Young Rock will focus on different chapters of Dwayne Johnson’s life. One of those chapters centers around 15-year-old Dwayne, played by Bradley Constant. After getting cast in the show, Bradley was able to chat with Dwayne to help get into character. HollywoodLife talked EXCLUSIVELY with Bradley about how Dwayne helped him lose “a lot of nerves” after their call.
“So after I booked it, I was able to chat with him,” Bradley told HollywoodLife. “We had a full-on hour conversation the first time. I hit him with a bunch of questions. I was like, ‘Alright, look, I gotta be ready for character prep.’ Obviously, I was nervous to meet Dwayne Johnson. I came in and was like, ‘What’s up Rock?’ And then three questions: ‘First, what were the top three most important things to you as a 15-year-old?’ He said, ‘Girls.’ And then he said family and working out was really important to him as a regular thing because, at that time, he used to work out with his dad a lot, any chance he could get. You see that when he was little. He would try to go any chance he’d get. Once he was 15, he started actually getting to be a bigger size and all of that. Once we got past those initial kind of character prep questions, it really just became a very genuine, casual conversation. He’s such a really genuine guy. What you see is what you get when you talk to him, and it feels like normal. You forget you’re talking to Dwayne Johnson for a bit, you know? We kind of shared some shared experiences about being a teenager and that made me feel so comfortable. I lost a lot of nerves after that going into shooting.”
During their discussion, Bradley noted that there was one thing that Dwayne said about his time as a teenager that surprised him. “This one’s not specifically like a big deal,” Bradley said. “But he told me he was a Giants fan, which kind of threw me off. Who’s a Giants fan? Where did that come from?” He continued: “But I think there was no one thing that really surprised me because we had no idea what he was like at that time. I had no expectations either, so I think it did surprise me how much I found relatable with him.”
Bradley’s version of young Dwayne is set in 1987. The actor teased what to expect during this pivotal time period in Dwayne’s life. “You’ll get probably a lot of your favorite high school moments,” Bradley revealed. “You meet Karen in the first episode and that relationship takes a lot of awesome, crazy twists and turns throughout the whole timeline in that era. But it’s not just about the girls, it’s about the relationship between his home life and his school life. What’s more important to him? The way he wants to present himself to this girl and at school? He may do bad things to try to impress them, and it makes life a lot harder on his mom. His mom frequently reminds him throughout this timeline that family is more important. That’s a huge theme of the whole show.”
Dwayne Johnson is undeniably one of the world’s biggest stars. Having worked with him, Bradley can see why Dwayne is so beloved globally. “When I first met him, immediately the Dwayne Johnson factor kind of just dissolved,” Bradley told HollywoodLife. “He’s really just a genuine, really kind, really positive guy. He’s very motivational but in a very honest way. You could talk to him on the side of the street as a random person. I think a lot of people really gravitate towards that.” Young Rock will air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on NBC.