Hecate is going to be so mad at me for grabbing this!! I’m sorry, girl. In fairness, I ended up covering the situation being referenced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in his Rolling Stone interview. The sh-t went down in 2016, just as The Rock was finishing up his filming on Fast & Furious 8. The Rock threw down a shady blind item about a “candy ass, chicken sh-t” male costar who was behaving unprofessionally. As it turned out, he was talking about Vin Diesel, and what followed was weeks of stories about how Vin Diesel is kind of an unprofessional douche and Boy Drama and all of that. The Rock talks about all of that in his new Rolling Stone interview and more – you can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
He’s not going to play a “struggle” for an Oscar: “No one’s going to see me play a borderline psychopath suffering from depression. I have friends I admire, Oscar winners, who approach our craft with the idea of ‘Sometimes it comes out a little darker, and nobody will see it, but it’s for me.’ Great. But I have other things I can do for me. I’m gonna take care of you, the audience. You pay your hard-earned money – I don’t need to bring my dark sh-t to you. Maybe a little – but if it’s in there, we’re gonna overcome it, and we’re gonna overcome it together.”
How he and Vin Diesel didn’t have any scenes together: “That is correct. We were not in any scenes together.”
The beef was a disagreement about professionalism. “Vin and I had a few discussions, including an important face-to-face in my trailer. And what I came to realize is that we have a fundamental difference in philosophies on how we approach moviemaking and collaborating. It took me some time, but I’m grateful for that clarity. Whether we work together again or not.”
Whether he’ll do the ninth Fast & Furious film: “I’m not quite sure. Right now I’m concentrating on making the spinoff as good as it can be” – Hobbs and Shaw, co-starring Jason Statham, due next year. “But I wish him all the best, and I harbor no ill will there, just because of the clarity we have.” He considers this, then lets out a big, sly laugh. “Actually, you can erase that last part about ‘no ill will.’ We’ll just keep it with the clarity.”
His support of March For Our Lives: His daughter Simone goes to school just half an hour away [from Stoneman Douglas]. “She was absolutely terrified,” he says. “A lot of her friends’ friends died. It’s heartbreaking. They’re still going through it.” I ask him what he thinks we should do. “You gotta do something, right? I don’t think giving teachers guns is the answer, because then we’re just bringing more guns into school. I don’t know, man. I don’t have the answers. But we’ve gotta keep our kids safe.” I mention how moving it’s been to see kids leading the way. “Incredibly moving,” he says. “And powerful and emotional. But like with anything, we’ve gotta have people who will meet them in the middle. It’s frustrating. We’ve gotta see better leadership.”
On the NFL & kneeling during the anthem: Johnson (who says if he were in the league, he “would either have knelt or raised my fist in solidarity”) says that what those protests were about – namely, African-Americans being killed by police – was misunderstood. “I felt like our president’s responses were being dictated by the noise, and not the actual problem,” he says. At their core, he adds, the protests were “a cry for help: ‘As one human being to another, we’re having this issue that’s affecting our country and our little kids, and I need your help.’ And I think when human beings are in jeopardy, and they ask for help, good-quality human beings, whether locally or at the highest level of office, they help.”
He hates bullies like Donald Trump: If you mock a disabled person or assault a woman, “you’re gone… You’re done. I don’t have friends like that, nor is it anywhere in our business.” That kind of behavior, he says, “is why I didn’t vote for him.”
On presidential elections: Johnson says he voted for Obama twice, but he didn’t vote in 2016. “At the time, I just felt like it was either vote for the [candidate] I thought would make a better president than the other, even though I would rather have someone else, or not vote at all. I wrestled back and forth with it. We were on the set of Jumanji in Hawaii, and it really was like calling on the gods. Give me the answer. Ultimately, it was [to not vote].” But it sounds like he may be having second thoughts. “The next elections, in 2020, I think I’ll be a little bit more vocal in who I support,” he says.
He talks more about the idea that he could or should run for president, and it basically sounds like he’s honestly thought about it and considered it, but that he truly believes that after Trump, we need honest-to-God politicians and civil servants and legislators who take the job seriously and don’t treat everything like a circus. Basically, that part of the conversation has convinced me that he’d make a better president than nearly everyone else. As for what he says about Vin… it’s still shady. It’s still interesting.
Cover courtesy of Rolling Stone, additional photos by WENN.
I actually thought they were the same person… 🙂
Many hours later, I’m chiming in to say the same thing.
…there is nothing unusual about this beef between 2 huge egos…but I love Vin movies the most…
We wouldn’t have even known about it if Dwayne didn’t open his mouth. I like him a lot, I knew him very personally for a couple of years. But let it go dude.
You notice how Vin never went public or said anything public. Crap on him all you want but at least Vin kept their feud to himself.
Vin deserved to be called out. His poor professional work ethic effects the little people. They can’t necessarily stand up to dirtbag actors because a crew person or whoever can get fired for complaining about the big talent. Dwayne called him out because he didn’t want to be a bystander. He wanted change and he had the means to effect it.
But he didn’t really effect anything. He just sounds petty AF now.
“He just sounds petty AF now”
No he really doesn’t, particularly since he’s in the right. As far as Diesel not saying anything, what can he say? He IS a jerk who sulks in his trailer and shows up late. I suppose fans who buy the “we’re family” nonsense (although that is PR genius) might be upset and think it’s petty. However I imagine the underline crew who have to work overtime away from their families due to Diesel’s poor professionalism appreciate the voice.
https://nypost.com/2017/04/08/inside-the-rock-and-vin-diesels-furious-feud/
I think perhaps Paul Walker was the glue that held this group together as family because he got along with everyone. And looking back on it before he passed away, he was always photographed at events or just hanging out with each of the others, smiling and hugging. Everyone seemed to love him. It wasn’t until the film after Paul died that the Rock started commenting on someone’s diva attitude on the set.
At this point he should’ve let this die. You said you had a talk and parted ways. Now you’re bringing it back up again. It’s eye roll inducing
Anyone else seen the gross interview of Vin by Carol Moreira? I firmly believe after seeing it that he is a gross creepy douche.
With the kind of career he built for himself I’ll believe he is a professional and hard-working man for sure. And I’ll also believe that the problem is Vin Diesel for sure.
I feel like you need to really, really piss of Dwayne to have him talking this openly about the beef though. He’s always so positive and looking for solutions – for him to burn bridges this way it has to have been one hell of a conflict.
Love his thoughts on March for our lives and Black Lives Matter. Empathy. What a beautiful thing.
I have to say that I was (pleasantly) surprised by his response on BLM and taking a knee. I know that his father is/was black but I don’t know how he identifies, I’ve not heard him comment on issues of race, and had read that he is Republican.
It’s all good except for the not voting. But if he gets visible and vocal, good. Start this year, don’t wait for 2020.
I honestly am ok with how he talked about the not voting? He’s obviously a Republican. With the way your system is set up you would be very much voting against your principles if you switched parties.
So good that he didn’t just vote along party lines despite not liking the candidate. He stuck to his principles.
I also have a feeling that he’s regretting that choice now.
People who don’t vote and then bitch about the winner pee me right off. Go away from the politics Dwayne, don’t even consider it dude.
He’s a Republican, so it’s very likely he wouldn’t have voted Democratic anyway. I think he thought he was voicing his opinion by not voting rather than just blindly voting for the “Republican” candidate.
Ignorance/Cynicism warning: I’m not very knowledgeable about elections and the electoral college process, but I kind of feel that my vote doesn’t even matter. It’s not like the person with the majority of votes wins. I mean, I guess it does matter, but only sometimes. Only if I live in a certain area and the people in my voting area vote like me, right?
A lot of people felt like he did. I too sometimes feel super discouraged and like my vote doesn’t matter. I vote anyway but I often don’t feel very good about it, at least things on a national level. Local elections and state ballots are a bit different, but the presidential elections are such a shit show that it’s easy to fall into defeatist thinking.
At least he was honest about it. No, it’s not commendable but it’s relatable and I’d rather have a guy who is honest about his actions and has given things some thought than someone who will spit out the “right answer” regardless of what he actually did.
All my republicans friends either burned their voter cards after the election and/or voted for Clinton. But they voted. The R by your name isn’t a barrier to voting for someone else. If you don’t vote I don’t want to hear it
It must be awesome to not vote when you know you don’t have to worry about the outcome of the worst person in the world winning. I guess he at least seems to have realized that was a mistake.
Eh, this presidency is affecting us all though, isn’t it?
Right? Especially not voting down-ballot for state and local stuff. Like, great, you are so rich and privileged that it doesn’t matter to you at all what laws get passed around you, and you can’t be arsed to worry about other people it might affect. Cute.
I liked his comments about March for lives and BLM although I wished he would have been more vocal about gun control in the former.
I think it is very honest of him to confess he did not vote, he could have just kept that to himself and he has obviously learned from it and does not give you the bs explanation ‘i was trying to shake up the system’.
I’ve heard enough credible stories about Vin Diesel over the years to be solidly, 100% Team Rock without knowing a single other detail. They both got to be huge stars but Vin made the mistake of thinking that made him “important” (Hahahahahahahahahaha!!). Johnson seems waaaaay smarter.
I know people are going to jump on the “not voting” thing but it’s clear he realizes it was a mistake. I’m not going to get that worked up, I’d still like a word with the huge number of white women who voted for Trump. 😒
I’m not American. But the nasty horrible comments made by people on this site ( I was a lurker) about people who supported Bernie or chose to not vote was shocking to me.
Blame the white men and women who voted for Trump. Clinton was not a good candidate. The Democrats dropped the ball on that one. Alot of black american people I’ve spoken with still remember the policies implemented by Bill that unfairly and routinely targeted black men and boys. The industrial prison complex flourished under his presidency. And Hilary shifts on positions due to political convenience. She’s in the war business. Trump was elected because by alot of angry white people ( some hardcore Evangelicals and elite filthy rich grubs). America needs to deal with the race issue once and for all otherwise it’ll continue to be super polarized. Both the Republicans and Democrats benefit from the deep divide. Its in their interests to not solve it.
I don’t vote based on a party I vote based on the platform and candidate. Party politics is a huge hinderence to democracy.
Keeps the ball between two parties.
You may not be American but you 100% understand what happened with Clinton. Plenty of us remembered her disastrous decisions to interfere in foreign countries, like Honduras that lead to the death of Berta Caceres. It made her an unappealing candidate. I voted for her out of sheer fear, something I said I wouldn’t do but as a brown person in America I was afraid what Trump wining would do for his already despicable base. And I wasn’t wrong.
Cool! You’ve spoken with a lot of “Black American People” whilst you are not even American. Please be less condescending.
Some facts:
1) Bernie VOTED for said Crime Bill you’re touting. Hillary was not the President when it was passed. She may have “Supported” it but whose vote counted more? The First Lady, or a Senator in the United States Congress? And NO it wasn’t because of the Violence Against Women’s Act that Sanders voted for. He voted for an earlier version that didn’t even include it. So why is a white dude who voted for it, who had a legit hand in seeing it passed not held responsible for the failings of the bill? I’ll wait for your answer.
2) One of my biggest pet-peeves are non-African Americans touting the “many” African Americans they’ve talked too. 10/10, I know and talk to more African Americans than you. Does that mean my opinion by default becomes more valid than yours? Would it help if I pointed out that 75% of Black people, 80-85% of Black women voted for Hillary in the Democratic Primaries? That they chose HER over Bernie by a 50 point margin? Nope. It’s not cause he was “unknown”. Well into the California and New Jersey, Washington D.C. Democratic Primaries, the ratios stayed the same. D.C. was the last Primary.
And please, please don’t say it was because we were limited or “didn’t know him” or insult our critical thinking. As I said, well towards the end, he made little headway. We can’t be dumb by voting for the “establishment” then be the only people smart enough to not fall for propaganda and vote, almost unanimously against such a horrible man like Trump while 2 out of 3 white men and 1 out of 2 white women fell for the con. Black women vote more consistently and more often than any other demographic. We know what we’re doing.
With EVERYTHING that has come out about the weaponization of fake news, Russian intervention, Voter Suppression in the Black community, the rise of White Supremacy you’re STILL on the “She was a bad candidate” tip. She lost with much less of a margin than Kerry, got more votes ratio wise than Gore.
We lost because of 70,000 votes in three states. Hardly insurmountable. 94% of Black women voted for Hillary. 53% of White women voted for Trump. If she was a horrible candidate, what was Trump? A good one? It’s patently clear that traits like honestly, trustworthiness, and anti-corruption mean jack shit to many voters as he’s now the President. So please. Next time, keep “Black people” out of your mouth.
Rumi you spoke nothing but the truth. Problem with the US is that we as a people cannot heal and progress until we acknowledge on every level the messed up nature and history of our past. Both sides of the political coin benefit from the division and both sides of the political coin have done things that I do not agree with. Hillary was a horrible candidate and it was pure laziness of the Democratic Party to offer her as a choice, I mean Burnie wasn’t great either, but serious changes need to happen on both sides.
Not to mention the DNC chair getting caught in her lies. I love this comment. The hive is coming strong. They don’t like it when you give a different opinion.
If you aren’t American, its really hard to understand how entrenched we are in a two party system, and how the logistics of the Electoral College keep us that way. The structure of our whole system of democracy has to be overhauled before a third party option is possible. The time for Americans to go hard for a third party candidate is during primary season. But casting a presidential vote for one is the equivalent of setting your ballot on fire.
I was a huge Bernie supporter. And I was mad as hell at the DNC for the bs they pulled. I have no love for Clinton. I will continue to register as independent and vote liberal in smaller races. But at the end of the day I sucked it up and voted for her because I am queer and the amount of damage being done to my community by this presidency is not worth the trade off of “sending the DNC a message” or whatever protest voters thought they were accomplishing. I imagine many other minority groups feel the same. And that is why a lot of criticism is leveled at white male protest voters. You have to have a certain amount of privilege to even come at it from that mindset.
EbonyS: awesome post. I’m not American but I’m a huge political science nerd who was screaming myself hoarse about everything you mentioned in the lead-up to the election.
Being from a country with compulsory voting (which I highly recommend!), it drives me absolutely nuts when people don’t understand the impact that not voting (or voting for a 3rd party candidate) had on the outcome of the 2016 US election.
“It took me some time, but I’m grateful for that clarity.”
I’m going to keep that. Ooh, that’s cold and I like it.
I LOVE this man.
The Rock reminds me of my Dad so much. My Dad very much believes in doing the right thing and being a good person. Sometimes they encase themselves in it so hard they believe themselves worthy of some very judgemental opinions. Still very well meaning. Oh and my Dad is a chatterbox too.
That said, I do loathe Vin very instinctively.
The Oscar comment… Baby, you don’t have the range.
“But I wish him all the best, and I harbor no ill will there”
Yeah because you got a spin off and without the Rock or Paul Walker, Vin has no more FF movies
Is anyone else terrified that someone I like and admire as much as him will have some huge downfall? Please, please, please don’t let this happen, Universe!!
Yeah I totally understand where you’re coming from. I’m a huge Rock fan and I’d be so shocked and upset if anything truly negative came out about him. I feel like he’s one of the good guys. If that was all fake I’d be so upset.
I really like this interview it shows me that he’s listening to his daughter and community instead of just focusing on his thoughts and feeling. I know he’s a republican but glad to hear he also has common sense like other republican I know personally (they all either voted for Hillary or didn’t vote.) Wonderful interview!
Also I almost didn’t vote ( I was a huge Bernie supporter and he wasn’t going to win and I was super mad about that lol but in the end I did vote for Hillary just to stick it to Trump.)