Entertainment
Dwayne Johnson reveals he had been holding out to play DC superhero Black Adam-James Mottram-Entertainment – Metro
‘He was one of the few superheroes who looked like me.’
Black Adam is The Rock’s first foray into superhero movies (Picture: Warner Bros. Pictures)
It’s past 11pm in the UK – mid-afternoon in LA – when The Rock, aka Dwayne Johnson, rocks up via Zoom to talk Black Adam, the latest superhero venture from the DC Extended Universe. To say he’s excited is a colossal understatement.
‘I just want to say this – Black Adam wasn’t a sequel. It wasn’t an existing intellectual property that everyone was familiar with. All these characters are coming to life for the very first time ever in cinematic history,’ he says. ‘It makes me so proud.’
Johnson, 50, is wearing a pastel-coloured shirt, stretched to ripping point by his enormous frame. If anyone is built to play a superhero, it’s him. Although curiously, this is a first for him, too.
While he’s become one of Hollywood’s highest-ranking stars, with franchises including Fast & Furious and Jumanji, he’s never ventured into the world of Spandex-sporting superheroes before. Perhaps because he was saving himself for Black Adam, a character that has been ‘a part of my DNA and my soul for many, many years’.
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Dwayne Johnson: ‘I was always a DC kid’ (Picture: Greg Doherty/Getty Images)
Long before he acted, or even entered into the world of his former profession of wrestling, the California-born Johnson grew up reading Black Adam comics.
‘I was always a DC kid. I gravitated towards Black Adam because he was one of the very few of the superheroes, supervillains, antiheroes – however you want to categorise him – who had brown skin and looked like me. Plus, he was always a badass!’
‘Bad’ is right. Black Adam isn’t a goody-two-shoes type. After serving 5,000 years in jail for wielding his powers on the world, he’s just been released and is not a happy bunny. Confronting him is the Justice Society of America (JSA), including Hawkman (Aldis Hodge) and Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan). ‘The JSA was the very first superhero group, even before the Justice League,’ says Johnson, staying onbrand by not mentioning rival Marvel outfit, The Avengers.
So how does he relate to the character?
‘Well, aside from flying, I’m able to shoot electricity out of my hand!’ he giggles. ‘I would say “conviction” probably and “passion”. He does have a strong conviction, Black Adam, and he’s a pretty passionate guy about what he believes in.’
Talk to any co-stars about ‘DJ’ (The Rock is yesterday’s nickname, it seems) and they concur.
Pierce Brosnan plays head of the JSA, Doctor Fate (Picture: Frank Masi)
‘Dwayne Johnson is a person that comes around once every millennia,’ says Noah Centineo, who plays JSA’s Atom Smasher. ‘He’s a dedicated creative, a dedicated businessman, a dedicated professional.’
Johnson is all the above. With around 340million followers on Instagram, he co-founded Seven Bucks production company with his ex-wife, Dany Garcia.
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The company birthed the semi-autobiographical sitcom Young Rock, about his early years. Not only that, Johnson has a spin-off clothing lines and his own tequila. Last year, Forbes ranked him fourth in showbiz in terms of earnings, behind Peter Jackson, Bruce Springsteen and Jay-Z. His films have grossed $12.5bn worldwide. But money is ‘not what inspires me,’ he says. ‘I’ve turned down some movies with very big pay-cheques because the material wasn’t that good.’
It’s why he’s pumped about Black Adam, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, with whom he made the hit, Jungle Cruise.
‘He is the perfect director for Black Adam, being a genre director with his past and everything that he’s delivered to audiences,’ says Johnson.
Johnson’s message is clear – move over Batman because the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is about to change’.
Who’s who in Black Adam?
Pierce Brosnan is Doctor Fate
AKA: Kent Nelson. Sorcerer extraordinaire.
The James Bond star has finally stepped into the world of superheroes (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)
Brosnan says: ‘I have wondered for many years if I’d ever get a job in a superhero movie. And I think the timing was perfect for me. Doctor Fate met me at a good time in life with the years… this is a man who sees the future so he sees death.’
Quintessa Swindell is Cyclone
AKA: Maxine Hunkel. Can control the wind.
Quintessa Swindell plays fierce superhero Cyclone (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)
Swindell says: ‘She’s really high energy. A little all over the place. Nervous but also very educated and intellectual. She’s smart, but she’s crafty and artsy in a way. And then when she goes into Cyclone, it’s powerful, direct, fierce.’
Aldis Hodge is Hawkman
AKA: Carter Hall. Flies… like a, well, hawk.
Hawkman has a ‘savage’ side, teases actor Aldis Hodge (Picture: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
Hodge says: ‘I hope I get to play Hawkman for years on end. He’s smooth, he’s smart, he’s an elegant savage. I’ll put it like that because when it comes to [the on-screen] battles, these are some of the craziest battles I’ve seen.’
Noah Centineo is Atom Smasher
AKA: Albert Rothstein. Manipulates his molecular structure.
The actor has switched Netflix romcoms for action (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)
Centineo says: ‘We did a lot of performance capture. Andy [Gollum] Serkis is the grandmaster. I asked my team to see if he could answer some questions. And he did. I’m super-grateful.’
Black Adam is in cinemas from October 21
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