The Rock almost stepped down from a movie project.
In 2018, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson starred as primatologist Davis Okoye in Rampage, a sci-fi monster film based on the video game of the same name. As revealed in a past interview with Rolling Stone, though, Johnson actually almost quit the film after reviewing the script.
According to Johnson, his main issue lied in the ending of the film, which would have seen George, the silverback gorilla starring opposite him, die. “So the script comes in, and I’m reading it. And at the end of it – George dies! I’m like, ‘No. Did I miss something? George can’t be dead.’ But I go back, and yeah,” Johnson said. “I don’t like a sad ending. Life brings that shit – I don’t want it in my movies. When the credits roll, I want to feel great.”
Unhappy with the implications of the film’s sad conclusion, Johnson met with film producers, during which they expressed their intention for George’s on-screen death to be sacrificial and world-saving. Still, Johnson maintained his stance on changing the film’s end, so much so that he played a rare trick from his sleeve to sway producers.
“My problem is I have a relationship with an audience around the world,” Johnson said. “For years I’ve built a trust with them that they’re gonna come to my movies and feel good. So every once in a while, you have to drop this card, which is: You’re gonna have to find another actor. We need to figure something out, otherwise I’m not gonna do the movie.”
The back-and-forth discussions ultimately resulted in a compromise where George would recover from his wounds in the movie and Johnson would stay aboard as Davis Okoye. “That’s Dwayne’s genius,” said producer Beau Flynn. “And watching it with an audience, he was 100 percent right.”
RELATED: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Named One Of The Greatest Self-Made Americans
