Celebrity recollections #2
Everyone knows Dwayne Johnson as a physically imposing specimen. When I shook hands with him in a hotel room, however, he was smaller than I had imagined. I don’t know if I had developed false expectations of his size, or if it was because he was sitting down, but afterwards I began telling everyone he wasn’t that big. I’ve since spoken to others who have also seen him in the flesh, and they assure me my impression was false. But that’s how it seemed to me on the day.
Anyway, Johnson was in Australia in 2005 to promote his movie Be Cool, but because DVDs were my focus I also asked him quite a bit about his previous film, which was a remake of a 1970s revenge movie called Walking Tall.
I was never a journalist to stick to ‘approved’ topics, though, because A) it ensured my magazine would have different information to its competitors and B) it helped paint a picture of the person behind the movie. So once we had talked Be Cool and Walking Tall for a while, I asked The Rock a question or two about his wrestling career (as a big fan of the WWF in the 1980s and 1990s, I wasn’t going to miss out on that opportunity) and then I moved on to his fitness routine – what was the best way to get big?
As he was winding up his response to that question ("Keep it simple," was his motto: dumbbells, barbells, never mind all the fancy machines) his media minder – who had been hovering in the background – stepped forward and said in a voice dripping with contempt, “Okay, I’m sure that’s all very interesting but I think we’ll end it there.”
How dare I not stay on message!
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her what I thought of her, but I didn’t out of respect for The Rock… because, unlike her, he was polite and open and every bit the gentleman. He was even kind enough to autograph a copy of Walking Tall for me. It’s no wonder he has a reputation as a Hollywood nice guy.