Dwayne Johnson says controversy over set behaviour is “bullshit”
Dwayne Johnson is responding to allegations of difficult on-set behaviour that emerged in an article in The Wrap earlier this year. While the star has acknowledged that he occasionally turns up late to work and pees in bottles when he doesn’t want to waste time by running to a restroom, he stressed that neither of these things has cost studios millions of dollars.
The story alleged that Johnson’s tardiness had driven up the budget of his latest film, Red One, to $250 million and that he could sometimes be as late as eight hours.
In a GQ story, Johnson owned up to some of the allegations but vehemently denied the extent that The Wrap story alleged. “I pee in a bottle,” he confessed. “Yeah. That happens.” Regarding the lateness, he said, “Yeah, that happens too, but not that amount, by the way. That was a bananas amount. That’s crazy. Ridiculous.” In fact, the whole saga, he said, was “bullshit”.
Several of Johnson’s colleagues have rushed to his defence. The director of Red One, Jake Kasdan, said that the actor “never missed a day of work ever” and excused his tardiness, saying, “He has a lot going on. He can be late sometimes, but such is Hollywood—that’s the case with everybody. Honestly, I’ve made three big movies with him. I’ve never seen him be anything but great to every single person on the set.”
Actor Chris Evans, who co-stars with Johnson in the film, agreed. “In terms of the guy that I saw, compared to some of the things I’ve seen on other movies with other actors who are not only not conscious of other people’s time and efforts, but they’re unpredictable?” he said, “I found Dwayne to be—we all know exactly what he’s going to do when he’s going to do it.”
Some of the allegations of lateness, Evans explained, were just a matter of prearranged workout sessions. “But this is something that the producers, the director, and it’s all his team, so they all know this,” he insisted. “So it’s all basic. It’s not like he’s late unexpectedly, and I wouldn’t even call it late. He comes in slightly later on certain mornings, but it’s part of the plan. It’s worked into the schedules and everyone knows it, so he shows up when he’s scheduled to show up.”
Evans went on to describe Johnson’s penchant for giving away money to crew members, remembering a day when he gave out approximately $100,000, which is still a small fraction of the $50million the actor is being paid for the film. There were days on set called Five Dollar Fridays in which everyone would chip in a $5 raffle ticket, and at the end of the day, one of the crew members would have their name drawn and win the pot.
“[T]here was one day, and I’m really not exaggerating about this,” Evans said, “I forget what the number was. The pot was up to four or five grand or something, and before they pulled the name out, Dwayne said, ‘What’s the pot at right now?’ And someone said, ‘I don’t know, four grand.’ And he said, ‘Let’s call it 20.’ And they pulled out a name and whoever won was losing it.”
Then Johnson said, “You know what? Should we do it again? How about 30 this time?” In response to the cheering, he doubled down again.
“I think on one Friday, Dwayne gave away something like close to a hundred thousand dollars,” Evans says.
As far as Johnson is concerned, he’d rather people just come to him directly if they have bad things to say about his behaviour on set. “I’ve said a thousand times,” he said. “‘Hey, I’m here. Come and ask me. And I’ll tell you the truth’ ”.
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