Dwayne Johnson started his career as a wrestler. His father and paternal grandfather were renowned wrestlers too. Johnson followed in their footsteps, but at that time no one knew the man he would eventually become. His first film was The Scorpio King. At that time everyone knew him as The Rock, and none in Hollywood believed that his real name would bring in any footfall.
Today the tables have turned and Dwayne Johnson is one of the highest-paid actors in all of Hollywood. The man has become a brand, a successful businessman, and a world-famous celebrity. The Rock might be all muscles but when he sat with Vanity Fair the actor opened up quite a bit. He talked about his divorce, his parents, and the days he stole to survive.
Dwayne Johnson fired his whole management team to reinstate Dany Garcia
Johnson’s career began to grow after The Scorpion King for a while, then faded. He’d been doing what he’d was told was necessary to get Hollywood credibility. Putting as much space as possible between himself and his wrestling background as The Rock. Dropping weight and mass to seem more human, even if something felt amiss in his stomach.
Johnson eventually gathered his CAA agents for a relaunch and informed them that he was fascinated by Will Smith’s and George Clooney’s careers, and he aimed for that.
“Those are the guys who are on top. And I don’t know how, but I feel like if we can all go shoulder to shoulder on this, I feel like there’s a pathway to that kind of success, only different and maybe better or bigger. ”
The wrestler-turned-actor was hoping that his vision would spark a little inspiration within a few individuals present in the room. Unfortunately, none of them believed Johnson, and as a result, he fired all of them. The Rock said recalling that day,
“If I had thought bubbles of everybody in that room at that time,” he reflects, “it was probably ‘What fucking drugs are you on?’ ”
Johnson and his ex-wife Dany Garcia built a new team from scratch and bagged Fast and Furious which rebooted his career. Only good things came out of his appearance in Fast and Furious. The rock became a household name and his popularity grew manifolds in a few years. Even though later he had a very public tiff with Vin Diesel and things got pretty heated, the franchise loved Dwayne Johnson and so did the audience. The actor returned for three more films in the franchise, and his production company was involved in those as well.
Dwayne Johnson’s Company Seven Bucks Production was named after the lowest moment in his life
Seven Bucks Production is founded by Dwayne Johnson and his ex-wife Dany Garcia. The company has produced some of the highest-grossing shows and movies like Baywatch, Jumanji, etc. But the story behind the name of the company is not as flashy as any of the content the company produced.
Johnson opened up to Vanity Fair about two extremely low moments in his life, the second comes much later when he was 22 years old. Johnson had tried his hand at football but it never really took off, so he was cut from Canadian Football League. When the 22-year-old was being driven to his parents, he combed his pockets for money, there was just a five, a one, and some change. He memorized the number, and later he named his production company, Seven Bucks Production.
Source: VanityFair