Despite being born to play the role, Dwayne Johnson does not regret losing out to Tom Cruise in the $218 million film.

There are numerous Hollywood celebrities who’ve lost major film roles or were turned down for popular projects, but there aren’t many who ended up being grateful for the same.

Surprisingly enough though, Dwayne Johnson happens to be one of those rare actors.

The former professional wrestler revealed that he’d apparently been close to bagging the lead role in Christopher McQuarrie’s Jack Reacher before it was ultimately signed off to Mission Impossible star, Tom Cruise.

But as disheartening as losing such a colossal project must be, The Rock didn’t regret the missed opportunity for a single second. Talk about taking rejection in stride.

Adapted from Lee Child’s novel titled One Shot, Jack Reacher is an actionthriller film helmed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie starring Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Lee Child, and Werner Herzog. After garnering positive reviews and grossing about 218 million globally on a budget of 60 million, the film turned out to be wholly successful.

4 years later, a sequel named Never Look Back made to the big screens too, helmed by Blood Diamond 2006 director, Edward Zwick.

But before Cruise, 60, starred as Jack Reacher in the 2012 movie, Dwayne Johnson almost stepped into the protagonist’s shoes instead of the Vanilla Sky actor.