Last year in the hyperkinetic film Fast Five, Dwayne Johnson growled and grumbled playing the role of a federal agent chasing a pack of auto-bandits in Rio de Janeiro. Johnson, also known as The Rock, is a prime cut of beef that glitters in the Brazilian sun; yet the man holds his character with gravity, zipping through the breakneck action with all scowl and no smile.
Next week, Johnson will switch into his goofy, all-smile mode _ this is something he's been doing since his crossing-over from the sweaty wrestling ring to the Hollywood movie screen. The Rock's first outing in 2012 is Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, an all-out family fun film taking place on what looks like Jules Verne's (and Robert Louis Stevenson's) imaginary lost world full of dwarfed elephants and gigantic bees. Along for this 3D ride are Michael Caine, the legend who also adopts a madcap guise, and Josh Hutcherson as a boy in search of adventure, preferably at the end of the world.
"It's a conscious choice to pick roles that I'm going to enjoy, whether they be action or comedy films," Johnson said in an interview last week during his press tour in Taipei, where Journey 2 opened to the fanfare of Chinese New Year (the film opens in Bangkok on Feb 2). Straddling the two sides of movie personality is a strategy _ one that happens to suit his gentle-giant appearance _ which is likely to nourish the career of this former wrestling superstar who slammed his way into Hollywood's first bill with The Scorpion King exactly 10 years ago.
"I don't think the two are cannibalising each other, because I'm aware ... " Johnson gave a pause, "of my diverse audiences. When I make a movie like Journey 2, my Fast Five audience, who are very intense, know and understand what I'm doing. Then I have the global audience, the families who like to watch me [in family-oriented films].
"The best part of what I do is being able to work in all different genres and continue to go back and forth between them. My goal is to have a diverse career, to take risks and take chances."
A Californian of Polynesian descent, Johnson's wrestling career in the '90s was so spectacular that he won over hordes of fans, young and old, all over the world. His autobiography, The Rock Says, which was published even before he made his Hollywood debut, clinched the top spot on The New York Times best-seller list.
After The Scorpion King, Johnson progressed from the predictably muscular slab to an actor who seeks to break away from his typecast, with varying results. He played a tough-talking bounty hunter in The Rundown; a quarterback who has to rebond with his young daughter in the comedy The Game Plan; a tooth fairy with wings and winks and all in Tooth Fairy; and an ex-convict on a bloodied revenge rampage in the ultra-violent Faster.
After the PG-rated joyride of Journey 2, Johnson will appear in the new G.I. Joe film, and later in a drama called Snitch, starring opposite Susan Sarandon. And of course, his face-off with Vin Diesel in Fast Five was so successful that he'll reprise the role in Fast and Furious 6. The 40-year-old will have many busy years ahead of him that's for sure.
"I don't feel like I'm being typecast, no," he said. "I think there are certain qualities and strengths I have that make the studios come to me when they're making different kinds of movies. The possibility is limitless, and I'm open to it. The goal, as I said, is to be diverse."
Johnson said he looks up to action heroes who are ''guys' guy'' ever since his childhood days, including Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen. ''They're old-school guys who're not necessarily action stars, but who do more.'' He didn't mention, however, one strapping predecessor who also juggled fluently between fist-fighting and joke-making: Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator, Kindergarten Cop). Or for the matter, the smaller and faster Jackie Chan.
The idea of switching from a tough guy to prankster almost in every other movie is a workable formula, and in Journey 2, Johnson gets to flex both. In the film, he plays an ex-Navy stepfather who, after getting sucked into the fantasy world with his son, punches a monster lizard, rides a gigantic bee, spears a moray eel and salvages Captain Nemo's Nautilus from the bottom of the ocean (the film is based roughly on Verne's The Mysterious Island, Stevenson's Treasure Island, and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travel).
In a scene that demonstrates Johnson's wide-sweeping appeal and his knack to combine the muscled-man persona with childlike quirks, he shows off _ this will acquire a cult quality soon _ something called ''pec popping'', the twitching of his pecs (under the shirt, thankfully) up and down. Kids will marvel at this, while parents with any sense of humour will find it quite amazing in its ridiculous athleticism. And dads will feel less manly when their kids ask them to imitate Johnson's pectoral move.
In the first Journey film, Brandon Fraser battles strange creatures in his trek to the centre of the Earth. With The Rock now in the lead, the franchise whirrs with a fresh new energy. At heart, this is a family film that relies on special effects, the presence of Johnson as the courageous dad, and Caine as the eccentric grandpa. ''We're not necessarily making a sequel. I think what we're doing is rebooting the franchise,'' says Peyton, a young Canadian director.
''I like adventure films that feel real. Journey 1 had many great things in it but the whole film was on a sound stage. I wanted to get my actor and crew in a location that felt real, and that's why we shot in a real rainforest in Hawaii. You cannot create that on a sound stage, especially in 3D. I hope that will separate us from the first movie. This one will feel realer, there's a bit of grittiness, and even for a family movie it feels a little dangerous. And that reminds me of Indiana Jones and the Spielberg movies from the '80s, the movies I remember as a kid.''
That's possible largely because of Johnson's acting range. Big and beefy action stars are belittled for their acting talent or psychological plumbing _ and despite his shot at dramatic diversity, Johnson may still have to endure that prejudice. Yet for what he does, he does it with flair and sincerity. ''It's a phenomenal experience,'' he said about Journey 2. And if that's a stock phrase the big man says while looking into your eyes, it suddenly becomes real.
A scene from Journey 2 . PHOTO: RON PHILLIPS / COURTESY OF NEW LINE PRODUCTIONS AND WARNER BROS
