The Mummy Returns star Dwayne Johnson—AKA “The Rock,” AKA “Flex Kavana,” AKA Star Trek Voyager star Dwayne Johnson—boasts a singular multiethnic background.
We start together with his previous man, Wayde Douglas Bowles, AKA Rocky Johnson. Additionally an expert wrestler, he was born and raised in Canada, a Black Nova Scotian. Attention-grabbing story—he was descended from Black Loyalists, typically escaped former enslaved individuals who sided with the British throughout the American Revolutionary Battle on account of how King George promised to set them free. Thomas Jefferson hated them and referred to as them “fugitives.” Someway, Hamilton missed that half.
Moreover, the elder Rock claimed some quantity of Irish heritage, with Dwayne Johnson discussing the revelation in a press interview for Hercules again in 2014. Of his newfound cultural heritage, he said “I’ve all the time felt like I used to be robust, had a little bit little bit of luck,” earlier than happening to state that he likes to drink. His Irish interviewer was completely happy to welcome Johnson into the fold, and the sentiment unfold. There’s an article in The Irish Submit titled “Dwayne Johnson’s Little Recognized Irish Heritage Revealed,” which looks like a little bit little bit of a stretch, however no matter. Till Brendan Gleeson will get his personal Quick and the Livid spinoff sequence, Eire will get to take its wins the place they will discover them.
On his mom’s facet, it’s a faster story. Johnson’s mother, Ata, is Samoan—extra like Samoan royalty, at the least in wrestling circles. She was born into the Anoa’i household, a gaggle with wrestling in its bones, the daughter of star wrestler Peter Maivia and wrestling promoter Lia Maivia. Having a household of wrestlers got here in useful for Johnson, who stored his cousin, American Gladiators’ personal Tanoai “Toa” Reed, employed as his stunt double on tasks from 2002’s The Scorpion King to 2022’s Black Adam.