What Caused Dwayne Johnson to Lose Star Power?

While performing as part of the WWE certainly requires a degree of acting talent, many wrestlers have been unsuccessful in transitioning to becoming film actors. Outside of Roddy Piper’s iconic performance in the John Carpenter classic They Live, the history of wrestlers turned actors is rather bleak. However, that all changed thanks to Dwayne Johnson.

Johnson was one of the most popular wrestling stars of his time, but he made his cinematic debut in 2001’s The Mummy Returns. While it wasn’t a major role, it led Johnson to develop his spinoff franchise The Scorpion King, which gave him his first leading role.

Johnson continued acting to become one of the most successful movie stars of the 21st Century. In an era where franchises and pre-established characters tended to attract audiences instead of specific performers, he seemed to be one of the rare actors who generated excitement based on his name alone.

While Johnson certainly did a significant amount of original projects, he also took part in major franchises such as The Fast and the Furious saga, the DCEU, the rebooted Jumanji series, and even the long-awaited sequels Race to Witch Mountain, Be Cool, and Journey 2 The Mysterious Island. However, his most recent endeavors suggest that Johnson may be losing the foothold he had on the film industry, and may be in danger of further sliding into irrelevance.

Unlike action stars of a previous generation like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves, Sylvester Stallone, or Bruce Willis, the overall quality of Johnson’s filmography is not very strong. In fact, he seems like the most interesting work of his career is now behind him. Johnson once showed a willingness to work with auteur filmmakers and give non-traditional performances.

Richard Kelly’s epic dystopian satire Southland Tales allowed him to play a satirical version of an action movie star who unexpectedly becomes a political mouthpiece while the film was initially dismissed, the prophetic nature of Southland Tales has earned it a strong cult following. It would be rare to see Johnson delivering this type of broadly satiric, experimental performance in anything now.

Similarly, Johnson surprisingly did some of the best work of his career with Michael Bay in the severely underrated 2013 true crime comedy Pain Gain. The film is a great example of how Bay’s excess can work, as he satirizes America’s obsession with status, the culture surrounding body image and working out, and various forms of toxic masculinity. Johnson gives one of the funniest performances he’s ever given as a timid, non-aggressive bodybuilder who is forced to unleash his darker side. It’s an unusually sensitive performance that proved that he could challenge preconceptions about his star power, but sadly he’s reverted to his typically flawless action characters in recent years.

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