Dwayne Johnson had one hell of a 2017 [1], and if you thought he had any plans of slowing down this year, think again. The 45-year-old actor is Rolling Stone magazine's April issue cover star, and in the accompanying interview, Dwayne opened up about everything from his family [2] to his feud with Vin Diesel [3] to his potential run for the presidency [4]. The magazine hits stands on April 6, but if you don't want to wait until then, read Dwayne's full interview [5] here.
- On his decades-long battle with depression [7]: "I've had a few bouts of depression, [which] happens to a lot of us. Around 2008, 2009, I was going through a lot of personal sh*t that was really f*cking me up. I was just struggling, man; struggling to figure out what kind of dad am I gonna be, realizing I'd done a piss-poor job of cultivating relationships, and a lot of my friends had fallen by the wayside. I was just scared. Personally, everything was in a very bad and challenging place, and then professionally, I couldn't bet on myself; I wasn't used to that. I'd always felt like I could put in the work and fix the scenario with my own two hands. No one's going to see me play a borderline psychopath suffering from depression. I have friends I admire, Oscar winners, who approach our craft with the idea of 'Sometimes it comes out a little darker and nobody will see it, but it's for me.' Great, but I have other things I can do for me. I'm gonna take care of you, the audience. You pay your hard-earned money — I don't need to bring my dark sh*t to you. Maybe a little, but if it's in there, we're gonna overcome it."
- On whether he's actually running for president [8]: "Look, people are very excited, and it's so flattering that they're excited. I think it's also a function of being very unsatisfied with our current president, but this is a skill set that requires years and years of experience on a local level, on a state level, and then on a national level. I have the utmost respect for our country and that position, and I'm not delusioned in any way to think, 'Oh, absolutely, if [Donald] Trump can do it, I can do it, and I'll see you in 20-whatever, get ready.' Not at all. In a lot of people's minds, what Trump has proved is that anybody can run for president, and in a lot of people's minds, what he's also proved is that not everybody should run for president. What I'm sensing now is that we have to pivot back to people who have a deep-rooted knowledge of American history and politics and experience in policy and how laws get made. I think that pivot has to happen."
- On what he and girlfriend Lauren Hashian plan on naming their new baby [9]: "We're thinking about Tia. It's simple, it's Polynesian-ish, and I feel like she might come out looking like a Tia," Lauren said. "I mean, she could come out any which way, because we're complete opposites."
"It was funny — we were having dinner with Emily Blunt [10], who I'm getting ready to work with [on Disney's Jungle Cruise], and I said, 'What do you think of Tia?'" Dwayne added. "She went, 'No one's gonna f*ck with a Tia Johnson.'"
- On his feud with Fast and Furious costar Vin Diesel: "We were not in any scenes together [in The Fate of the Furious [11]]. Vin and I had a few discussions including an important face-to-face in my trailer. What I came to realize is that we have a fundamental difference in philosophies on how we approach movie-making and collaborating. It took me some time, but I'm grateful for that clarity. Whether we work together again or not. Right now, I'm concentrating on making the [Hobbs and Shaw [12]] spinoff as good as it can be, but I wish him all the best and I harbor no ill will there just because of the clarity we have. Actually, you can erase that last part about no ill will. We'll just keep it with the clarity."