The Rock has opened up about his childhood troubles and one moment that put him off his old way of living and started his journey of becoming one of the most successful people on the planet.
The Great One real name, Dwyane Johnson, had a lengthy interview with Hollywood Reporter recently, where he talked in depth about his troubled childhood.
He mentioned how he lived in more than a dozen US states and even in New Zealand for a while during his early years because of his father’s profession and the family’s financial conditions.
Because of this constant change, The Rock found himself being a rambunctious kid who was always in trouble with his family as well as the law:
“I had been getting in trouble a lot in Hawaii — I was getting arrested a lot, I was doing a lot of things that I shouldn’t have been doing and I had a hard time staying on the right track — and I was still getting in trouble when I landed at Freedom High School in Bethlehem.”
I Felt So Bad: The Rock
The time in Bethlehem turned out to be the change he needed to turn things around. Johnson discussed how he did not fit in school because of his larger-than-average size, and he had gotten into a faceoff with a teacher less than a month after being transferred to Freedom High School.
The young Dwyane then got arrested for theft, and his mom had to get him out. Something clicked in him this time, however, and The Rock decided to change the way he was living in that moment:
“I had also just been arrested for theft. My mom had to come to the police station. We were fresh in Bethlehem, and now this was our reputation. And I remember thinking that night, “Wow, I’ve embarrassed my mom,” which is the last thing I wanted to do.
I had a complicated relationship with my dad, but I really embarrassed my mom and I felt so bad. And then I really embarrassed myself with this teacher. And I thought, “God, this is not me.”
The next day, he went to school and apologised to his teacher. The man named Jody Cwik then offered Johnson a spot in the school’s football team. According to the Hollywood star, Cwik helped him turn his life around and set him on a path of success that he’s enjoying today.