Dwayne Johnson explains why he stopped going by 'The Rock,' then brought the nickname back
- Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson explains why he briefly dropped "The Rock" from his name, in a new interview for Jamie Foxx's digital series "Off Script."
- "I reached a point in my career where I was tired of trying to be something I wasn't," Johnson said.
In the mid 2000s, when Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson moved from WWE wrestling into a full-time career as a Hollywood star, there was a brief period of time where Johnson dropped his wrestling moniker.
Johnson explained why he nixed and subsequently returned to "The Rock" as a nickname in a new interview for Jamie Foxx's Grey Goose-sponsored digital series, "Off Script."
As Entertainment Weekly notes, Johnson dropped "The Rock" from his persona before the release of his 2005 movie "Southland Tales."
Johnson told Foxx that he wanted to quickly switch back to "The Rock" afterward.
"I reached a point in my career where I was tired of trying to be something I wasn't," Johnson said of switching back to the nickname. "I was told at that time, 'Listen, you can't talk about wrestling. You can't go by The Rock. You can't be as big."
Johnson explained that his relationship with his fans - which he called "the most important relationship I have" - led him to see the light, and go by "The Rock" again.
"So finally I reached a point where I said, 'Alright, two things have to happen: I'm gonna surround myself with a different group of people, different management, and then I'm gonna make sure that I just gotta be me," he said.
Watch the clip below and catch the full interview at Grey Goose's website tomorrow: