious franchise. As everyone on Gods green Earth knows by now, the eight installment of the franchise is opening in more than 4.000 screens with a projected worldwide box office take of more than $400 million.
But let’s get to the topic at hand. One thing probably most of you didn’t know, and that is the fact that Dwayne actually tried for the role of Jack Reacher, but Tom Cruise beat him to it. Maybe that is for the best because who knows if Dwayne’s career would turn out the way it is if he got that part. We found out about this thanks to a question from one of Dwayne’s fans who asked why he didn’t play Jack Reacher on which Dwayne answered via Twitter “Yup, luv the character. Bout 10yrs ago I went after the role, but Cruise got it. Was great motivation for me to always stay hungry.” This tweet shows the character that Dwayne has and that he is always determined to draw all the best from any situation, which is a part of what makes him the great person we know and love.
As it turns out Dwayne would be a great pick for the role of Jack Reacher because, at least on paper, this ex-army investigator is about 6-foot-5 and about 250 pounds which is miles further than Tom Cruise small build that comes at 5-foot-7 (according to IMDb listing). No matter how fans out there protested or permitted the choice, it is hard to argue the fact that Cruise had the right mindset and physical commitment (insists on doing his own stunts) to the role. But as I already said maybe it is a good thing that Dwayne didn’t land this role mainly because of the movie’s moderate earnings that amount globally for $218 million and its 2016 sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back earned even less which mounts up to a total of $162 million.
Dwayne is a great guy and as we witnessed this hasn’t struck him that hard which is a great thing. As things are now, The Rock has much bigger days ahead of him especially with the Baywatch in May, and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle in December. There are also some talks about DCEU’s Black Adam which is somewhere down the road which is why we aren’t that much concerned about his future. Nothing is outside of Dwayne’s reach.
