The Cast of The Scorpion King Interview(SCI-FI)....April 2002
The Rock escapes the ring to wrestle with stardom as The Scorpion King
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Cindy White
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When the producers of last year's action-adventure sequel The Mummy Returns hired wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to play a small part in the film's opening sequence, they only had a hint of the star quality he possessed. As early footage of his scenes started to come in, however, the filmmakers began to realize that they had a bona-fide action star in the making on their hands.
Universal Studios agreed, and it wasn't long before executives had green-lighted a prequel which would center around The Rock's character, the Scorpion King. Director Chuck Russell (The Mask) faced the challenge of making the film more than just a star vehicle, while at the same time pleasing the multitude of wrestling fans who would undoubtedly turn out to see their favorite WWF star on the big screen. He also set out to recreate the world of 3,000 BC using only locations in Southern California, no small task in and of itself.
Co-star Michael Clarke Duncan, a self-proclaimed wrestling fan himself, was eager to take on the role of the warlord Balthazar for the chance to work with The Rock. Asian beauty Kelly Hu (Martial Law) rounds out the ethnically diverse cast as the sorceress Cassandra.
The Rock, Russell, Duncan and Hu took some time to talk with Science Fiction Weekly about their experience making The Scorpion King, which opens April 19.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chuck Russell, you've worked with Arnold Schwarzenegger and other great action stars before. What makes The Rock a great action hero?
Russell: You can't teach star quality, you know. It's still a funny word to use for me, but he's fascinating. I saw The Rock hosting Saturday Night Live and I sat there and I said, "Who is this guy?" I don't know anything about wrestling. He's a fantastic looking man. He's charming. He's funny. He's sexy. ... And within, like, a week, by luck, my agent called me saying that they wanted to talk to me at Universal about a project for him called The Scorpion King. And I said, "Yeah."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do you think he has a future as an action star?
Russell: I haven't seen somebody exciting in the genre in a while. It's overdue. Easy five, maybe 10, years, there hasn't been somebody really new and exciting in the action genre. So I thought this timing couldn't be better for this guy. ... When I developed The Mask very specifically for Jim Carrey at that time, I had to tell my friends, "It's the white guy from In Living Color. But he's gonna be a star so just don't pick on me." And in this case the same cocktail people are like—this was a year and a half ago, it wasn't as obvious—my friends were saying, "Why are you doing a movie with this wrestler? Are you crazy? You could do any movie, what are you thinking?" And I just said, "Just wait, OK?" Now, in between his own celebrity after The Mummy Returns and how charming he's been in his personal appearances, no one is saying that anymore. But the truth is I could see it early on. This guy is somebody special.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Were you surprised by his abilities as an actor?
Russell: I was challenged with what he could do. I kept re-staging my action because he can actually do it, you know. I mean, you can't really double it. His humor, which I knew this should be an adventure with comedic tone, it's one of his assets. But I realized working with him a little bit that the romantic element would work very well. Women like him. And I thought this is going to be unusual because I'm going to put the kiss, or the romantic scene, right in the middle of the movie. I think we can get away with it. Most action films we really don't want to see them kiss the girl. That's something you put at the very end, if you do it at all. And I had so many women commenting about Dwayne, I thought, well, this is going to be great, you know. I think we should make this literally a sensual movie that there's something to see and something of the senses in every scene. And have fun and make it a family picture. I thought I could base all that on Dwayne. So whatever that is, that's the unique ability he's got.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We know that The Rock was attached to this project from the beginning, but how did you go about casting the other actors?
Russell: He was there for all the auditioning process for me to experiment with the chemistry with him with other actors and actresses. He put his heart in it, and he's got a big heart. And I wanted to make a big-hearted movie and that's when I got Michael Clarke Duncan and Kelly Hu involved. When I realized it could be fun and it could have great spirit. And I found this wonderful cast that I thought could bring me that kind of warmth and fun.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like the Mummy films, this movie has some great comedic elements. Did you find that hard to mix that in with the action elements?
Russell: Comedy is tough. It's so tough. Who was it? The English actor who was dying on his deathbed and he said, "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." Comedy and action are under-appreciated by film critics. Most film critics. It's unbelievable the skill and talent and passion that goes into this kind of film. And how easy it looks if it's done right. How easy it can look. How effortless it can look. The biggest challenge in a film like this is to invite the audience into the world, find a tone where we can go for the journey and enjoy it, you know? There's comedy, there's romance, there's adventure. But is it going to be something that engages the audience? And I think it speaks well of the cast that I find myself engaged every time I watch it—and I've seen it a lot.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What kind of difficulties do you experience while making an action picture of this size and scope?
Russell: I hire these people saying this is going to be ... the most uncomfortable, the most dangerous—although I pride myself on safety the way I stage these things—you're going to be the most uncomfortable. You're going to be the hottest you've been, the coldest you've been and you're going to have to face the elements in this picture. We went to all those places. The actors don't sit at home and get put in optically. The swords were on fire, the walls of fire were hot. ... They faced those things you see. They do have to live through a version. A safer version, but a true version of what you [see] in the film. I've learned over my career that, especially when you have someone like The Rock who can really do it physically, and Michael Clarke Duncan, the more the action is real and not synthetic ... it's more exciting almost on a subliminal level.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kelly Hu, what kind of hardships did you face during filming?
Hu: The very, very first shooting day was before we had even started the regular schedule. They decided to do the scene where I'm sliding down the waterfall. I guess before I could protest. And I was wearing the tiniest little G-string, which as you know, when it gets wet it doesn't help at all. And then pasties. Well, they had to have me in the G-string because this is PG-13, right? But I was literally on the top of the slide on my hands and knees because I had to, like, dive down into the slide and the water was rushing so fast that Rock had to be holding me by the waist so I wouldn't go down the slide when I wasn't supposed to. And then he would push me onto the slide and follow after me. And that was the very first day of shooting. And I thought, it cannot possibly get worse than this. And it did.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In spite of the elements, what was your overall experience like making the film?
Hu: I absolutely had the best time. This is seriously the best time I've ever had on any shoot, television or film or anything. Because it was just a pleasure to come to work every day. Everyone was so nice to work with. There were no attitudes. There was no diva on the set. I mean, I felt like the diva. I felt like the princess. When we're out in the middle of the desert and there's a guy whose job it is—some poor PA, who's been hired for the day—to hold an umbrella over my head and carry water for me to drink. And I'm like, "I can hold that." And he says, "No no no no. I'll hold it. I'll hold it." And I literally had this guy following me around all day long holding an umbrella over my head. I was like, gosh, I don't think the Queen of England has somebody following her around with an umbrella. So yeah, it was my chance to be sort of, like, a diva.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You are pretty scantily clad for most of this movie. Do you ever get self conscious about showing your body?
Hu: I have never been so scantily clad in my life! But I've never really had much of a problem with it ever since I was a kid. ... And then also being, you know, a dancer and a model. Growing up in Hawaii, running around in, you know, shorts and swimsuits and stuff, I never really had a problem with it. This movie, however, I was so extremely naked.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And what was it like working with The Rock?
Hu: He was so amazing to work with. I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I signed on to work with a wrestler. But after seeing his stint on Saturday Night Live—I saw him on that and I thought he was amazing. At first I didn't even know who he was ... I was like, "This guy is great," you know? ... I thought he was some actor and I was trying to remember what TV show or what film I had seen him in, because he was doing such a great job it never occurred to me that this guy was a wrestler. And then when I heard that he was doing this film I thought, you know, this is a great opportunity. This could be the next Arnold Schwarzenegger. And I think he is. I think he's got all that it takes. He certainly has the charisma. He has the charm. He has the appeal to men as well as women. Children. Grandfathers. My grandfather watches The Rock. He can't even see because he's blind, but he loves The Rock. I don't know how he manages. But yeah, he's got such mass appeal that I just knew that this was a great opportunity for me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did he show you any wrestling moves?
Hu: Yeah, in the love tent [laughs]. I'm just kidding.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Clarke Duncan, how do you measure up against The Rock?
Duncan: He's 6'4", 270 lbs. I'm 6'5", 325 lbs. So there's the tale of the tape. End of story.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You're a big wrestling fan, aren't you? You do know that it's fake, right?
Duncan: Oh, don't say that to me. I'm the biggest WWF fan ... I love WWF. No matter what nobody says, it's real. Okay? That's all real! Don't destroy my fantasy, all right? No, but it's a funny thing that I got so into wrestling. I'm so into it that ... two years ago when I got nominated [for The Green Mile], President Clinton sent me an invitation, I mean gold monogrammed, it was really pretty, I put it up on the wall. And he asked me to come out to the White House to be a guest speaker at one of these little conclaves that he was having. And it fell on a Monday night, which is Monday Night Raw, and I told my manager ... "Monday Night Raw is on Monday. What have I always told you? Schedule everything Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday." She says, "You're not going to see President Clinton to watch The Rock?" [I said,] "What can I tell you? And I did not go. Six months later I got another invitation. It fell on a Thursday. Thursday Night Smackdown. I do not leave the house. And I did not see President Clinton.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So then what was your reaction when you find out you're going to be in a movie with The Rock?
Duncan: Total hysteria. Because this guy has got the biggest fan base I think out there of any, I will say actor or entertainer. I think he has the biggest fan base going right now. ... I tell you how it is. I was up in Canada doing a movie and he was up there with WWF and we were going out to dinner. ... And everybody pushed past me. They thought I was his bodyguard. I'm like, "You guys seen The Green Mile? What about the Academy Awards? Remember me?" But they pushed past me to get to this guy. It's like being with the Beatles. That's what it's like being with him. So now being in a movie with him, it's like doing a movie with your best friend or something. He's just that cool. He's not jaded. He's nice. He's down to earth. We have fun. We play games all day. So I couldn't ask for anything more.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you get hurt on this movie?
Duncan: Actually, [The Rock] caught me with an elbow during the fight scene. ... I went down like a light. ... I thought it was supposed to be stomach then face, but it was face then stomach. So when the director yelled, "Action!" I went anticipating this and he came across. And the last thing I saw was this [points to the back of his elbow]. And I'm like, "AW!" I went down, popped up and I said, "I know that's not the best you can do." I said, "Is that the people's elbow?" I been waiting all my life to feel and smell what The Rock is cooking. I said, "That's it? Aw, man, you wouldn't stand a chance with me." Actually I was seeing all these little birds going around my head. But I wouldn't let him know that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What about you, The Rock, did you get hurt on this film?
The Rock: I was real lucky. I was very lucky. My feelings got hurt a couple times, but that doesn't matter.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So what are the differences between movie acting and WWF acting?
The Rock: Well, in WWF you only get one take. Because it's live. Makes a big difference. And you play to 20-30,000 people. You play to the guy in the front row, which could be as close as [a few feet] to the guy in the very top row. So the expressions are very big. Everything's very big, and almost comical sometimes if you watch. You've got to tone it down for film. And in film you have the luxury of choices. Ten takes, 15 takes, whatever it takes. It might be a pain on the day, but at the end of the day it's certainly well worth it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And what about the similarities?
The Rock: Probably, for me, that feeling of, it's a very intoxicating feeling when you can perform. And even though you're performing for the crew, basically, the camera guys and everybody else on the set, still to me that's still a live audience. And they're there, watching you. Whether it's 100, 200, 300 people. They're there. 20,000 people, it's the same thing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you make a conscious decision to separate your performance in this film from what you do in the wrestling ring?
The Rock: [We] wanted to make sure that when you went to see The Scorpion King in 3,000 BC you suspend your disbelief, that nothing was going to take you out of 3,000 BC. Very important, you know. ... My fans are very passionate, very loyal, they'll go see the movie. I love that. But then there's other people who I want to reach and I want to showcase a little bit of depth. ... So that was a conscious decision. No idiosyncratic nuances, no wrestling. Other than the [raised eyebrow] in the harem scene. Other than that, no. And not to be too gratuitous either, with showing my body.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did Chuck Russell work with you a lot on your performance?
The Rock: He did. Boy, I really appreciate what Chuck did because this was my first starring vehicle. And reading the script come to find out that well, there's going to be some tender moments in the movie and [it's] not necessarily your typical action movie. Some points of poignancy at times. ... So Chuck really helped me from a performance standpoint. And also, going into the project I wanted to make sure I was fully prepared as best I could be. ... [I] Hired Larry Moss, my acting coach, [who] helped me tremendously.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there is a sequel would you be looking forward to showing the evil side of the Scorpion King?
The Rock: I think, eventually. There were a couple of foreboding things that took place and elements in the movie. And we know what happens to the Scorpion King actually, he dies. Because he's a bad guy in the end. So I think, eventually, if we're lucky enough to have a sequel, or maybe after that one I'm not too sure when, the transition will start to happen. So who knows.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How are you going to balance your wrestling career with your acting career in the future?
The Rock: I don't know. I have no idea, to be honest with you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Are you going to keep calling yourself The Rock or will you eventually be Dwayne Johnson?
The Rock: We've had that discussion in detail. Myself, my guys ... The results come back the same. It's like a resounding, "We across the table love the name The Rock."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So if you want to do a serious drama, would that be okay?
The Rock: Sure, I think so. Yeah. I mean, my performance certainly wouldn't change whether it's The Rock or Dwayne Johnson. It'll still be the same performer and the same performance. I figure if Rock Hudson could do it ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A lot of people have been calling you the next Arnold Schwarzenegger. How do you feel about the comparison?
The Rock: I get that often. The comparison's great. But in my own mind ... he's a different person than I am. And different than Stallone as well. So those guys have done a great job. I respect what they've done and they've been very supportive of me, which has been key, you know. I really appreciate that. But they've got big shoes to fill. I'd never attempt that. I'd rather just do my own thing and create my own path. And see what happens.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So what do you see is the path?
The Rock: Well, right now I'm just continuing to chose projects that are really good fun stories, and that make sense.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do you feel a lot of pressure for this film to be a success? Does your future acting career depend on this movie?
The Rock: I don't think my career is dependent upon the success of this film. I think that a lot of attention is being paid to this which, rightfully so, should be. I'm the principal actor involved and I'm the selling point, I understand that. I get it. And I just hope that, again, at the end of the day, that the audience walks out entertained with the movie. It's a fun movie.
