Dwayne Johnson is opening up about how his divorce from ex-wife Dany Garcia shaped both his personal life and career.
The actor and producer, 53, reflected on that difficult period while speaking at Chapman University for The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast.
“I can look back on that time with real clarity these days... things were a little cloudy,” Johnson began as he looked back on the kind of movies he did when his divorce was still recent.
He explained, “I loved making those movies. I also think I manifested those because I don’t think I was ready for anything other than easy, light, family films that made me feel good.”
During those years, Johnson starred in several family-friendly hits, including The Game Plan (2007), Race to Witch Mountain (2009), and Tooth Fairy (2010).
“At that time, I was also going through a separation and a divorce,” he said. “When you get married, you sign up for the long haul, but it doesn’t always work out like that. It rocked me like it rocked me. And we had a baby. What kind of father was I going to be?”
“Anyway, I feel like at that time I was really going through it,” Johnson continued. “That was another bout of depression. I was trying to figure my stuff out, and that was the only thing I really wanted to do artistically. I didn’t want anything that was going to challenge me to rip my guts out. I wanted stuff that had a happy ending.”
Johnson and Garcia married in 1997 and welcomed their daughter Simone in 2001. They announced their separation in 2007 but remained close friends and business partners, co-founding Seven Bucks Productions in 2012.
He later married singer Lauren Hashian in 2019, with whom he shares two daughters, Jasmine, 9, and Tiana, 6.