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http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20192175_20192181_20204672,00.html
Cover Story
Dwayne Johnson Gets 'Smart'
Anything can happen in Hollywood — just ask the artist formerly known as The Rock. Building on success in ''The Game Plan'' with an upcoming role in ''Get Smart,'' Dwayne Johnson is making a serious run at the A-list as a family-friendly leading man
By Christine Spines
Dwayne Johnson is speaking to a drunken woman who has somehow managed to slip past security and into the middle of a scene he's shooting. He's in Las Vegas, outside a casino, filming his next kid-friendly movie, Race to Witch Mountain, in which he'll play a cabdriver being taken for a ride by two paranormal teens. When the inebriated woman wanders onto the set, you half expect Johnson to grab a metal folding chair and smash it over her head, but no. ''Excuse me, sweetheart,'' he tells her, in the reassuring tones usually reserved for putting small children to bed. ''Darling? Honey? You're in the shot.''
Clearly, the wrestler-turned-actor formerly known as The Rock isn't taking a single fan for granted these days. On June 20, Johnson will be seen opposite Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway as Agent 23 in Get Smart, a big-screen update of the 1965-70 sitcom about a bumbling secret agent. And once he's finished production on Witch Mountain (an update of the 1975 family classic Escape to Witch Mountain), he'll sprout wings and practice nocturnal dentistry as the star of Tooth Fairy. ''The idea that I could become the tooth fairy to children worldwide is hilarious to me,'' he admits.
That's right, folks, the guy who once cracked vertebrae in the wrestling ring and taunted his opponents with references to ''poon tang pie'' is now hell-bent on becoming your kid's favorite film star. After proving he could carry a movie to No. 1 with last fall's surprise hit The Game Plan, he's positioning himself as Hollywood's go-to family comedy hitman. It's all part of the latest reinvention of The Rock — which starts with not referring to himself as The Rock. ''I'm aware of everything that comes with that nickname, and I just think there's a lot more you can do without it,'' he says. ''But I wanted it to happen naturally, from 'The Rock' to Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson to 'Dwayne Johnson.''' He doesn't do the thing with the eyebrow anymore, either, and he's trimmed pounds of meathead muscle off his still handsomely chiseled 6'4'' self. The purpose of this massive rebranding effort: to cast himself in the image of his four-quadrant matinee idols Will Smith and Tom Hanks. ''They embrace being a movie star from beginning to end,'' says the 36-year-old actor. ''From preproduction through the all-important marketing, they work hard and enjoy it.''
Get Smart may not lift Johnson to megastar level, but it is his first big-studio, above-the-title credit without any geological references in his name. And it gives him a chance to show off his comedic chops to a wider audience than ever before. As Agent 23, a Bond-like alpha spy and ladies' man, he mentors Smart (Carell) while competing with him for the affections of Agent 99 (Hathaway). It's not a huge part — he's actually only in a few choice scenes (including one in which he and Carell suck face; more on that later) — but somebody at Warner Bros. clearly believes in Johnson's drawing power: The guy is all over the trailers. ''He's saddling up to do an enormous amount of publicity,'' says producer Andrew Lazar. ''Promoting the movie is tiring. But I think he's embraced it and made it a part of the routine and made it fun for himself.''
Johnson is so caught up in rebranding himself, he sometimes sounds like he's just stepped out of a Tony Robbins seminar. It's not uncommon to hear sentences like ''I love marketing!'' or ''I'm swinging for the fences'' or even ''I think it's important that you become fiscal partners with the studio to help the movie do well...'' tumble out of his mouth without a hint of that famously crooked grin. He's lately been known to wake up at 4 a.m. and fire off inspirational e-mails to members of the cast and crew (''We're going to slay some dragons today!''). In the name of his new kid-friendly image, he's also been trying to clean up his language, which can make for some awkward conjunctions (''Abso-damn-lutely!''). No matter what he's doing, Johnson works hard to make you like him, offering to fetch you a drink and using a politician's knack for peppering his sentences with your name. ''I think it's become part of my relentless drive,'' he says of his dream of packing movie theaters around the world. ''I would rather fail being aggressive than being passive and not trying to control what I can do. Because you know, I failed plenty of times, but if I do now, at least I'll feel like I'm doing something.''
Johnson first tried to crack the Hollywood code seven years ago, when he attempted to parlay his hugely successful wrestling career (multimillion-dollar WWE contracts, a rabid fan base, a best-selling memoir called The Rock Says...) into a gig as a big-screen actor. But playing a Conan-like desert warrior in The Mummy Returns didn't exactly put him on the fast track to stardom. And even when he was given a shot at headlining his own sword-and-sandals franchise with the title role in the Mummy spin-off, The Scorpion King, the character never got enough traction to merit a sequel. ''As a wrestler, my brand was arrogant at times, funny and endearing,'' says Johnson. ''I was just learning how to understand it, apply it, protect it.''
To that end, over the years Johnson has repositioned himself almost as many times as Madonna. He took a shot at appealing to mass audiences as a heroic bounty hunter in director Peter Berg's 2003 jungle action-comedy, The Rundown, which opened to a respectable $18.5 million but was nowhere near the blockbuster he was hoping for. ''It just didn't work marketing-wise,'' he says. ''I should have focused more on action fans. I didn't have that kind of broad appeal yet. I wanted it but I hadn't earned it.'' For a while, he threw himself into a series of hardcore tough-guy roles — in Walking Tall (2004), Doom (2005), and Gridiron Gang (2006) — that didn't exactly hit pay dirt either. ''I was a little concerned after the failure of Doom,'' recalls Johnson, who despaired that he hadn't turned at least a few industry heads. ''A lot of times movies that fail at the box office great opportunities for someone, but that wasn't the case at all.'' Even more frustrating, when he tried to stretch his range by taking on character roles in eclectic flicks (the gay bodyguard in Be Cool; an amnesiac action star opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in Southland Tales), nobody could smell what he was cooking.
Johnson decided it was time to deploy a new strategy. He got in touch with his inner mensch and took the lead in the kid-targeted comedy The Game Plan, portraying a playboy quarterback who suddenly finds himself Mr. Mom to an adorable little moppet. ''I put so much into The Game Plan thinking, This has to work,'' he says. ''I thought, not only does this formula speak to me, I also loved the idea of becoming partners with the brand and culture of Disney.'' Disney reciprocated the feelings. ''He's one of the hardest-working people on behalf of a movie I've worked with,'' says Oren Aviv, president of production for Walt Disney Studios. ''He's the guy who's constantly saying, 'What else can I do?' That puts him in a unique category of less than a handful of actors working today.'' By the time The Game Plan had grossed $91 million, The Rock was already well into his own brand overhaul, slimming down with a targeted workout routine and a low-sugar diet. ''For years I carried all that weight for football and wrestling, and I finally realized there's no need for it anymore,'' he says. ''Now I just want to look the part.''
The new, sleeker look certainly works in Get Smart, a movie he actively pursued before the filmmakers had begun casting. He even took a pay cut to share the screen with Carell in a goofy comedy aimed precisely at Johnson's new target audience: families. ''I got a call from his agent, asking would I consider Dwayne,'' says director Peter Segal. ''I said, 'Are you kidding me? I'd have to rewrite the part. It's not worthy of him.' The agent said, 'No, he's just interested in being in the movie. He just wants to be a part of it. He wants to be in the sandbox with everyone.' I thought that was the coolest thing.'' According to producer Lazar, it was also pretty crafty career management. ''People are just starting the process of how he's reinventing himself,'' he says. ''But taking the third lead in the movie — recognizing the potential of his character in this franchise — I think really shows that he's savvy beyond being a good actor.''
The transformation into family-friendly star did have its touchy moments. In one scene in Get Smart, he had to kiss costar Carell right on the mouth. ''Many actors get the type of material where you're asked to kiss another man, from Jake Gyllenhaal to Will Smith,'' he says of the big smooching scene. ''I'm happy to tell you, and Steve's wife will attest to this, the guy's got some pretty soft lips.'' (Adds Segal, ''Steve would constantly remark that Dwayne sweats testosterone while he sweats estrogen.'') But puckering up aside, Johnson may have finally found a brand image that works for him as well as the audience — one that gives him a decent shot at a genuine A-list career. If only that were enough for him. Turns out what Johnson really wants to do is run a studio. ''I'd love to not only have the ability to greenlight movies but to figure out the strategy on how the movie's going to work,'' he says. An unlikely ambition for a guy once known for dispatching his wrestling opponents with ''The People's Elbow.'' Then again, other famous former musclemen have managed to make such power dreams come true. Just ask the governor of California.
Posted Jun 05, 2008 | Published in issue #997 Jun 13, 2008
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Last 7 movies I saw:
Get Smart: B-
Iron Man: B
Cleaner: B-
Flash Point: C-
No Country For Old Men: B+
Harold & Kumar 2: C+
I Am Legend: B+
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