Tonight at 8p on NBC, Dwayne Johnson is getting his story told in the biositcom Young Rock. The show will focus on life at the age of 10, 15, and 18. Before the show started filming, DJ sat down with each of the actors and explained to them why each three of those years are significant to him.
Adrian Groulx is the first Dwayne Johnson we meet. We will call him Dewey, one of Johnson’s many nicknames. He grew up in Hawaii surrounded by wrestlers. His grandmother (Ana Tuisila) was a huge wrestling promoter. His father (Joseph Lee Anderson) was the wrestler Rocky Johnson. His uncles were wrestlers, as were his parents’ friends. He was the only child among these bigger-than-life men like Andre the Giant. They all helped to raise him, along with his parents.
What advice did Dewey have for Groulx? “I’ve got the kid who’s playing me at 10 years old and that little, innocent boy who just needed guidance but who loved the world I was in,” Dewey said during NBC’s TCA Winter Press Day. “I loved the bad guys of pro wrestlers, of pro wrestling, I love my dad. He was my hero. Never understood that things were actually tougher than they appeared in terms of lifestyle. I never knew. And that’s the blessing that I have with mom and dad, who never, you know, really hit me to what happened, to what was happening.”
Bradley Constant plays Dwayne when he was going through his Tomás stage. By this time in his life, the 15-year-old had lived in 13 states and two countries. All he wanted to do was fit in. Thus, he stole clothes to make himself look rich. Something he and his family were far from at that stage of his life.
What did Tomás tell Constant? “And then now, I’m looking at Bradley at 15 and it’s a kid
who had some anger issues but also thought he was really cool. Clearly had an identity crisis. I didn’t want to be known as Dwayne when I moved from high school to high school. I called myself Thomas. Girls used to call the house and ask for Tomás and my mom would go, ‘I’m sorry. There’s no Tomás here.’ And I would run, ‘No, no, no, no, no. That’s me. That’s me.’ I’d get on the phone, ‘Hey. Yeah, hey, hey. It’s Tomás.’ And she would be like, ‘What are you doing?’
Next up, we meet Uli Latukefu, who is DJ at 18 when he went to our alma mater, the University of Miami. I call him DJ because that is how we knew him at UM. This is the first time DJ is on his own, but his dad is still there to help him out. Although, it might not always feel like help. This was also a time when he grew up and stopped being a punk. Well, a punk who got arrested all the time.
DJ’s advice to Latukefu was, “I remember telling Uli, just remember, I was just so determined to make something of myself. That was so important to me.”
How did the younger versions of him do, according to The Rock? “And, you know, these guys nailed it, so I’m just — it’s so surreal, and I want to give these guys so much credit,” The Rock said. “Never in my wildest dreams, number one, would I have ever had the career that I’ve been lucky enough to have. I’m a lucky SOB to have this career. Never did I ever think I’d be in this position where people are bringing to life people in my life and my loved ones. So, these guys did such a tremendous job.”
How does the show do as a whole? Tonight’s episode combines all four parts of his life into one 30-minute episode. The fourth part is The Rock running for President of the United States in 2032. The 60-year-old will be leading into stories from those times in his life via interviews with former-actor Randall Park and press conferences.
Back to the show. Take tonight’s episode as an introductory one because, in the next two episodes I saw, they focus on two years, one in the past and one in 2032. Those episodes are much stronger. Not that the pilot isn’t. It just has to fit a lot of information in a short period of time.
We all know that DJ and his fanny pack had an interesting life. Now, we get to see it play out every Tuesday at 8p.
