Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has made quite the name for himself in Hollywood, after having a successful career in the ring. He was named Hollywood’s highest paid actor of 2016 by Forbes, earning $64.5 million. According to an article in for Newsweek by Tufayel Ahmed, The Rock’s career has been so meticulously managed that his success is no fluke. From his early morning workouts, pictures of his dog Hobbs and videos of his life documented to his 130 million social media followers, to his film choices, the 15-member team from William Morris Endeavor (WME) always has his back, no matter how broad. At the helm is Dany Garcia, his long-time manager, closest confident, producing partner and believe it or not, his ex wife.
It seems that having one’s ex wife be your business manager would certainly make for an awkward experience and a recipe for disaster, but the pair certainly make it work. Garcia’s intervention early in Johnson’s Hollywood career catapulted him into stardom. At the time, he was starring in family-oriented films, such as The Tooth Fairy, which was the complete opposite of his days in the WWE.
After a sort of an early-career crisis, and dropping weight because “this is what a Hollywood actor does,” Johnson formally asked Garcia, a business and finance executive with whom he had already been involved professionally, to take over his management. This move led to the duo dropping CAA and joining WME, and then having Johnson accept who he was. These risks paid off, with Johnson landing multiple action movie roles, all being financially lucrative.
Much like The Rock’s ongoing journey of achieving peak physical fitness, he and Garcia are not satisfied with his success. The pair have a plan for Johnson’s career to position him not only in Hollywood blockbusters, but to allow him to cross over into other genres. An example of this is his role as Spencer Strasmore, the retired NFL player turned financial advisor in HBO’s Ballers, to the opposite end of the spectrum and his role as Bob, the quirky CIA agent in Central Intelligence. Not only does this show his acting versatility, but also his willingness to test different roles.
The business relationship between Johnson and Garcia has been so successful that it led to the creation of their own production company, Seven Bucks, a seven-person team that was created in 2012. The company’s resources have been spread across many platforms including movies, television, lifestyle and a YouTube channel.
As if it does not sound like they have enough on their plate, Garcia said there are somewhere between 65 to 70 projects being worked on across various mediums.
If at first it seemed as if a 15-person representation team was a large number, after seeing how much The Rock and Dany Garcia have in the works, it makes one wonder if 15 people is too little! For more on Hollywood’s biggest star and the team behind him, check out the rest of the article in Newsweek here.