Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Feels He Was Pigeonholed In Hollywood Before ‘The Smashing Machine’ Film

Johnson opens up about his latest film.

Venice Film Festival hosted a screening of ‘The Smashing Machine’ starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Johnson plays the role of former wrestler and MMA fighter Mark Kerr.

While at the event, Johnson spoke to journalists (via BBC) and opened up about the role. He shared his thought that he’s been pigeonholed in Hollywood with certain roles. Regarding The Smashing Machine, Johnson does not feel like he’s chasing the box office.

“I’ve been scared to go deep and intense and raw until now, until I had this opportunity to do this… I have wanted this for a long time. When you’re in Hollywood, as we all know, it had become about box office and you chase the box office. And the box office in our business is very loud, it can be very (overwhelming). It can push you into a corner and category — ‘This is your lane, this is what you do, and this is what people want you to be and this is what Hollywood wants you to be.’ And I understood that, and I made those movies and I liked them and they were fun, and some were really good and did well, and some not so good!” he laughed. “But I think what I did realize is I just had this burning desire and this voice that was just saying, what if there’s more? What if I can? Sometimes it’s hard to know what you’re capable of when you’ve been pigeon-holed into something. It’s harder to know, wait, can I do that? I feel like I can. And sometimes it takes people who you love and respect to say, ‘You can.’

I have been very fortunate to have the career I’ve had over the years and make the films that I’ve made. But there was this voice inside of me that said, what if I could do more? The truth is, I looked around a few years ago and started to think, am I living my dream or am I living other people’s dreams? And you come to that recognition and you can either fall in line, go, ‘It’s status quo, things are good,’ or you can go, ‘No, I wanna live my dreams now and do what I want to do, and tap into the things I want to tap into and have a place to put all this stuff that I’ve experienced in the past that I’ve shied away from.'”

At the ‘Smashing Machine’ press conference, Johnson showed off his slimmer look. He was last on WWE programming earlier this year for the John Cena heel turn at WWE Elimination Chamber.

Johnson explained why he felt it was best for him not to be involved in the remainder of Cena’s heel run after the turn.