Dwayne Johnson Says Playing It Safe With Family Films Led to His Early Flops
From Tooth Fairy to Race to Witch Mountain, the A-list actor opens up about the pivots, misfires, and surprises that rewired a blockbuster career—what worked, what didn’t, and what they’d do differently now.
Dwayne Johnson is in his serious-actor era now, thanks to playing MMA legend Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine. But he just looked back at the stretch of his career when things were not so impressive, and he was doing movies that critics treated like a piñata. He went on the Awards Chatter podcast from The Hollywood Reporter and broke down exactly why he kept picking the soft, family-friendly stuff back then. Short version: life was messy, and he wanted films with happy endings. Literally.
The rocky stretch, by his own account
Early on, Johnson bounced between trying tougher material and headlining kid-targeted comedies. Some landed with a thud, others got shredded by reviewers. To jog your memory:
- The swings: Southland Tales, Walking Tall
- The crowd-pleasers: Race to Witch Mountain, The Game Plan, Tooth Fairy
And yes, Tooth Fairy is that 2010 comedy currently sitting at 17% on Rotten Tomatoes. That one has not aged into a secret classic.
Why he chose the light stuff
On the podcast, Johnson said he can see that period clearly now. He loved making those movies, but he more or less called them into existence because it was all he was ready for at the time. His divorce from Dany Garcia played a big role in that. Context alert: Garcia is now his manager, but back then, as their marriage ended, he was not looking to rip open emotional wounds on camera.
"I manifested those because I do not think I was ready for anything other than easy, light, family films that made me feel good."
He explained that he was trying to get his personal life sorted out, and creatively he only wanted stories with a clear, upbeat resolution. No heavy gut-punches, no spirals into darkness. Just clean, optimistic endings. If you were wondering why the guy who would become Black Adam once wore wings and carried a wand, there it is.
The reset: Fast Five and everything after
The turnaround hit in 2011 when he joined Fast Five as Hobbs. That cracked the door to a different chapter: more Fast movies, Pain and Gain, Jumanji, and Moana. From there, the brand took care of itself and he became a full-blown household name. Wild to think the run might have derailed because of a gig about teeth.
Where he is now
Cut to the present: he is mixing spectacle with heavier material, like The Smashing Machine, and circling back to Maui in Disney's live-action Moana. That one is dated for July 10, 2026.
So yeah, the Tooth Fairy years make a lot more sense when you hear it straight from him. Sometimes the safest movie on the shelf is the only one you are in the headspace to make.