In one of his first-ever leading roles in Peter Berg’s drastically underrated The Rundown, Dwayne Johnson passes Arnold Schwarzenegger, who tells him to “have fun”, in one of cinema’s most blatant passing of the torch moments.
Of course, Schwarzenegger would make his own big screen debut playing the title role in 1970’s Hercules in New York, where he was dubbed over and credited as Arnold Strong, having been a fan of the character since childhood.
More than 40 years later, the connection between the ‘Austrian Oak’ and ‘The Rock’ would deepen when the latter played the exact same part.
Adapted from Steve Moore’s comic book run The Thracian Wars, 2014’s Hercules furthered the synergy between Schwarzenegger and Johnson when he admitted it was a character he’d always had his eye on.
“For me, when I was a kid, Hercules was always a hero of mine,” he told MTV. “When I first got into movies, I thought, ‘Gosh, I would love to do that one day.’”
That’s precisely what he did, although it wasn’t without its trials and tribulations.
Packing even more muscle onto his already-hefty frame, it may have looked ridiculous on-screen when Johnson was sporting an unconvincing fake beard he suggested was crafted from “hair from a yak’s testicles” and armour at least five sizes too small. Still, he can’t be faulted for his commitment to the part.
In a scene where Hercules is chained to the ground, having been captured by his pursuers, Johnson instructed the prop department “to lock me in with real chains that I couldn’t break, so the performance would be real”. As admirable as that was, he still tried his hardest to break free, with some adverse results.
“We shot this scene eight times. I blacked out every time,” he continued, further underlining his desire to go all-in as the latest in a long line of actors to have taken on the mythological hero’s mantle.
It was a decent enough success that recouped its budget almost two and a half times over at the global box office, but Brett Ratner’s Hercules didn’t perform well enough to generate any sequels.
That must have been disappointing for Johnson, not only as somebody who’d dubbed themselves ‘Franchise Viagra’ for their ability to resuscitate and stiffen up a stagnant property but as a lifelong Hercules fan who finally got to live out a dream, only to see it end at the first hurdle.
Nonetheless, he can’t be faulted for putting everything into his performance, even if there more than likely would have been some panicked looks among the cast and crew when one of the biggest stars in Hollywood repeatedly blacked out right in front of their very eyes.