In most films, Dwayne Johnson plays the broad action hero with cool sayings and a heart of gold. But there are a few performances in his career that definitely go in a completely different direction.
There are stars whose personalities become so popular that they always play the same role in each of their films. One of them is definitely Dwayne Johnson. The ex-wrestling pro with the nickname “The Rock” has developed a fixed character type and plays this in almost every film, be it an adventure film like “Jumanji”, a disaster film like “San Andreas” or a superhero epic like “Black Adam”. Even in the popular “Fast & Furious” series, Dwayne Johnson plays exactly the role he somehow always embodies.
But just at the beginning of his acting career he tried other things and Played roles that he probably wouldn’t do anymore – but which are all the more interesting today to look at again.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson meets Miley “Hannah Montana” Cyrus
Disney Channel
You rarely see the WWE wrestler like this: Dwayne Johnson and his cameo in “Hannah Montana”.
In his early days as an actor, Dwayne Johnson made several visits to the Disney Channel. For example, he appears as himself in an episode of the sitcom Hannah Montana – Miley and her friend Lilly pose as stylists to give “The Rock” a blush and lipstick make-up and curl his hair. Her goal: get an embarrassing paparazzi photo of the star this way and sell it for a lot of money. Of course, the whole thing blows up and “The Rock” confronts Hannah Montana.
So much Courage for self-irony is rare and many had great respect at the time that Dwayne Johnson was involved in such roles. In addition to Hannah Montana, he also stopped by (again as himself) for a guest appearance on Wizards of Waverly Place.
“Be Cool” showed a very different side of “The Rock”
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Concorde Home Entertainment
“Be Cool” has long since been forgotten, although “The Rock” has never been as funny as it is here.
As a career changer in acting, you take every role you get with you. Fittingly, Dwayne Johnson had a cameo role in 2005’s Be Cool. There he played one gay bodyguard named Elliot and showed both his comedic talent and his charisma for the first time in a role far outside his comfort zone. The film may have been a flop, but it’s a pity that “The Rock” doesn’t play such roles anymore.
An Ex-Wrestler Becomes a ‘Tooth Fairy on Probation’
20th Century Fox
The wings suit him well: Dwayne Johnson as “Tooth Fairy on Probation”.
Behind the scenes of Fast & Furious, Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson kept bickering. They both have a lot in common in their careers. Vin Diesel tried his hand at being a child protector early in his action hero phase in The Babynator, while Dwayne Johnson did a similar one comedic action role took over and became the “tooth fairy on probation”. Sure: Both just emulated their great role model Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose “kindergarten cop” is unbeatable.
“The Rock” in “Southland Tales”: An ex-movie star in the middle of the apocalypse
Universal Pictures Germany
Dwayne Johnson would have made a good James Bond too, as he shows in “Southland Tales”.
You can’t explain the film “Southland Tales”, you have to see it. The oblique and conscious trashy sci-fi apocalyptic story with extra length follows Dwayne Johnson as an ex-movie star who wakes up with no memory of his previous life in a post-nuclear war world and finds himself at the mercy of various factions. Is “Southland Tales” a comedy, a drama, an action movie, a sci-fi parable? Somehow everything at the same time and yet again weird in an unexpected way.
The various episodes of the film also star cult nerd Kevin Smith, teen icon Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Justin Timberlake, the latter as the scarred-faced soldier.
“What can I say? Hey: I’d love to!” – “The Rock” sings in “Moiana”
The Walt Disney Company
Maui from “Moiana” is not a round that one would immediately assume “The Rock” to be behind.
In German we hear Andreas Bourani, but in the original English it is actually Dwayne Johnson himself who speaks the demigod Maui in the Disney animation masterpiece “Vaiana” – and accordingly also whose musical interlude “Voll Gerne” or “You’re welcome” sings. It’s hard to imagine “The Rock” as a singing Disney character, but everyone can agree that he did a really good job in “Moiana”.
