Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Celebrity | June 12, 2026
Dwayne Johnson sat down with Esquire for a deep-dive interview in anticipation of the release of Moana (live-action version.) Whatever you think of The Artist Formerly Known as The Rock, it's true that he gives great interview. He's a highly savvy individual who knows how to tread that fine line between candour and privacy. He offers some great quotes and just enough revelation without going into word vomit or pulling back the curtain too far. And this is a solid profile with a few headline-worthy moments.
Johnson opens up about a recent health scare, wherein he was called in by his doctor to get a scan on his left testicle. Fearful that he might have cancer, he didn't even tell his wife or colleagues (he was in the middle of promoting the second Jumanji movie) what was happening. "So I had to live with that for those twenty-four hours, not knowing--and I had to be on all day, joking around, making speeches," he says. But he's okay, happily! We're happy to hear that. F**k cancer, always.
The interviewer, Ryan D'Agostino, seems a little bowled over that Johnson would even talk about this with him, which gives us an intriguing insight into the profiler experience: "He is telling it to me, which means something inside of him wants me to know it and, by the transitive property, wants you to know it too. We all want to be seen how we want to be seen. It's why we dress the way we do, why we use product in our hair or don't, why we post what we post on social media or brag about how we don't even have social media. But this guy. He has perfected the art of being seen how he wants to be seen."
Yup, that's the name of the game. I imagine Johnson also wanted to open up because he knows a lot of guys his age might be going through something similar and that fear of seeing a doctor for such a sensitive issue puts a lot of them off of getting it sorted. Awareness seriously matters on issues like this. But yeah, cynically, it's also good for Johnson be seen as being open and vulnerable from an image standpoint. He's a big muscled bro whose brand is decidedly anti-toxic masculinity. It's both good for him and his audience to be honest and emotional. We'll always take that over the alternative.
Johnson is careful about what he says and how he says it. You can see that when D'Agostino asks him about The Smashing Machine. The A24 "art-house drama", as Johnson calls it, was heralded for months pre-release as his sure-fire Oscar vehicle. It was going to be the movie that proved Johnson was a serious actor and the industry would respond accordingly. That, of course, didn't happen. The Smashing Machine, which is a good film and he's very good in it, only landed one Oscar nomination and was a box office disappointment. D'Agostino asks him how he felt about what many viewed as a snub. It took Johnson 19 seconds to respond.
"It would have been incredible to get nominated for an Oscar. ... I realized very quickly that it's a rare thing to reach this pinnacle where you're even having these conversations. And it's exciting! It would have been amazing. I wish it happened. But it didn't. But in no uncertain terms did I ever think, Oh, that doesn't matter. I always thought it mattered. And it has lit a fire in my spine"--he laughs suddenly, as if surprised by his own artful phrase, then is serious again--"which is: Let's go back to work."
Again, a good, careful, but still pretty honest answer. I wish more people would admit that it sucked when they didn't get nominated despite everyone telling them it'd happen. Jennifer Lopez was candid about it. So was Bradley Cooper. It must be a little embarrassing to go through that, to be so convinced it's in the bag and then have the rug pulled out from under your feet. And Johnson's also honest about how much it would have meant. "It mattered," he said. Of course it did! As Amanda Seyfried said recently, the nomination is a big deal that can do a lot for your career, maybe more so than the win.
The film did help to show a lot of directors that Johnson is serious about being serious. He has projects lined up with Darren Aronofsky and Martin Scorsese, the latter of which is a 1970s Hawaii-set crime film that will co-star Emily Blunt (and was also written by the dude that Bari Weiss has tapped to run 60 Minutes, because this is the timeline we live in now.) "Dwayne is remarkable in The Smashing Machine," Scorsese says in the piece, calling him "one of a kind." High praise, indeed.
This is what we come to Johnson for. Alas, he had to wade into AI. "I've always been an advocate for embracing big change--after taking a hard look at it," he says. "We can either stick our heads in the sand and be afraid, or we can say, Okay, we're here. Let's see. Let's explore." It's the same tired line every celebrity has been fed by their team: well, it's already here so we have to embrace it or be left behind.
Hearing him be so excited about using ChatGPT is depressing, then the writer uses the bloody app to ask if Johnson should run for President (can we stop that crap already?!) The answer it give us just a regurgitation of stuff people like me have been saying for years, but framed positively because AI chatbots largely just parrot back your feelings to keep you addicted. Aren't you surrounded by enough Yes men without adding a computer to the mix, Dwayne?
It's a weird moment of ego and fakery in a profile that largely shows how Johnson so acutely reinforces his image as confident but not arrogant. But such is the truly revelatory power of AI: it allows a hell of a lot of people to show their whole ass.
