The Rock finally breaks silence after receiving first Golden Globe nomination

The Rock has received his first Golden Globe nomination. He has now broken the silence about this major achievement.

The Rock released The Smashing Machine earlier this year, which is based on the life story of MMA fighter Mark Kerr. It stars Dwayne Johnson, who plays Mark Kerr, and Emily Blunt, who plays Kerr's girlfriend, Dawn Staples. The movie underperformed at the box office, grossing only $21 million, while its budget was $50 million. Despite this poor performance, The Final Boss received his first Golden Globe nomination for best performance by a male actor in a drama category. He was nominated alongside Joel Edgerton, Oscar Issac, Michael B. Jordan, Wagner Moura, and Jeremy Allen White. This is the first Golden Globes nomination of Dwayne's career.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the former WWE Champion said that the movie was a nod to those to fight through obstacles.

“I think the nomination represents the fight in everybody, especially with addictions and those demons that you battle. Mark Kerr had it all and lost everything, and has since become sober. He did overdose twice. Life is good because he’s sober and because he made it. And not everyone is that lucky. That’s the movie that we wanted to make: a nod to those who fight.” [H/T The Hollywood Reporter]

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The Rock opens up on when he heard about his nomination

Getting nominated for a Golden Globe award is a pretty big deal for an actor. However, The Rock had never been nominated for one despite being part of some major big-budget Hollywood movies in the past.

During the same interview, The Final Boss said that his phone was on airplane mode when he woke up. When he took his phone out of airplane mode, he got one text from Ryan Coogler, who broke the news to him. He then realized he had about 250 texts on his phone.

"Today has been very surreal. I sleep in airplane mode on my phone and keep it by my bed. I get up, and of course, I know the nominations are happening, but I also know that I got to get up with the babies at about 6:05 a.m. So I take it off airplane mode and start to get up. I’m getting ready to go wake up babies and I just hear one buzz. I went, “Oh, I got one text. That can’t be good.” I grabbed my phone, and I see that my first text is from Ryan Coogler. I went, “Well, he’s not texting me to tell me, ‘Hey, I’m sorry.’” So I opened up that text and he said “Congratulations, brother.” Then come to find out that the one buzz I got wound up being just the indicator that I had about 250 texts. But Ryan broke the news to me." [H/T The Hollywood Reporter]

It's good to see that The Rock is getting the recognition for the hard work he put into The Smashing Machine.