Dwayne's The Rock & # 39; Johnson honors his Samoan roots in Hobbs & Shaw

The day Dwayne Johnson's mother came to visit Kauai's whole Fast & Furious presents: Hobbs & ShawEmotions were already high.

But even the WWE superstar known in the ring as The Rock has been hard hit for what he saw after director David Leitch called "Cut!" on one of the most important scenes of the Fast furious spin off.

Johnson, in the character of Luke Hobbs, the powerful American lawyer that he's been playing since Fast Five, Was leading a group of Polynesian actors, including Cliff Curtis and WWE's Roman Reigns, in a siva tau dance, or the war in Samoa.

This siva tau was special, created especially for the film with the help of Samoan cultural consultants. And as a sacred cultural tradition, Johnson told Leitch that it deserves sensitivity. With this in mind, Leitch shot only a few shots rather than the innumerable coverage angles typical of a big movie of this size and magnitude.

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The scene serves as a prelude to a sequence in which Hobbs and his missing brothers reconcile to face a threat to humanity as they know it, by linking a series of vintage trucks to a helicopter while they were spinning. slow motion. the edge of a cliff (well, it's a Fast furious movie). In it, Johnson's Hobbs, his traditional tattoos shining under the night sky, roar alongside his arm brothers, appealing to their ancestors.

"I'm looking over and she's screaming," Johnson said, smiling as he was telling that moment at a recent stop in Los Angeles. "The mother makes a horrible scream! I did not show her any repetition. She never heard me speak in Samoan at this point. When I call, I talk to God and atua, and we Let's start our movements and I say, "This will be the last face you'll see before you die," and she screams.

"After the catch – it's so beautiful and I'll never forget that – all the guys are going to see it," he added. "Oh, mom, how are you?" and give him hugs. "

Johnson, 47, has played in more than a dozen success stories of more than $ 100 million ($ 151 million in New Zealand), including rampage, San Andreas, Jumanji: Welcome to the jungle, Four Quick suites and Disney movie animation Moana, In which he expressed Maui, a legendary Polynesian demi – god.

This Hobbs & Shaw scene, however, seemed much more personal in many ways. He kept the secret siva tau from his mother, Ata Johnson, until filming. It was the maximum that she heard about in Samoan.

"There is a word in the Polynesian language, mana – who is like mind, soul and power – and mana was so real on the set," he said. "We are in the islands, we are on a sacred ground to start."

In the first of many additional spin-offs from Universal's $ 5 billion franchise, Johnson has helped write his own legacy in one of the world's largest action series. In presenting the film at his Los Angeles premiere, Johnson shared a surprising fact: Hobbs & Shaw is the first film of this scale, and one of the few film epochs, to present the Samoan culture and setting in this way.

"It was our way of honoring and honoring a culture of which I am very proud and which has taught me to define values ​​over the years," he said. The temperature a few days later, in anticipation of a lightning press tour.

"We always want the films to reflect the world, culturally," said the producer, scriptwriter and director. Fast and furious architect Chris Morgan, noting that inclusiveness was both organic and essential for Universal's multicultural franchise.

"It seems that if the public was transported to this world, this crew would accept them." For me, the biggest thing about the Quick the films represent global culture, positivity, family, heroism and that sense of inclusion and belonging. That's what makes it special, and if you did not have that, it would not be Quick. "

GO TO ACTION-COMEDY

Johnson and Jason Statham take back the characters that they played in several episodes of the Quick cinematic universe. But while the unmentioned Dominic Toretto is likely leading his life a quarter of a mile at a time elsewhere in the world, Justin Lin currently leads Fast 9, With a set anchored by original Fast and furious stars Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez – Hobbs & Shaw takes the audience on a two-handed adventure from Shaw's hometown in London to Hobbs' childhood home in Samoa, with a stop for intrigue and delirious action in a secret bunker of Chernobyl.

Directed by Leitch, professional stuntman (Atomic blonde, Deadpool 2) and written by Morgan and Drew Pearce, the story tells the story of Johnson, Hobbs, and Bad Sharon Shaw, a former British soldier of the Statham group, while they reluctantly attempt to s'. Attack Brixton Lorr's Idris Elba, a cybernetically enhanced super soldier, followed by Sister, MI6 spy of Shaw, Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), who is in possession of a dangerously powerful biological weapon.

In addition to the new characters and deeper stories, the spinoffs are moving toward the territory of action-comedy, punctuated with lively exchanges and surprise cameos. Johnson stretched out his arm as in one of the most intensive action scenes of the movie, looking for an invisible lanyard. "If I'm holding a helicopter near a chain and I'm narrowing it down, as a movie fan and fan of heroic characters … I need Hobbs to have nonsense."

As the genre turns and turns the Fast and furious the films took over 18 years, Hobbs & Shaw seeks to differentiate itself from the central films that have themselves evolved since their humble origins: more than eight films, which began as a humbly bromantic narrative of Los Angeles testosterone-fed runners turned into a franchise loaded with glory and filled with flying cars, stunts defying physics and international espionage.

The first benefits of the franchise also had to be self-sustaining. According to Johnson, the talks started off loosely after the star's entry into the 2011 cast Fast Five and helped make the film a success. But he added that it still took several years to find a story worth being told.

The goal of the studio, he said, was to fight a way up to a 10th Fast and furious film, "and on the way to 8, 9 and 10, you should part and you should create new adventures and new characters that will inevitably lead to a beautiful road Fast 10& # 39; "

At the beginning of his ideas, Hobbs was leading a team of diplomatic security agents around the world, looking for ways to harbad the bad guys. That's only when he filmed on the set of The fate of the furious with Statham, who had been featured in a cameo two earlier films in "Fast & Furious 6" as the person responsible for the death of Tokyo Drift Han's favorite fan (Sung Kang), that the bulb has gone out.

While filming their Fast 8 Sequence in prison – and exit scenario to launch improvised beards – Johnson and Statham have discovered a spark that can bring their joint fallout.

"I come from a world of professional wrestling where I have a live microphone for two hours," said Johnson, known for being one of the best speakers on the market. "I said whatever the line was and it cracked, and at that moment, I think it just crystallized, that confidence and that chemistry that we had."

The two stars are now producers on Hobbs & Shaw alongside Hiram Garcia, partner of Seven Bucks Productions at Morgan and Johnson. With these roles came a greater creative contribution in the film. Some elements were indispensable, such as the fast cars required and the furious action, recall the DNA of the previous films and some unavoidable. Fast and furious mantra.

"The famous word," said Johnson. "And we like to say it like … family," he murmured dramatically, sporting the showman's smile. "There is a gravitas to that."

It's there that Johnson saw an opportunity to honor his own roots.

RECONNECT WITH CULTURE

Son of Black Canadian wrestler Rocky Johnson and Ata Johnson, whose father was Samoan wrestler Peter Maivia, Johnson jumped on the opportunity to bring his own legacy into the Quick universe. With Garcia and Morgan, he imagined a story for Hobbs that would bring him back not only to Samoa, but also to his family. He left the city 25 years ago, excited about the anger and grudges he had left, but was also celebrating his return to culture.

"I remember Chris Morgan who said," And if we take the audience home to Samoa, where Hobbs is from, and all his brothers hate him and that they're all taller than he and that mom is still the master of the house? said Johnson, stressing the importance of founding this extended family with purpose.

"The authenticity was important for the cast, and we knew we wanted to appeal to all Polynesian actors."

The New Zealand actor Curtis (Formerly warriors, whale rider), who played against Statham in last year's shark narrative The mega, Joined the cast as Jonah, the brother with whom Hobbs shares a painful story. Eliana Sua, her precocious daughter, Samantha, Lori Pelenise Tuisano, her mother, Sefina, and Josh Mauga, John Tui and Reigns, her brothers and her mother.

Usos. The term Samoan is deeply poignant for Johnson, a way for filmmakers to effortlessly weave Samoan culture into the fabric of their world. This has even greater meaning when he talks about bringing Anoa & # 39; i into the world. Quick family.

Coming from different generations of the WWE, the two men are members of the Anoa family & # 39; i, Samoan wrestling royalty. Joe Anoa's i, 34, one of the biggest stars of the fight, was delighted to learn that Johnson Quick the fallout would highlight Samoan culture. He submitted an audition tape not sure if his schedule in the WWE would give him enough time to film, even though he had the role.

Then, last October, Anoa & # 39; i made a surprise announcement during a WWE television appearance that shocked fans: he was taking a break in the ring to seek treatment for his leukemia.

"Once everything was upset, I did not want to do anything, just wanted to be home with my family and take care of the healing process," he said. The temperature, speaking by phone from his home in Florida.

A few months later he was still on treatment and his condition improved when Johnson called.

"At that time, I was totally out of physical reach – I could not be touched, I could not be touched," said Anoa & # 39; i. "I've always been a very physical athlete, I've always been on contact, and it really made me lose a loop, not being able to do that."

With the support of Johnson, Anoa's accepted the role of Mateo, who fights alongside Hobbs as the Lorr horde kills on the island.

"I felt comfortable and also had the impression that if I refused an opportunity, I refused a dream, a blessing, what kind of message did I send to others people who are fighting the same way and want to continue living their lives … who want to continue to pursue their dream? "He flew to Hawaii, where a 40-acre Kauai set was replaced by Samoa, and played his role. In February, he made a triumphant return to the ring announcing that his cancer was in remission.

Johnson beamed as he described Anoa's entry into the project. "He is supposed to do no physical activity, and it is at the time of the war that he goes to bed," he said. "I thought," Are you okay? He said, "I think so, brother. Let's try and I'll let you know. And he just shone and I was so proud of him. "

For Anoa & # 39; i, the family was more than an idea of ​​narration in the script.

"Samoan culture is (is) a very family-oriented culture until it is founded," he said. "Our way of showing our love, our pbadion, our mutual trust.The way we hugged … as a Polynesian man, to meet other Polynesians as foreigners." First, then connect completely with them and become usos, brothers, it was real. "

"I think Dwayne is a perfect example," he added. "Everyone who works with him … they are family members, he takes care of them, they take care of him, and that's what we get from this movie, from the presentation of our culture on the big screen up to the word "usos. I often say: it's not what you know, but how you know them. It's a bit like what we try to do. "

A report published in 2018 by USC Annenberg's Inclusion Initiative revealed that less than 1% of the most profitable films between 2007 and 2017 featured speaking or nominated characters of Hawaiian or Pacific Island descent; 3.9% had "Métis or other" parenting characters, such as Johnson. Writing a largely underrepresented culture in one of the most viewed studio franchises in the world required not only an opportunity, but also an intention.

At the world premiere of the film at Dolby Theater in Hollywood, where Johnson and his mother joined Johnson, the power of this performance resonated vividly in the festive shouts that erupted from the audience every time Samoa was represented at the # 39; screen.

"We have never wanted to explain nor have the impression of being on a rostrum," Johnson said. "But it's in the structure, that's what we are as a country and who we are as a world.We are diverse, we are of different colors and cultures.The most intelligent are when a more ambitious goal is in the lead. "

He envisioned the power to broadcast a message of inclusion in the world, in a large worldwide studio film, at a time when the US president was tweeting women members of Congress for " return "in" the places from which they came. "

"I think that in a way we have become insensitive to what the president said," said Johnson, choosing his words carefully. "However, I'm not surprised that he said so, and no one else should be."

"This film was an opportunity for us, No1, to make the public happy at home," said Johnson, who will follow his Hobbs & Shaw tour with Sony's sequel Jumanji: the next level and the Disney summer version 2020 Cruise in the jungle, Both of which he also produced.

"No. 2, if we can, in our own way, showcase inclusivity, culture and love others – and again, show in our own way that it's possible to put aside its differences, and that there is a power of lateral thinking and staying overview and acceptance of all cultures – I think that there is something important to that. "

– Los Angeles Times