Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is currently starring in the biographical sports drama, The Smashing Machine.
In the film, the former WWE superstar, 53, plays MMA fighter Mark Kerr, who Johnson describes as ‘a walking contradiction.’
‘At one time the greatest fighter on the planet, but also kind, gentle, tender, empathetic,’ he said at the Venice Film Festival, according to the AP.
Sadly, the Jumanji star admitted that he was unable to take any inspiration from his own father, wrestling legend Rocky ‘Soulman’ Johnson, for the role.
‘I don’t think my dad was an inspiration in terms of his tenderness,’ he confessed.
Dwayne Johnson made a heartbreaking confession about his childhood while promoting The Smashing Machine at the Venice Film Festival
‘It wasn’t really my dad. He was homeless by the time he was 13, so his capacity for love was very limited and that’s the man that raised me.’
Dwayne and his father weren’t on speaking terms when he passed away in 2020.
They stopped speaking on Christmas Eve 2019 after they got into a ‘massive fight’ on the phone.
Reflecting on his father’s death in an Instagram post earlier this year, Johnson wrote, ‘Man, I just wish that I could hug him one more time and kiss him on the cheek and look him in the eyes and say, “We’re good.”
‘All that other s***? You realize it just doesn’t matter when they’re gone, especially when they’re gone. That s***, whatever you were arguing about, it really doesn’t matter.’
Johnson was about to start shooting Netflix action film Red Notice when he got the call from a family friend informing him that Rocky died, at age 75, in 2020 of a pulmonary embolism caused by deep vein thrombosis at the Florida home he bought him.
Six days later, the Moana 2 actor found himself at a podium delivering his father’s eulogy.
‘I don’t want that for you guys,’ Johnson continued.
The Rock, 53, said that his father’s ‘capacity for love was very limited’
The WWE superstar is pictured with his dad Rocky and mother Ata in 1987
Dwayne’s dad Rocky won the World Tag Team Championship in 1983, along with his partner Tony Atlas, to become the first black champions in WWE history
‘So if you’ve got your old man around, get uncomfortable, and pull him aside and say, “Let’s do our best to kind of squash this.” In the effort of trying, you should reach a new place of love.
‘You start to realize, man, my dad loved me – a limited love with a limited capacity that he could love,’ he added.
‘But even with that limited capacity, he loved me with all he had. I didn’t realize that until much later in life. And once he was gone, I really realized that.’
The Rock didn’t get into specifics on their fight, but he hinted at his father’s past brushes with the law.
‘He taught me hard work and he taught me discipline – those two things, I realize, holy s***, those two anchors in my life have taken me so far,’ Johnson said.
‘Now some of the other s***, [laughing] that’s the stuff I don’t want to do and I learned the hard way. But I thank him for those lessons too. Soulman, happy anniversary! I know you’re up there and thank you the lessons.’
