Why Dwayne Johnson is the world’s ‘number one movie star’

CEBU, Philippines — The big stars of “Red Notice” are no stranger to action, having individually carried heavyweight  franchises on their shoulders.

For Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, what sets apart the sequences in this latest caper that stars him alongside Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot is the frothiness amid all the fight scenes and explosions. In fact, this is one action film where nobody dies.

“I think what makes this special is our intention, and we really intended to try our best to raise the bar with our action sequences, which is not easy to do. It’s challenging. It’s difficult because there’s a lot of great action and storytelling out there,” said Johnson at a recent virtual press conference for Asia-Pacific journalists.

“So it was our intention I think that really separates us. But also to try to thread the needle of great action with a little bit of levity. That’s why you’ll see in our movie, as heightened and as an intense our action sequences are, there’s also a lot of great comedy.”

In his third straight film with director Rawson Marshall Thurber (after “Central Intelligence” and “Skyscraper”), Johnson plays the FBI’s top profiler John Hartley who pits wits against Gadot’s The Bishop, the most wanted art thief in the world, and is forced to partner with the world’s greatest art thief Nolan Booth (Reynolds).

The high-flying adventure that ensues takes the trio around the world, across the dance floor, trapped in a secluded prison, into the jungle and, worst of all for them, constantly into each other’s company.

“I think the only thing that is new and different is just he’s grown really tremendously, and you can see that in his writing. You see it in his execution of these movies,” offered Johnson of Thurber.

“I’ve worked with Rawson for three times in a row, and when I knew, for example, that Gal was going to meet with him, there’s a great amount of joy because he is such a good guy, very good at what he does, and he’s almost like a big kid. I know Gal for many years too, so I really felt they would get along nicely.”

Thurber, for his part, had plenty of reason to keep coming back to Johnson. He’s “the world’s number one movie star” for a reason, the filmmaker pointed out.

“On set everybody’s very focused but what I love most about working with Dwayne is that he takes the work seriously, but he doesn’t take himself seriously. When he comes on set, he’s talking to everybody, he’s not locked in and needing to not be bothered. He says hello and thank you to everybody, and he works really hard. It’s always big and great energy when he shows up,” said Thurber.

When the concept was pitched to him, Johnson immedidately loved the idea of the “Wonder Woman” star playing a villain for a change.

“She’s one of my favorite human beings. She’d be amazing in this,” he said of his “Fast & Furious” co-star. “The idea that she plays the most wanted art thief in the world – that automatically is intriguing to me as a movie fan.”

His role of a stalwart agent – who may or may not have a secret or two – also piqued his interest.

“What motivates John Hartley is the apprehension of the bad guy. He is really good at what he does,” Johnson said, according to production notes provided to the press. “Now I feel like if you have followed any part of my career over the years, I would have described a few characters that I have played in this manner. Really good at what they do: tracking people down; apprehending the bad guys and bringing them to justice. And that’s who John Hartley is.”

Now if you’re throwing lines with Reynolds, whom Johnson describes as brilliant at thinking off the cuff, you’ve got to be quick on your feet with the improvs and ad-libs too.

“I personally have a general rule that if I agree to a script page for page, word for word, then you have my word that I’m gonna deliver what’s on the page first until we got it, and then we can play and we can ad-lib,” said Johnson in the film’s press notes.

“The movie that you see is pretty much everything that Rawson had written, but he always gave us room to play, and I love playing and ad-libbing. I came from a world of live performance in the wild world of pro-wrestling. But in particular for Ryan Reynolds, I mean, that is his bread and butter.”

While a lot of scenes stick out for him, Johnson made special mention at having a front row seat to Gadot’s acting prowess.

“One scene in particular – without spoiling it for the audience – there’s a scene at the end where after this long, crazy adventure around the world, we finally see Gal’s character and my character in the middle of the ocean on this beautiful yacht. And the scene starts off with Gal coming out of the ocean. It is a gorgeous, iconic and cinematic history shot.”

Of the film’s ending, Johnson relishes the idea that they were able to surprise viewers who are particularly savvy at predicting plot twists.

“We wanted to make a great movie. I think a lot of times with something like this, the script really will dictate what the set is going to feel like. And so the movie is big, fun, it’s ambitious, with some twists, turns and surprises, and we had a great time,” said Johnson, adding that filming amidst the COVID pandemic also meant they – cast and around a thousand crew members – had to buckle down for what proved to be a challenging production.

After all the hard work, Johnson loves the fact that the film being released on a streaming platform unburdens him of the “pressure of opening box-office weekend.”

Answering a question of how it’s different working with Netflix versus a movie studio, Johnson noted, “I think one of the unique differences is, the marketing rush is a bit different. There’s a little a bit of room and space that you wouldn’t otherwise have. And we have been down that road and we still make those movies that have a big theatrical release and we love it and we go for it. But with Netflix, that’s one of the ways that it’s different.”