An Exclusive Interview with Dwayne
Our September issue, on newsstands now, features Dwayne Johnson for the sixth time ever this time as Hercules. The cover feature tells the story of how Dwayne has cemented his legacy by taking every failure in his life and turning it into a victory. But our interview with him was so extensive, that even with 12 pages, there wasn't nearly enough room
pandora jewelry 70% off clearance to fit it all into the magazine. In this bonus Q he goes into greater detail about filming Hercules, the catastrophic injury that nearly derailed the film, his relationship with John Cena, a potential return to WWE, how he believes he compares to Arnold, his thoughts on entering politics, Expendables 4, and much more. Read on as The Rock takes our questions, shines 'em up, and turns 'em sideways. Now we can all say, "FINALLY! The Rock has come back to Muscle Fitness."
Muscle Fitness: When you get the role of Hercules, how did you come to decide on the training program that you used for it? I see you releasing it in bits and pieces, and it all looks very straightforward very old school. I was curious to see because I know that when some guys get cast in a period piece like this, they say, 'Well, he existed in this time before dumbbells and barbells so I should drag sleds around and carry big rocks and almost treat it like the training montage from Rocky IV,' so I'm curious why you decided to go the route you did.
Dwayne "The Rock: Johnson: In getting the role of Hercules, the idea, the strategy was I wanted to hopefully create a look that had never been seen before on screen by any actor.
DJ: Actually, yes. And I mean that with all due respect by the way. When you look at some of the guys in the past, especially the guys who come from bodybuilding backgrounds, athletic backgrounds like Arnold, like Steve Reeves, like Reg Park and certainly like Stallone men who had a bodybuilding history or incorporated bodybuilding workouts, they looked incredible. So I mean that with all due respect to those guys, because a lot of those guys are my friends, like Arnold and Stallone for example.
For the record, that Rocky IV training montage is one of the greatest of all time. When Drago clean and jerked 485 pounds, I took my lanky broke ass right to the Boys Club in Honolulu to train like an animal.
I wanted to create an experienced, grainy, deep muscle that can only come after decades and decades of training hard. And certainly Arnold had put in time when he had done Conan and he set the bar very high with what he did with that character and made it iconic. I felt that the difference was, the role of Hercules came around for me at a great time where everything kind of came together. And
pandora jewelry 70% off clearance what I mean by that is: being 40, having that experienced, aged muscle. Again, that can only come with time.
When you see these guys stepping on the Olympia stage, many of them are into their 40s, when your muscles have matured nicely; you've taken care of them and you've trained properly and trained hard over the years. So it was trying to accomplish that type of body that was grainy, that was vascular, that was survived and had that type of look to it. It required a lot of prep a longer prep than I'm typically used to. We started the prep about 6 8 months about. I knew we'd start shooting in June and we started the prep in November and ran it all the way through.
M I know what you mean. Ronnie Coleman at his eighth Olympia win versus Ronnie at his first Olympia win. They're two totally different people.
DJ: Exactly. So for example, me in 2000 in the WWE when I first made Scorpion King, the body type was different, my conditioning was different, the muscle maturity was different. That was me at 29, compared to today. And now after watching the movie and watching the movie back, I'm happy to say that we accomplished the look that I wanted for Hercules. Whether it's the look that you've never seen before on screen, we can debate all that. Over a good glass of tequila, we could debate all night.
M Right before you start filming, you have the injury sustained in the match with Cena at WrestleMania 29. How did that set you back in terms of your filming schedule?
DJ: Any athlete or any actor who's preparing for a long time to step on a stage or step on a field or step on a movie set, who suffers an injury right before you're getting ready to perform or to execute it is a massive challenge that's thrown your way that you didn't expect. I wound up tearing my rectus tendon from my pelvis I also tore my adductor from my pelvis, then had a triple hernia as well.
The match was scheduled to go approximately 50 minutes and about minute 25, is when I tore my rectus. I asked the referee at that time how much time do we have left, and he said, 'Well we've got about another 25 minutes. Are you okay?' And I said 'Yeah, I'm good.' Which I knew I wasn't, but I knew when I stood up, as long as I could put a little pressure on one leg and kind of move the other one around You know when you lose your rectus tendon that's a tough tendon to lose because you can't push off of it and you don't have a lot of power in it. So I think what happened was because I had to continue another 25 minutes on that. As you know, when something like that happens, all the surrounding muscles start to weaken. I didn't know what the extent of the injury was until the very next day. I flew home to Miami and went to see my doctors at the University of Miami.
M So you elected to rehab instead of doing surgery, which would have put you out for a year.
DJ: I wasn't going to postpone the movie a year, because then what happens is, you lose the great team you assembled from the project. And I got to tell you buddy, everybody we assembled, we had the greatest filmmakers on the planet working on Hercules. They saw its value they saw its potential, they knew that we wanted to make a movie that redefined the iconic legend so we had the best filmmakers, many of them Oscar winners Oscar nominated in all of their departments. And if you push it a year, the likelihood of getting that team back is very slim. So I started my training program right away, which was rehab and doing the best as I could, and a week later there was some swelling in my groin area, kind of near the top of my quad. So there was, what seemed to be almost like half a sausage swelling by my leg, but it was an odd ball like swelling. So I called the doctor and he said he thought it was some coagulating and he said 'Eh, come in.' This is a week before I'm supposed to go to Budapest. So I dropped trou, and he looks and he's like, 'Wow, that's a big hernia.' [Laughs]
So that was on a Friday, so I scheduled the surgery for a Monday. I made the call to the studio and we just pushed the movie by two weeks. It cost exactly two million dollars, and then I had the surgery and we went in there and he actually repaired three hernias. It forced me home for a good four weeks and the final two weeks I went to Budapest. So I had approximately six months of prep that was going incredible. The diet was coming together, the conditioning, the training. I was
pandora charms outlet getting stronger as I was prepping, by the way, getting leaner, getting to the look I wanted, and I was carrying a full wrestling schedule at that time WrestleMania and the two pay per views prior to that and weekly appearances on RAW.
I was running and gunning at a high speed but everything was moving along nicely. Then boom! Two weeks before I was supposed to go to Budapest, the injury happened at 'Mania,' then the emergency hernia surgery, so by the time I stepped on set in Budapest, I'm still working with two torn tendons from the pelvis, and recovering from triple hernia surgery.
There was four weeks that I couldn't do anything, there was no cardio there was no anything that helped me tremendously. By the time I got on set, my body bounced back very quickly. By the time we started shooting I had reached a physical peak that I was very happy with. I actually came into Hercules a bit bigger, fuller, and more vascular. It was one of those injuries that had to happen. I'm not glad it did, but I can appreciate it because it forced me to slow down. I got my adrenals back working and I became more balanced.
M I love that you just put your workouts out there for the fans on social media. There was nothing to buy. You just gave it away. That is really cool.
DJ: Oh thank you man, I mean it's one of those things where, from the beginning, this is why being involved in social media has had such a tremendous impact on me, is deeply connecting me with fans in ways that I never had before. I was connected with fans and I always appreciated the relationship I had with fans, but, through social media, it allowed a deeper connection. So when we're out there and the trailers for Hercules started coming out, probably the biggest "ask" from the fans was, 'What kind of training are you doing?' So I went back, got together with my strength and conditioning coach, and we put those workouts out.
And you know what the best part about those? It's all basic. Basic training. Basic movement. Basic iron. One of the keys that I was telling the fans: With a basic movement, with old school movements, you can never go wrong. But the key is always form. Form is everything. Don't get sloppy with your movements. It's easier to get sloppy with your movements when you want to throw on weight, for people to see how heavy you go. Well, who gives a fuck? Because at the end of the day, if you're using poor form, you're not building muscle, you're not activating your muscle properly, and you're risking injury.
M Considering that you have to go back to Steve Reeves and maybe Reg Park to find the last audience that responded in a positive manner to Hercules, there have been a lot of misses with this character. There was Arnold's Hercules in New York, which is pure comedy at this point, the Lou Ferrigno film in the early 80s that bombed, the Kellan Lutz film earlier this year which bombed as well. Why do you think audiences have not responded positively to Hercules in such a long time and why do you think they will embrace this film?
DJ: It's funny because all these guys are committed and they all want to make a good movie, and they all trained for it. I think the reason why audiences haven't responded to versions of Hercules in the past is because that they felt that it wasn't much different than anything that they've seen or known about from the legend of Hercules.
I know the guys who stepped into that role I know that they were committed to it being a success and committed to pulling off a good performance, but what's going to make our version of Hercules different is it's based off a very cool graphic novel [Hercules, the Thracian Wars] that is darker, it's edgier and what we do that hasn't been done in the past is we debunk the mythology that has followed Hercules. Not to say that we don't pay homage and honor to Greek mythology, we do, but our version of Hercules is more based off of the power of believing in yourself, and the power of faith. What we also do is show the world who Hercules was before he became a legend. We don't completely live in a world of fantasy. And it's the ideology that once you believe in who you are and who you were born to be, it can be very powerful. You don't have to be Hercules. That notion extends to everybody.
M On social media, I see you often talking about your humble beginnings about the eviction, especially. Do you find yourself bringing up those times because you're trying to encourage fans who might be going through similar circumstances? Or does the act of simply remembering those times help keep you grounded as your star continues to explode?
DJ: It's twofold. I always keep those moments that were defining for me in my past and challenged me in my past from getting evicted out of my apartment when I was 14 years old, to being cut from the CFL and only having 7 bucks in my pocket, to bouts with depression I keep moments like that very close to me because it continues to be great motivators for me. I didn't have doors of opportunity. I had cracks, and I would do my best and work my ass off just to get in those cracks. I would fight, bite, bleed, scratch. I would do anything to get in those cracks and today, the doors of opportunity are open. They're bigger. There's doors, there's windows, there's a lot of opportunity. I think keeping those defining moments of my past close to me allows me to operate as if every day in front of me, are just cracks. It helps keep me grounded, and it's a good reminder of how things work, and I never want to go back to that. When I got evicted at 14 years old was the first time that I
pandora charms sale started working out.
M Is that how you always dealt with depression? There was never any medication, you just took it all to the gym?
DJ: There was never any medication. It was getting off my ass and being active and getting out and training. Releasing a lot of blood, sweat and respect that was my medication. I'm a long way from being evicted, but I'll never forget it. I'll never forget the feeling. I'll never
pandora rings canada forget my mom crying and I'll never forget the thought I had: 'Well the only thing I can do is just go build my body,' because the men who were successful that I knew of Stallone, Arnold, Bruce Willis they were men of action.
For many years, I was late to the game. I just started using social media in 2010 or 2011, because I didn't think anybody cared and I thought 'Well, I'm doing my thing, I'm working my ass off other people are working their asses off too,' and I didn't see the value of social media. But then I got into it, and I jumped into it I thought, 'If I'm going to jump into it, let me do it in a way that feels good and authentic to me and not just sharing, 'Hey, look at my fuckin' hamburger I ate today.'
So I just wanted it to have
pandora jewelry 70% off clearance value, so where it's paid off in great dividend, is being able to share that with people. Because we all get knocked on our ass. We all have that 7 bucks moment. It happens to us daily. And it happened to me. And a lot of times, when it does happen to us, unfortunately, sometimes we don't have the capacity to see it through, to stand up through that type of adversity. Sometimes when we get our ass kicked and we're down, sometimes we stay down, and sometimes we get depressed and sometimes we don't know how to handle it, and sometimes we don't know what's going on, and sometimes we feel like it's not worth going on.
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