he
Rock, aka Dwayne Johnson, teams up with Seann
William Scott in the action-adventure comedy The
Rundown. The wrestler-turned-actor stars as Beck, a retrieval
expert sent to the Amazon to find the son of an underworld kingpin. Beck
discovers his quarry is searching for a priceless artifact and the two
must join forces to fight the evil head (Christopher
Walken) of a gold-mining corporation after the same treasure.Rock: I finally play a character in a contemporary role with contemporary dialogue. I was waiting for an opportunity like this. And again, the chance to work with really good actors and of course Christopher Walken.
You obviously have a great sense of humor about yourself. Does this movie give you a chance to display more of that?
Rock: Absolutely. It gave me a chance to play a complicated character, but yet at the same time, funny enough to be interesting and yet not so broadly funny that it takes you out of the spirit of the movie. So, yeah. And with the first two movies, The Mummy Returns, I don't even count because my part was so small, but with The Scorpion King I didn't have that opportunity a lot. I mean I was able to find a little bit of humor in it.
What's the best description of this
character you're playing in The Rundown?
Rock: He's complex and interesting and
appealingly funny. He takes what he does seriously. I think we've done a
great job. Peter's (Berg, director) has done a fantastic job, because I
needed that help and I just wanted to make sure of that, especially in
this day and age. Especially when you think well, it's The Rock. Who's The
Rock, you know in terms of action? I just wanted to make sure that he (the
character) had flaws and I certainly do. I really like it. I like
the old school action heroes, like for example Steve McQueen, Clint
Eastwood, and these guys were
actually before my time, you know?
What sorts of expectations did you have with Seann William Scott before
you decided to do the film?
Rock: We had gone through everybody
from Chris Tucker,
to Ben Stiller,
and all these names thrown out there and then I'll never forget, at the
end of the meeting one of the executives said, "What about Seann
William Scott?" At that time I didn't know who he was. I said,
"Who is Seann William Scott?" They said, "Stifler,
from American Pie"
and I said, "Oh, that's one of my favorite movies. I love it. I
think he's great. Very funny." So, once we kind of all agreed
on that I really wanted to spend a lot of time with Seann seeing as how we
were going to do this funny movie and just to make sure that we got along
and we clicked just like that. At the end of the day honestly, I've gained
a friend out of this in Seann.
Off screen you have a very
down-to-earth quality about you. How hard is it for you, given your
success and your stardom to keep it as real as you do?
Rock: I don't think it's hard at all
to be honest with you. You should never try to be something you're not
because you are still only what you are, before success, before fame,
before everything I'm blessed with. Six years ago I was still just as poor
as this dirt… I've come a long way since then. So really what I've
found, is stardom hasn't changed for me but changed people around me and
what they expect. Not the audience. Not my fans. They're very passionate
and loyal. Just people around me. It's changed the people around me, not
me.
Do you know where you'd like to see
yourself in say five years time?
Rock: I will say this. I will continue to
grow. I mean that's one thing that I'm sure of. I would like to continue
to be passionate about what I do, whatever it is and grow as an actor and
grow personally as well.
- Paul Fischer