“It Was Planned By …”

“He got bit by the acting bug.”

We’ve all heard this expression before, and when it comes to a legend of WWE, this rule applied.

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson recently shared his ‘bit by the acting bug’ story when reflecting on his decision to make the transition from WWE mega-star to Hollywood hopeful.

During an appearance on The Hollywood Reporter Actor Roundtable, Johnson looked back on his acting debut in “The Scorpion King,” which led to him explaining how he discovered he had been “bit by the acting bug.”

“Well, I think it was planned by something more powerful than me, for sure,” he started. “Destiny, I believe in the universe, but I also wanted to grow, and I wanted to challenge myself.”

‘The Great One’ continued, “My first acting gig was ‘The Mummy Returns’ with Brendan Fraser. We were shooting in Morocco in the Sahara Desert, and I was so sick cause I went over there, and I probably ate something I shouldn’t have eaten. So, I caught that thing, and it’s 110 degreees. I’m freezing. I’m wearing a blanket.

“Stephen Sommers comes over, the director, ‘Hey, you okay?’ I’m like, ‘yeah, I’m okay. Let’s do it.’ He calls action. We have our scene. And I had never acted before, but he called action. And when he says cut, you know, we hear the ‘Oh, you got bit by the acting bug, the thing that happens.’ When he yelled cut, I went, ‘This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’”

And there you have it.