Does Hollywood Have it in for the Rock?
Amazon may not like the smell of what the Rock is cooking. A recent article from The Wrap details a litany of production issues for Red One, the upcoming Christmas action movie starring Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson and Chris Evans, and while there’s blame to go around, it paints an unappealing picture of the Rock. Accusations of showing up late (as in three hours late, as a rule, but sometimes as many as eight hours), peeing in a water bottle and making a production assistant dispose of it, forcing his former assistant in as a producer, and violating COVID protocols (which actually makes me like him more) pepper the piece. Supposedly, the Rock’s consistent lateness has caused the movie’s budget to exceed its initial $250 million by “at least $50 million.” The Wrap claims to have multiple sources from Amazon, Seven Bucks (Rock’s production company), and the Red One set that gave them this information. On the other hand, there are also sources who deny it, as does Amazon MGM.
It’s hard to know what to make of this. Some of it fits with rumors of the Rock having a big ego, like the clashes he had with Vin Diesel while making the Fast and Furious movies and his attempt to essentially hijack the DCEU with his Black Adam as the major force opposite Henry Cavill’s Superman. But some of it also appears to be a stretch to make the Rock look bad. For instance, the story about peeing in the water bottle didn’t happen on the set of Red One; that happened when he was filming Red Notice a few years ago. (Is there a reason his direct-to-streaming movies have “red” in their titles?) And this is not insider information; the Rock told the story himself in an interview about his workout habits with Esquire, and sources denied he ever made anyone else dispose of the bottles. The stuff about making his assistant/former brother-in-law a producer is more aggravating than any of that, especially if he’s as inept as he’s being portrayed. (Apparently, he was Henry Cavill’s agent, and he has since been fired, which, considering Henry Cavill’s career trajectory, was probably a smart move on his part.) As for the movie’s budget, that sounds like about 90% of movies made today, regardless of their lead actor’s tardiness.
The bigger question is why this is all coming out now. If the information were limited to what happened on the Red One set, I’d get it, but why bring up stuff from other movies and shows and even Wrestlemania? John Nolte of Breitbart has a theory: he believes this is political retaliation for Rock’s refusal to endorse Joe Biden, as he did in 2020, from a Hollywood that demands conformity. And it kind of fits, doesn’t it? Even the behavior he’s accused of displaying on the Red One set is stuff he’s apparently been doing for years, but only now is anyone calling him on it, particularly in a big exposé from the entertainment media. I also think that the Rock is vulnerable now; he’s not the box office draw he’s been painted as, with his last few movies bombing pretty badly, especially Black Adam. He can do well in a franchise like Jumanji or Fast and Furious (his Hobbs & Shaw spin-off did pretty well, and while it underperformed in terms of the main series, it did better than F9 or Fast X), but his standalone stuff, especially of late, isn’t bringing in moviegoers. That’s probably a big part of why he’s remaking Moana in live-action. If they really do want to make an example of someone, the Rock makes sense.
It could also just be that Hollywood is tired of the Rock. I can’t imagine his DC stunt was appreciated, especially after the movie bombed. He effectively tried to take DC on film away from Walter Hamada and other Warner Bros. executives, and while Hamada was shuffled out the door anyway, I doubt other studios wanted to wait for the Rock to get a big idea and do the same to them. Now, he’s remaking an eight-year-old film and starring in Netflix and Amazon Prime movies (plus another Hobbs solo film). He also, for all his faults – real or imagined – does something Hollywood absolutely hates right now: he’s appreciative of his fans. Rock has an ego, Rock may be extremely difficult to work with, but Rock also wants to show people a good time with his movies, and Tinseltown doesn’t take kindly to that kind of attitude in the modern era. They prefer to lecture people and demand they like it, while the Rock wanted to have a big fight with Superman so that the audience would clap and cheer. I suspect they hate him for that most of all.
