Here's how Dwayne Johnson revived Hollywood career and 'built a corporation' around himself
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has achieved the pinnacle of showbiz success with some smart career decisions in his 22 plus years in Hollywood. Hiring his ex-wife, Dany Garcia, as his full-time manager was one such decision that may have saved Johnson’s acting career from sinking.
Making his debut in 2001 with ‘The Mummy Returns’, Johnson solidified his position with the 2002 fantasy drama ‘The Scorpion King’. However, even though he was there in Hollywood for ten years, his first major financial success came with ‘Fast Five’ of 2011. Next he reinvigorated the franchises of ‘GI Joe: Retaliation’ and appeared in 'Fast & Furious 6’ in 2013. In 2013, he was also named the highest paid actor by Forbes, and since then there has been no looking back. He also became the highest paid actor in 2019 and 2020.
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He has also been an integral part of movies like ‘Baywatch’, ‘The Jungle Cruise’ and different instalments of ‘Jumanji’. However, from achieving moderate success in the first decade of his acting career to being the highest paid actor, Johnson’s smart business decisions have helped him achieve the feat.
In an interview with Marie Claire, Dany Garcia revealed the secrets of Johnson’s success - from being eight times pro-wrestling champion to the highest paid actor of Hollywood.
Hiring his wife Dany Garcia as his agent
In 2008, when Johnson and Garcia were going through a divorce, Johnson made the wise decision of making Garcia his manager. As Garcia explained, "We knew that we were moving into that period of our lives, the closing of a personal relationship. I was already deeply involved with his agents, I was already commenting on scripts. It was a very natural conversation, where he just said to me, 'I would love for you to do this full-time.'”
Elaborating how she counseled ‘The Rock’ into choosing better, Garcia said, “"In any partnership, you have to double down on the talent or the asset. It can never be about, 'You need to change more. You need to get smaller. You need to do this. You need to look like this.' It has to be more of a true belief: 'Who are you and what are you passionate about?' So Dwayne and I had a conversation. He had lost a lot of weight to fit certain parts, and he said, 'I can't do this anymore. I need to be me.' I supported him and said, 'Let's do you. That's all we need to do. Let's make Hollywood make room for you.'"
Garcia was not only a rock solid emotional support for Johnson, she also envisioned making him an enterprise. She said, "From the time Dwayne was playing football at University of Miami, to wrestling in the WWE, to emerging in film, I was always in the background guiding him, giving counsel, and adding a business point of view to all the decisions,” and added further, “That carried over to Dwayne, looking at him as this incredibly talented individual, and saying, 'Now, how do I build a corporation around him? How do I support him? Where is the marketing? Where are our extensions? Who are the partners who can help me duplicate?' It's like at Apple, except the technology is Dwayne Johnson."
Changing the agency
Garcia also highlighted in the same interview how changing agency helped them shape up the dream of making Johnson a megastar. She said, "We were represented by CAA in 2011, and the agent we had at that period of time was not the right match.” The agent advised them against making a social media presence. Johnson, who now boasts a massive 377 million followers on Instagram, made the decision to change the agency.
As Garcia elaborated, “We ended up calling Ari Emmanuel and we went over to William Morris Endeavor. I articulated my desire to create a corporation and enterprise around Johnson through multiple social media channels, and they just put everyone in place, and it was done."
To do less
In an interview to CNBC, Johnson once revealed that his secret to success was to do less. He shared, “I used to have this mentality … that, ‘Well, my plate is full. However, I’m going to make room for [more]’ — and I would find a way to do that.” However, he realized this was doing him no good as he explained, “In many ways, I was forcing a lot of the things throughout the years that caused somewhat of an imbalance."