Dwayne Johnson has recently talked about an incident which took place back in his college days. To be more precise, it was The Rock himself who was responsible for what happened. Apparently, the actor we know today is a completely different person compared to who he was back in the ‘90s when he was just a college student and football player at the University of Miami. Back then, he was a short-tempered boy whose anger once reached a point where he not only wanted but actually tried to rip someone’s tongue out with his bare hands. Can you believe that’s the same person who stars in Disney’s latest animated movie? Let’s see what he said in the interview, published in Sports Illustrated.
Namely, this is how Johnson accounts for his dissatisfaction at the time: “I was always running hot because I wasn’t getting the playing time that I thought I deserved.” He continues to explain what made him so angry that he “lost it” in the fight with his teammate Kevin Patrick. Patrick teased him about lagging behind Warren Sapp while he was recovering from an injury. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Johnson says: “It was like a movie fight — the desk got turned over, stuff was flying all over the place. We spilled out onto the weight room floor, still going at it.” He then goes on to the moment when we decided to rip his tongue out: “He wouldn’t stop talking, so I decided to pull his tongue out. I stuffed my big hand into his mouth, and I had a couple of fingers around his tongue, but it was so slippery! I was quite serious about pulling it out, but I couldn’t quite get a hold of it. Eventually, I gave up…”
Believe it or not, this is how he claims the fight ended: “Two minutes later we were hugging each other. It was so dumb.” He also says that it didn’t have an impact on their relationship afterwards. Whatever the outcome, this moment might have been important in shaping the Dwayne Johnson of today.
However, the truth is, back then he had a different picture of what his life would look like: “I’d always had a very specific vision of my future. I was going to be Michael Strahan: I would win a Super Bowl with the Giants. I’d have the beautiful wife, the big house.” And he still remembers that. Johnson says that he thinks about it “all the time” and that he can’t stop wondering “What if I had been a little better at football?” Then he added: “Maybe I would’ve had that success and become complacent. But I didn’t get to walk away [from football] on my terms, and that lit a fire that still burns. I wanted that life I had envisioned, but I had to find another way.”
One thing is for sure – he found his way to a spectacular success anyway. He became a successful wrestler and an excellent actor, the highest paid one at the moment actually. Johnson now works on various projects, “San Andres” sequel and “Fast and Furious 8” included. He will star in “Baywatch”, “Jumanji” and “Shazam!” as well.
Finally, he concluded the interview saying: “I was in the wrong game, now I’m in the right one.”
