Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) plays a suave and successful secret agent in the Warner Bros Pictures comedy movie Get Smart. A fan of the TV series growing up, Johnson admits to initially being leery of a big screen adaptation of the television show. “When they first said they were going to remake Get Smart and make it into a movie, you know I think immediately our reactions are, and the natural understanding reaction is like, ‘Oh uh, here we go, you're messing with something that's great. You've got to be careful.’ But the material was great; all the elements came together,” explained Johnson at the film’s Los Angeles press junket. “It was a director who I wanted to work with for some time, I really enjoyed Pete [Segal's] work in the past, and [Steve] Carell, of course, I love. And Anne Hathaway came on and the Alan Arkin signed on, which was wonderful, so it kind of all fell together.”
Dwayne Johnson Get Smart Press Conference
How did you get into the right mindset for this character? Did you think of James Bond?
“A little bit. I thought of James Bond. I also thought, ‘Well, here's a guy, a pretty successful guy at what he does and yet he has a dark side.’ For me, it was just, my process for all my movies is to just get really close with the director and just make sure we're on the same page, we share the same vision for the movie, the same tone. And you know it was a character I was excited to play. And physically, too. When I first started thinking about the character, how all our characters came together, the thought of Steve Carell and myself just side by side is just funny, and it made me laugh from the get go. And then it was funny on the page and I thought, ‘Well, we had a pretty good shot of making a good movie.’ Or a funny movie.”
What was it like kissing Steve Carell?
“It was like, you ever have warm apple pie with cold ice cream too? You find that balance where you're, ‘Oh, uhhh…’ [Laughter] Hey, you know, it was great, it was great. Not too many men can say that, have a nice big lip lock with Steve Carell. It was great. The length I go, the committed actor. Jake Gyllenhaal did it, Will Smith did it, I thought it was my turn to kiss a man.”
Can you talk about shooting that final fight scene on the railroad tracks with the truck? How much of that was you and Steve Carell?
“Well, it was all me and it was Steve's double. You know, that was, again, the length I go as an actor. Some guys just don't want to commit themselves… But, no, that was a lot of fun to do. I think with a movie like this, everybody was so excited to come together and actually do the action. And Steve, you know, those guys are committed actors. Steve and Anne Hathaway, and they did a lot of their own stunts. I think they might have done most of their own stunts. And it was great to do. You get a director who really wants to put together some great action, we had a great stunt coordinator too, as well, and then I think when you have all those elements coming together… And again, you know, I talked earlier about everybody sharing the same vision for the movie, just in terms of the action I think is important too because there are some great action movies out there that have raised the bar, and I always talk about them. From the Bond movies, the last Bond movie to the Bourne series, was tremendous. And especially the summer, this is a pretty good summer with some pretty good, high quality action stuff, so you want to make some action sequences that compete.”
If you could talk specifically about that fight scene, what you had to do. I know you do so much of your own stunts…
“I do all my own stunts. I'm kidding.”
Was there any point where it was too much?
“No, because I felt very safe and comfortable in the environment with the stunt coordinator and his team of people around us, making sure everything was safe. But you know, that was really, that was a great stunt, and if you're into stunts and physicality like that as an actor, you look for days like that. We're on a railroad track and we were going 50, 60 miles an hour. We were harnessed into the SUV, and you know, having our fight scene as the car's going that fast, not only is it challenging, but again I think the key with that is to make sure that the actors feel safe and comfortable. And with the stunt coordinator we had and his team, everybody felt very safe. Again, we were harnessed in, buckled, we really weren't going anywhere. And then you lay out the fight scene and you rehearse it a little while and you get on that camera car and go.”
Is there a logistical challenge of a different kind when you're fighting in a confined space?
“Sure. Well the challenge is you're on a moving vehicle, number one. Are you talking about on top of it? Well sure, the vehicle is moving at a really high speed, so you want to be careful. And at the same time, you just want to make sure the action is rooted in reality and everything you play, you want to make sure that it's played in a realistic way. At some point too, you always want to find the balance of making people smile and making them laugh as well.”
Could you talk a little bit about what you thought the coolest thing in the series was? Did you have a favorite episode?
“The coolest thing about the Get Smart series? The coolest thing for me about the Get Smart series was always the comedy. What I mean by that was always just the self-deprecating comedy, I love that. Because even with the iconic character that Don Adams created, there was still a great sense of assuredness to him. He was a little bit arrogant in his way and, of course, it was always self-deprecating also. But of course he would always get the job done too; he was very proficient as well.”
Wasn't he really dumb?
“See, I never thought he was dumb. That was the thing. My interpretation wasn't that he was dumb, no. I thought that he was bumbling at time, you know, but he would still get the job done.”
Page 2: On Steve Carell and Agent 99
