Hollywood is littered with stories of actors coming ever so close to landing roles that could have greatly altered their careers. Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones. Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly. And so on. Well, according to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, he was close to landing the role of Jack Reacher in the film franchise of the same name. And in a social media post, Johnson explains the story of how he ended up losing the role to Tom Cruise and why that is probably the best thing that could have happened to him.
“In Hollywood, actors are kind of like in-a-box,” said Johnson. “There are actors that can vie for a particular role because it allows for them to have a certain look, skin color, size, etc. Fortunately, for me, there aren’t a lot of guys at all who look like me. So, all of my roles, from the beginning of my career, I’ve been a lucky son of a bitch that they’ve been created and designed for me — except ‘Jack Reacher.’”
He continued, “Now, this was ten years ago, and I was in a much different place, I recognize that. Tom was the biggest movie star in the world, and I was not…I got the call saying ‘Hey, you didn’t get the role.’ Look, I didn’t even know if I had a shot for it, but the people around me at that time made me think that I did. I felt like I did, I felt like ‘Why not me?’”
Of course, we obviously shouldn’t be concerned about the health of Johnson’s career since he didn’t get the lead in “Jack Reacher” almost a decade ago. In that time, he’s had plenty of box office success, perhaps most notably as the guy who many feel helped usher in a new era for ‘Fast & Furious‘ films after his appearance in ‘Fast 5.’ And in the interim, Johnson has been able to use that clout to have more creative freedom, which is something he feels that he would have lost on “Jack Reacher.”
“I’m positive that the role of Jack Reacher, because it was an established character, an IP that was well known and beloved around the world, that I wouldn’t have had the creative space to do what I wanted with the character,” said the actor, “I look back in gratitude that I didn’t get ‘Jack Reacher.’”
You can see Johnson in the new Disney film, “Jungle Cruise,” when it hits theaters next summer. In addition, he’s said to be working on “Hobbs & Shaw 2,” which will likely be on the fast track for production sooner rather than later.
As for “Jack Reacher?” Tom Cruise had two shots to make that franchise work, and though there are folks that enjoy those films, the character’s creator and many fans are happy to know that Amazon is working on a brand-new series that will likely see someone closer to Johnson’s physique taking over the lead role.
