INTERVIEW: Dwayne Johnson

Dwayne Johnson

With the spook-tacular Blu-ray and DVD about to be released, Dwayne Johnson talks about his nutty new alien adventure, Race To Witch Mountain…

Hi Dwayne! What’s Race To Witch Mountain about?
Race To Witch Mountain is a huge action adventure that is going to blow people away. I play a guy called Jack Bruno, who is a Las Vegas cab driver and the story is about two kids who get inside his cab. They take him on the journey of a lifetime!

Sounds exciting! What happens?
Well, the two kids aren’t quite what they seem. We soon learn that they are running away from the government, as well as an alien monster. We’re all thrown into an amazing journey within the first 10 minutes of the film!

Cool! So what made you sign on for the movie?
I wanted to make a big family action adventure and this seemed perfect. There are some great car chases, as well as combat scenes, comedy and loads of amazing action. I’m really excited about it.

Are you a fan of action movies?
I love action movies, which is why I wanted to be part of one. I wanted to make sure that this movie was up there with the best of them. I honestly think it is.

What’s your favorite action film?
There are two recent action movies that really stand out for me. The last Bourne movie is one of them and the last Bond movie is the other. I like the way they’re shot in a very energetic and real way.

What makes the action scenes stand out in Race To Witch Mountain?
For starters, there’s an amazing alien monster for me to fight. This thing kicks butt!

Eek! Does this mean you hurt yourself shooting the film?
I’ll tell you one thing for sure: When that alien punches me in the face, I flew across the room. Not only did it hurt – because I’m hitting walls for real – but it’s also great action. You’re going to love it when you see it.

Do you get to do many stunts in the movie?
I love stunts. Thankfully, I was allowed to do everything I wanted to do in Race To Witch Mountain, which made me very happy. What did I do? I did all of the great car chase sequences and I did all of the fighting scenes with the soldiers and the monster alien. It was a lot of fun.

We’ve got to ask… Do you believe in aliens?
Of course I do. It would be extremely arrogant to think we were alone in this universe. I’ve always been fascinated by aliens and UFOs – and I learned a lot about them while making this movie.

What did you learn about them?
The director, Andy Fickman, is a wealth of knowledge on aliens and UFOs. I learned so much about them by spending four months with him. He had so many videos and books on the subject that it was like he took us all on a course.

Talking of learning… What were you like in school?
I had a wild and vivid imagination at school. I always wanted to laugh and have fun, so I ended up being the class clown. I was a bit of a joker.

Did you do well at school?
I think I learned the value of applying myself later on in life. In high school, I was a decent student. I was a C-grade student, so I guess I was very average. When I got to college, it took me a couple of years to adjust – and that’s when I started to apply myself to studying.

Did you want to be an actor when you were at school?
I wasn’t interested in acting, but I was always interested in entertaining. When I was 8 years old, I loved Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and Star Wars. I loved his characters because they were cool and quick-witted.

So how did you catch the acting bug?
I was never in a school play, so it wasn’t at school. I did a lot of athletics at school, which took up all my time. I got into sports and became a professional [American] football player. After that, I became a wrestler, which is what led me into acting.

What other actors did you look up to when you were a child?
As well as Harrison Ford, I loved people like Elvis and Richard Pryor. These were the people I used to look up to and the people I thought I could be one day.

Do you have any advice for youngsters who want to become stars?
I’d say that there’s no substitute for hard work. You don’t have to be the smartest, the brightest or the most brilliant person in the room – but you do have to work your butt off. There’s no substitute for that.