Watching Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s career rise from the most electrifying man in the WWF/E to surviving The Scorpion King and The Tooth Fairy to become a box office draw is exciting because it means that The Rock is our new everyman.
Despite the jokes that no one knows what Dwayne Johnson’s ethnicity is, Johnson has never shied away from embracing his black and Pacific Islander heritage. The fact that he is of a lighter-skinned complexion might confuse some people, but to those of us from those communities, we recognize him as our own.
When that The Hollywood Reporter article lamented the fact that a “star” of Jennifer Lawrence’s caliber could not open a movie, it dismissed Johnson’s success, saying, “Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s riding a wave, but I’ve yet to be convinced he has the X factor that ensures long-term stardom.”
If you haven’t picked up on Dwayne Johnson’s “X factor” yet, you are delusional. This is the man who left a wrestling career in his prime to make movies like The Rundown and then ended up becoming one of the highest-paid actors, who has plenty of wins and losses under his belt to prove that there is something about him that gets people coming back, no matter if we didn’t rush out to see Baywatch. Sorry, Dwayne.
More importantly, it makes an opportunity for a black/Asian male actor to occupy a multitude of non-stereotypical roles that may seem corny and over the top, but how many Asian actors get to open movies throughout the year that don’t involve martial arts? How many black action stars do we have?
Right now, Rampage, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is heading for a “solid” opening weekend “in the $35 million range”—more than Red Sparrow, which made a “humble $16.9 million.” With Jumanji, Black Panther, and The Fast & Furious franchise managing to make a ton of money overseas, especially in China, while Star Wars has to be pulled after just two weeks, proves that the everyman we send overseas does not have to be a white man or woman.
Like it or not, the half-black, half-Samoan wrestler is the new everyman of the American action films you love, and there is nothing you can do about it. So you better start smelling it.
(via The Hollywood Reporter, image: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
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