Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Talks 'Black Adam' and Not Running for President (Exclusive)

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is the titular star of “Black Adam," and “Extra’s” Terri Seymour talked with him all about why he was personally connected to the highly anticipated film... and also about his decision not to run for president!

Telling Terri why he has firmly opted out of a 2024 run, Johnson said, “Because the most important role for me is that of being a father to my two biggest reasons why, one’s 6 and one's 4."

He went on to explain, "And I've been saying that I am so moved that we're even having the conversation that 'will you run for president, half of America will already vote for you.' It's insane.”

“At the end of the day," he continued, "we've talked about my first daughter Simone before, I'm so proud of her and the hard work she's putting in, but I also know what it's like to be not there at a critical time... because of my job. And that job as a pro wrestler took me away 250 dates out of the year, a different city every night. I did that for years. It was how I supported my family. I love what I did. I don't regret it. I also wasn't there during these critical times."

“If I were to run and lucky enough, wildly enough, become president, then that goes away — and I don't want that to go away. I want my little girls to have different kinds of stability, I want them to have their daddy in their life, I want the bedtime routines every night, and I want the drop-offs and pick-ups at school, and I want that for them, all that by the way… Now, they're waking me up spraying things on my face and all that so, that's, that's why."

Terri told Johnson that his new movie, “Black Adam,” is “amazing.”

Dwayne shared, “We wanted to make a movie that was visually spectacular and hopefully had a good story. And not only that, but what an opportunity we had to build out the DC Universe. And I’m a DC fan, DC boy growing up — I'm still a DC boy, because I'm still a little kid. But what an opportunity we have to build it out to introduce Black Adam and introduce the Justice Society, too.”

Terri asked the superstar actor, “Why Black Adam?”

“I identified with Black Adam," Johnson said. "Even when I was a little boy... And I again, growing up a DC fan. My Saturday mornings were all about the Superfriends. And I love the Superfriends — Superman, especially. But when I saw Black Adam, I felt like I could relate to him. And Black Adam has all the powers of Superman. And he kind of looks like me — he's got some brown skin.”

“This idea that he is like the Dirty Harry of the superhero genre, who — excuse my language — he doesn't take any sh*t," he added.

Johnson also appreciates that Black Adam has a deeper level. "He has his own philosophy in his own way. And some will view him as a superhero, supervillain, antihero. But I also like to think of Black Adam as a protector of people in the things that he loves in this country.”

Terri asked,“How did you tap into to your dark side?"

“That's a great question. So people tell Black Adam, you have to be like him. You can't be like that. You can't kill people, even if they're bad people, you have to bring them to justice. You can't, you can't, you can't. You have to think like this," Johnson noted. "Where Black Adam says, 'I'm not going to do any of that. I'm gonna do it my way. And if you don't agree, that's fine.'”

Johnson sees a bit of a connection between himself and Black Adam, remembering, "When I first got to Hollywood, I was told back then, just a few years removed from the very first time that you and I met in 2002…It was if you want to make it in Hollywood, let's look at who the biggest stars are at that time: George Clooney, Johnny Depp… I was told, 'If you want to be like them, want to be a star, that means then can't call yourself The Rock, can't talk about pro wrestling, you're too big, you need to lose weight, go on a diet, don't go to the gym as much.' I mean, there was all these things that I was told… And then you don't know any different — you buy into it. So I was told that back then... I just it did it for a while, but it didn't feel right.”

Putting on the Black Adam suit did feel right, after he made some adjustments! “The first time I put on a suit, I was like a little kid. It's empowering… I asked them to remove muscle padding out of it. I got to work on some of the final costume iteration that you see on-screen. That's what we went for — there's no muscle padding, which is hard work, a lot of tequila.”

“Did you step up? Is it possible to step up your work?” Terri had to ask.

“It's possible. It is, yeah," Johnson admitted. "And I wanted to! I had one shot... And for me… Black Adam, this is the most important thing… And you're lucky as an actor to get an opportunity to play a superhero... I felt like I should get in the best shape of my life.”

Ultimately, The Rock said Black Adam is a family man. “His family is ripped away from him. And he was blessed with these superpowers that are equivalent to Superman's. But he doesn't want them, he just wants his family back that he can't get back. So that psychology is a real departure for anything that I played in my career.”