Luke Hawx talks playing Steve Austin.
Hawx appeared as Austin for six episodes of 'Young Rock' across the second and third seasons of the show in 2022 and 2023. Many of the performances in 'Young Rock' were criticized, with some fans noting that the portrayals were inauthentic and cartoonish.
While chatting with Fightful during WrestleCade weekend, Hawx talked about his role, saying that he got a lot of positive feedback from the people in charge of the show. Hawx also talked about the criticism that he received online.
"I got a lot of positive feedback. Unfortunately on that show, a lot of the characters got a lot of negative heat online. That's to be expected when you're portraying somebody. So my thing was I knew who I was portraying and I wanted to do it justice. It was a family comedy and I was familiar with it, but I didn't want to treat it like a family comedy. I wanted to do justice to Steve Austin's character. I remember before we filmed, I talked to Steve. He called me—Helms had him call me, actually. Shout out, Hurricane Helms."
Hawx went on to detail his short conversation with Steve Austin.
"But no, so Helms told Steve I was playing him. So Steve called me and I was like, ‘Hey, man, I really want to do you justice. Is there anything to stay away from anything? Do you have any tips you can give me?’ His exact words, he goes, ‘Ain't too hard to fuck me up.’ I think it was Rob Van Dam who actually said, ‘Oh, Luke plays a better Steve Austin than Steve Austin.’"
Hawx then continued on and said that he just wanted to do Austin justice and show his range as an actor.
"But no, I just wanted to do Steve Austin justice, man. You know, he's the greatest to ever do it. He's the GOAT and I had that opportunity. It also was an opportunity for me to showcase some range and some acting skills instead of just being the bad guy and coming in and going, ‘I'm gonna kick your ass,’ you know? So it gave me an opportunity to play a character and show range and I just wanted to knock it out and I'm thankful for it. So thank you Seven Bucks Productions. Thank you, Brian Gerwitz."
'Young Rock' was canceled back in 2023.
Fans can check out Fightful's full interview with Luke Hawx in the video linked at the top of this article. After that, check out our other recent interviews by visiting our YouTube channel.
