From The Scorpion King to the Tooth Fairy, Dwayne Johnson has played countless characters in Hollywood — except a superhero. Enter “Black Adam,” Johnson’s newest role, which was well over a decade in the making.
Johnson told “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King he loved DC Comics and Superman as a child, but couldn’t relate to him. It was different with Black Adam.
“When I first saw a ‘Black Adam’ comic book and I saw the cover, he looked intense. He had brown skin, and he was a superhero? I said, ‘That’s my guy. I wanna be him,'” Johnson said.
But a lot of people don’t know who Black Adam is, which he said is one of the reasons he had to fight for the project for nearly 15 years.
“The studio, investors, as you could imagine, they only really wanted to invest in the big IPs; the Justice League, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman. So, I started to feel like Black Adam was being pushed to the back burner,” he said. “I really didn’t have any juice at that time in my career to really push things forward.”
“But I still fought for it, and about ten years ago, the studio came back to me and said, ‘Hey, we know you love Black Adam. But is there any other superheroes in the DC world that you’d be interested in becoming? And I said, ‘No. Thank you, but no. It has to be Black Adam,” said Johnson.
Johnson’s multi-platform company, Seven Bucks Productions, helped launch the “Black Adam” movie, which is now in theaters. The company was co-founded by his ex-wife, Dany Garcia.
He said that the couple’s mutual love and respect for one another have helped them maintain a successful working relationship.
“We can cheer each other on. We had been building a business. Is the business important? And that answer was yes. And I know what we have is rare. But I gotta tell you, it’s rare but it can be done,” Johnson said.
Johnson, who once said he would consider a U.S. presidential run, has since ruled that out because he wants to be a present father to his daughters. And while he said he has a full plate as a dad, husband and Hollywood heavyweight, he still has plans for the future.
“There’s always something to do on the horizon. I love starting things from scratch. I do love building businesses. I love bringing businesses together and I do love creating jobs for people,” he said.
