Dwayne Johnson explains his Hollywood jump from WWE: ‘Got bit by the acting bug’
Over two decades ago, Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, switched gears from a glorious WWE career to Hollywood. Starting his career in ‘The Mummy Returns’, Johnson soon found success and started appearing in more famous projects. Currently, one of the highest-paid actors in the industry, Johnson recently opened up about his jump from wrestling to Hollywood while speaking at the THR Actor Roundtable.
When asked about his pivot toward acting from a WWE career, Johnson responded and claimed that he wanted to embrace the “challenge.”
“Well, I think it was planned by something more powerful than me, for sure. Destiny, I believe in the universe, but I also wanted to grow, and I wanted to challenge myself.“
“My first acting gig was The Mummy Returns with Brendan Fraser. We were shooting in Morocco in the Sahara Desert, and I was so sick cause I went over there, and I probably ate something I shouldn’t have eaten. So, I caught that thing, and it’s 110°. I’m freezing. I’m wearing a blanket,” Johnson continued.
“Stephen Sommers comes over, the director, ‘Hey, you okay?’ I’m like, ‘yeah, I’m okay. Let’s do it.’ He calls action. We have our scene. And I had never acted before, but he called action. And when he says cut, you know, we hear the ‘Oh, you got bit by the acting bug, the thing that happens.’ When he yelled cut, I went, ‘This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.'”
Since 2001, Johnson has starred in nearly 50 feature films in roles varying across cameos, full-length appearances and animated appearances. His latest venture was the critically acclaimed ‘Smashing Machine’ directed by Benny Safdie, and a brief voice role in Zootopia 2.
Shounak Chakrabarti is an experienced sports journalist with a lifelong passion for athletics and storytelling. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Journalism from the University of Leeds and joined F4WOnline in 2025.
Shounak takes particular interest in soccer, closely following top clubs like Real Madrid and Arsenal. Beyond sports, he enjoys fiction writing, photography, gaming, and cinema.