He’s featured as the absolute ‘Hunk of Hollywood’ in the action movie franchise Fast & Furious 8. Dwayne Johnson’s next is going to premiere on Indian television and he talks about his favourite scenes in the movie, his bond with Jason Statham and how he pulled off one of the most difficult action scenes in this interview. The movie Fast & Furious 8 will be premiered on September 13 at 1 p.m. only on Sony PIX.
What do you think about the fans of the franchise?
The franchise has fans that are incredibly loyal and invested in it. But they are also very cool which again is the best part about what we are able to do as we create these characters and make these movies under the franchise.
Did you have fun on the sets of the movie? Share some incidents
Between me and the writer, Chris Morgan, we had fun coming up with lines for Hobbs, like ‘Daddy’s gotta go to work’, and so many of them and it just goes on. It is literally one of the best times I had filming over my entire career. Out of all my characters that I played, Hobbs is so much fun.
What was it like to work with Jason Statham?
I believe, this movie gave Jason Statham and me great deal of liberty. They are wise cracking bad-ass guys so there were so many lines that I was improvising on with Jason. He has got the best sense of humor. He looks tough and he is tough but I love cracking him up so there is this one line that he didn’t know I was going to say, “ I am going to knock your teeth so far down your throat, you are going to stick a toothbrush up your ass tomorrow to brush ‘em”. I could see his smile start and he is trying to stay in character but ends up laughing hard. That scene is actually in the movie.
What according to you are the great elements of the movie?
We have a strong character like Dominic Toretto and he goes rouge after all these years and what does that mean. You also have Charlize Theron along with the rest of the crew. Also the family of fans who have loved the movies along all these years which has made it a fun, big and an exciting movie with elements of action and next level scale like submarines chasing sequences, cars being remote controlled flying out of building and so much more!
What was your reaction when you heard about the torpedo stunt for the first time?
So there are moments in movies when you have to suspend your disbelief and that’s what we do when we go to movies. When this idea was pitched to me stating that it is something that has never been done before by the character Hobbs and Chris Morgan tells me that I am going to get out and grab on to the door of the vehicle, sliding on the ice going 95 miles an hour and you are going to re-direct a torpedo with your bare hand. Not plural - only one hand. He said that I will have to redirect it to the bad guys’ car and I was to save the day and then he asked me what I thought of the idea. And I said, “I f!@king love it”. Not because the idea was absurd or coolness of it but we knew that this was the moment when the audience were going to go crazy.
