Rundown with the Rock

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

The Rock stars in the action-adventure film "The Rundown," opening today. World Wrestling Entertainment

Few wrestlers have ever been as charismatic. A six-time world wrestling champion, The Rock could get a rise out of the fans merely by cocking his eyebrow, throwing "The People's" elbow and asking one bizarre question:

"Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?"

The answer? Success. Not just in the ring, but well into the mainstream.

Though "Saturday Night Live" and "The Scorpion King" are among Johnson's acting credits, the first as all-out, rock-bottom, smash-hit smell-what-The-Rock-is-Cookin'" look at Johnson's big-screen presence comes today with the opening of the shot-iniHawai'i film, "The Rundown."

Acting and wrestling — one and the same?

"They're different machines," Johnson, 31, told The Advertiser in an telephone interview yesterday while waiting to appear on MTV's Total Request Live in New York. "And both are equally hard to do. Wrestling is basically a TV show, done live, for four hours — a 'reality' show, so to speak. Obviously, a movie is bigger in scope, allows you to share a story, with a lot more depth."

And he's not closing the door to wrestling — yet — as his acting credits expand.

With four films under his belt ("The Rundown" is his third film, following "The Mummy Returns" and "The Scorpion King," but he also has completed a remake of "Walking Tall"), The Rock said his background in athletics (wrestling as well as football at the University of Miami) has made him appreciate and undertake competition. Certainly, the arena is different — the square ring for wrestling, the wide screen for movies — but he grapples with each with equal vigor.

"Competition is always healthy. I do believe that the struggles I've had, the successes I've earned, the transitions I've made, have helped in terms of being committed to what I do," said The Rock. "I'm trying to be 100 per cent focused whenever I do a project. I try not to lose sight."

Because wrestling brought him initial fame, it's still part of his game plan.

"I'll never close that door," he said. "It's a door that allowed many opportunities; and I grew up with it, with family lineage — my mother, my dad, my grandfather. The great thing is, I can always go back. What I liked was the interaction, the immediate gratification, with a live audience — something that I cannot get with films."

Earlier this week during a World Wrestling Entertainment show, Johnson did a live promo for "The Rundown," where he thanked "the guys in the back (the wrestlers) and in particular, WWE owner Vince McMahon, who often plays his evil nemesis, all the while promoting The Rock's acting career.

His loyalty to his past extends to his Hawai'i ties.

"Of course I'm proud of the (Hawai'i) ties. And I miss the aloha spirit when I'm not home. I live both in Los Angeles and Miami, but there's no place like Hawai'i. And yes, I wanted to bring this movie to Hawai'i; Peter Berg (the director) wanted it to be as authentic as possible, so he originally scouted South America, until they were robbed ... after they came back, I told them, 'OK boys, you ready to go to Hawai'i?' and they were."

In the movie, Hawai'i stands in for the Amazon.

The Rock has been a positive role model for the Polynesian community and certainly a proud son of Hawai'i (born on the Mainland, but reared here — attending Hawai'i schools during his troubled teen years). He said he'd love to do more movies here — and will.

Amid a stir of local controversy, The Rock, who's Samoan and African American, has signed on to star in a biography-history on Kamehameha, based on a script still in development by Greg Poirier, a Maui native. It will eventually be shot here.

"The script is fantastic," said The Rock. "Sony/Columbia is diligent about making it respectful and authentic. I'm excited about the project. But it's still a couple of years away. I think it will be my movie, down the line, the way the 'Ali' project was to Will Smith. When the time is right, it will all come together. It's a big passionate acting feat, and a story about Hawai'i that not yet has been told. It's a legacy that has to be properly handled."

The Rock is not the first athlete to transit from brawny figure to big box-office magnet. Arnold Schwarzenegger comes to mind.

So how did Arnold wind up in the opening of "The Rundown"? "We've been friends for years," said The Rock of the jock-turned-politico who's wrestling for the governorship in California. "He's been supportive of me. I've been backing him, too. We had lunch together one day on the set, and Peter (the director) whispered in my ear, 'Should I ask him to be in the movie?' 'Sure, ask him,' I told told, and Arnold was, like (imitating the Arnold accent), 'Yeah, let's do it, let's shoot right now.' Suddenly five minutes later, he's on the set, with 500 extras, saying 'Let's shoot.' "

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, 525-8067 or fax 525-8055.

The Rock's Hawai'i connection

So you have Rock fever? Check out The Rock's local links:

• Family ties: Father Rocky Johnson was a professional wrestler in the 1970s; his maternal grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, also was a grappler; grandmother Leah Maivia was one of the first women in the wrestling promotion business.
• Birthplace: Hayward, Calif., but he grew up in Honolulu.
• Ethnicity: Samoan and African American.
• Local schools: Washington Intermediate, then McKinley High School, but moved to Pennsylvania during his junior year.
• In the hood: Lived on Kaheka Street, near the Daiei store, in the late 1970s.
• Unfavorite pastime: He had a rough adolescence, running afoul of the law a number of times before turning his life around.
• Lord of the rings: The Rock is a six-time World Wrestling Federation (nee World Wrestling Entertainment) champion.
• Best-known feature: Those eyebrows, silly, not the brawn.
• Fashion plate: Lava-lava, the drape-around garment favored by Polynesian men (he wore one at a wrestling press conference last year).
• Fast-fooder: He's known to adore such munchies as manapua, teri beef and teri chicken.
• Hot spots: On various visits, he's dined at Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar, Ruth's Chris Steak House, Auntie Pasto's Kapahulu and La Mariana Sailing Club at Sand Island. He also partied at the Pipeline Café one night.
• Isle films: "The Rundown"(formerly "Helldorado"), opening today, shot in such local environs as Nu'uanu and Waikane; has agreed to appear in a "Kamehameha" bio-pic, but no firm production dates yet.