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Dwayne “The Rock Jophnson is featured in the Sun-Sentinel’s publication magazine City & Shore June/July 2008 issue. Here The Rock has a interview with City & Shore:

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s rise from the wrestling mat to the red carpet.

By Deborah Wilker

He’s had more nicknames than P. Diddy and about as many careers. Not that it matters. Hollywood can smell what The Rock is cooking, and lately it’s money – lots of it.

After careers in football and pro wrestling and with hit-and-miss turns in both commercial and offbeat films, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson – (aka, The Rock, Rocky Maiva, Flex Cavana, The Brahma Bull, need we go on?) – had spent much of the last seven years inching up the Hollywood food-chain with steadfast perseverance.

But when his modest 2007 Disney comedy The Game Plan earned more than $130 million, and another $40 million more recently in DVD rentals and sales, Johnson suddenly found himself in entirely different territory.

No sooner had he sorted through an all-new stack of scripts and offers, than an invitation to the showbiz Super Bowl landed on his desk.

“It was a surreal moment,” he says of the limo ride that brought him to The Academy Awards on Feb. 24. “You’re in a line of cars, all getting ready to pull up. You have to wait your turn, so you have a lot of time to think. I remember I was just incredibly grateful.”

A few weeks later, speaking from the set of his next Disney epic, Race To Witch Mountain, he’s had additional time to reflect, and says he can still just barely believe he wandered the red carpet with the likes of George Clooney and Daniel Day-Lewis, “people I’d admired for years, but never met until now.”

Of course it works no other way in L.A. Deliver the box office – particularly when your film was a bargain to make and exceeds expectations – and the world is yours.

“Every actor I think dreams of some day going to The Oscars – whether you’re presenting, nominated or certainly winning,” he says. “It’s exhilarating. But when I graduated from the University of Miami in 1995, presenting an Academy Award was not the first goal that I had in mind.”

For a troubled kid who had racked up nine arrests before he was 17, the fact that he even made it to UM at all – let alone the multiplex – is something of a miracle. “I had the help of some great teachers when I first started to turn my life around,” he says.

After college the initial goal was pro football, but the NFL did not call. He joined the Canadian Football League, but the same nagging injuries that had sidelined him at UM (he was ultimately Warren Sapp’s back-up), led to his being cut from the Calgary Stampede within weeks of his arrival.

Johnson then followed his father and grandfather into the family business – professional wrestling – where he quickly became a breakout star, and just a few years later hitched a ride to mainstream entertainment.

After a surprisingly assured turn hosting Saturday Night Live and a small role in 2001’s The Mummy Returns, Universal executives gifted him with his own slice of The Mummy franchise – the title role in 2002’s The Scorpion King.

Just recently he helped Universal Studios Florida in Orlando cut the opening-day ribbon on a new thrill attraction “Disaster! A Major Motion Picture Ride,” which was created entirely around Johnson’s action hero personae.

Still, he hesitates to box himself into that corner and continues to play up his looks, likeability, even his singing voice, with roles against type. In 2005 he earned good reviews as a gay bodyguard in the Get Shorty sequel, Be Cool. And he’ll resurface June 20 in the theatrical remake of the classic ‘60s TV comedy Get Smart, opposite Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway.
Though he’s on location more and more these days, Johnson continues to base himself and extended family from the Fort Lauderdale area, and give generously to local causes, primarily charities for children. Free time is spent fresh-water fishing, working out with his longtime personal trainer, and “just relaxing” at home with family.

With four more movies either underway or in production – one of which is a comedy, Tooth Fairy, in which he’ll dress up and wave a magic wand – his Hollywood plate is about as varied as it gets.

His business partner in all this moneymaking continues to be soon-to-be ex-wife Dany Garcia, a financial executive whom he met at UM and was separated from last year.

The two continue to live nearby one another and are raising their six-year-old daughter together. In 2006 they donated $2 million to the University of Miami, followed by another $1 million last year to help renovate the school’s football facilities – the largest donation ever to the athletic department by a former student athlete. The Hurricanes’ new locker room will be named after him.

“Being gracious with your success and understanding your losses – I attribute so much of that to my time at the University of Miami, and the coaches and many professors,” he says. “The right college can change your life.”

So can the right movie. Still, Dwayne Johnson (as he will be known on movie screens from this point on) is well aware of the fragile relationship between fans and entertainers. We asked him how he intends to keep it all going, how he stays in such fantastic shape – and the secret to working with your ex-wife without driving each other crazy.

City & Shore: You just turned 36, but you appear to be in better shape than ever. Were those really your biceps in The Game Plan? No computer enhancement?
Dwayne Johnson: It was me. I train almost every day. When we’re shooting, no matter where we are, we’ll arrange for gyms to open up early so I can get in, even at 4 a.m. if I have to.

C&S: What’s a typical work-out?
DJ: It’s about an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half and always consists of a variety of different things. We do at least 20-30 minutes of cardio; strength and resistance, specific machines, free weights and a great deal of core exercises.

C&S: Do you work out as hard as you did when you were 20?
DJ: I actually train harder now. Before, I had to do it for 10 years of football. And particularly being at the University of Miami – in such a high-profile program – there’s a lot of pressure on the athletes.

Now my training is a very intense, focused regimen, but more importantly than that, it’s my sanctuary. It’s a way for me to get away from all the craziness that life provides. I put my iPod on and I escape in my own world.

C&S: But it’s a ‘craziness’ you actively courted for many years, yes?
DJ: You’re right, I did. When I got cut from the CFL in 1996 I had so little [money], I had to call my dad to come and pick me up. We drove all the way back from Canada that night. And I had two thoughts foremost in my mind: I knew I needed to have more than $7 in my pocket and that this world was gonna hear from me one way or another.

I wasn’t quite sure how, when or what path I would take. But I knew it.

C&S: You’ve told that story often about finding just $7 in your pocket, and how it became a pivotal moment, inspiring your future plans.
DJ: It was and I still have it framed in my office – the original $5 bill and two ones. That night, I just knew it was time to close the football chapter, to open up a new chapter in my life and train to become a professional wrestler. I’ll never forget it. I know it was the impetus and motivation.

C&S: Looking back on the late ’90s during your time as a WWE superstar, can you believe that was actually you?
DJ: [Laughing] You know, I loved it at that time and still do love the showmanship of professional wrestling, particularly the performance aspect of it.

C&S: But you’ve just about stopped using your most famous wrestling name, The Rock, in favor of your real name, Dwayne Johnson. Is this an attempt to distance yourself from that period of your life, the wackiness that goes along with pro wrestling?
DJ: Not at all. The Rock was a name and a character I created when I was wrestling and when I made the transition into movies with The Mummy Returns it made sense that I carry that moniker, because that’s how people knew me.
I knew eventually I was gonna be Dwayne Johnson. My hope back then was that the change would happen organically, over time. And I’m pleased to see that it has.

C&S: So you’ve never thrown a temper tantrum in your manager’s office, demanding to be billed only as Dwayne and never again as The Rock?
DJ: [Laughing] I never wanted to make an issue out of the name. I’m aware that The Rock is my nickname; it will always be my nickname. It’s a pretty damn cool nickname.

But I’m also aware that there’s a whole generation of kids who have no idea at all what I used to do or who The Rock even is. So the people who were around 10 years ago and knew me as The Rock and refer to me as that – that’s cool too.

C&S: Your newer, younger fans seem to find you endlessly amusing. After The Game Plan they even nominated you for what is now arguably the entertainment industry’s second most prestigious honor, a Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Award.
DJ: Life is so unpredictable – it’ll take you in so many different directions. But you know I think it’s that I really love working with kids and they can tell.

When I was younger I had some great professors and coaches who really made a difference in my life, who cared about me – and knew I wasn’t a lost cause. And now I feel as adults we all shoulder that responsibility to all of our children, me to your kids, and you to mine.

C&S: When you encounter a child or young adult who is possibly at risk, or reminds you of yourself when you were struggling, what sort of wisdom do you try to share?
DJ: Kids really need to understand that there is value in hard work. Hard work pays! Set a goal, clear a path and go after what you want.

I always knew there were never any guarantees, I just knew what I had to do.

C&S: You’ve gone to great lengths to keep your daughter’s world as carefree and as unchanged as possible during this difficult time in your marriage.
DJ: Even though separation and eventual divorce isn’t what we signed up for originally, Dany and I wanted to make sure that the transition for Simone was as seamless as it possibly could be, and that we maintained the loving environment that she’s always had.

C&S: You have said you are intent on continuing a close friendship with Dany. That can’t always be easy or simple.
DJ: Is it difficult? You bet. It’s difficult. It’s difficult on a daily basis. But we’ve found solace in the friendship that we have. And I am really grateful. If at all possible I believe ex’s should remain friends, especially if you have children.

I know everybody’s situation is different. Sometimes things happen that people – partners – just can’t forget. Nor do they want to forget. Nor should they. I understand that. But this is the mother of my child. This is the woman who I fell in love with and who I love deeply to this day.
And more importantly, it takes SO much more energy to NOT be friends!

C&S: Friendships are one thing. But you guys have remained in business together. What’s the secret?
DJ: I don’t think there is one. There are no magic cures in life. Just treat people the way you want to be treated.