Dwayne Johnson gives tips to escape being ‘pigeonholed' in Hollywood

Dwayne Johnson just revealed how he breaks out of being “pigeonholed.”

The actor explained how The Smashing Machine gave him the opportunity to stop “chasing box office.”

Speaking at a press conference for Benny Safdie’s Venice Competition title, Johnson was in attendance with his co-star, Emily Blunt.

“The three of us have talked about, when you’re in Hollywood, it had become about box office,” said the Moana star.

He continued, “And you chase the box office, and the box office can be very loud and it can become very resounding and it can push you into a category and into a corner. This is your lane and this is what you do and this is what Hollywood wants you to do.”

“I just had this burning desire and voice that was saying, ‘What if there is more and what if I can?’,” added Johnson. “A lot of times, it’s harder for us — or at least for me — to know what you’re capable of when you’ve been pigeonholed into something. Sometimes it takes people that who you love and respect, like Emily and Benny, to say that you can.”

Johnson started his career as a wrestler in the WWE and has worked in blockbuster films as well after reevaluating his career.

“I started to think, am I living my dream or am I living other people’s dreams?” he mentioned, adding, “You come to that recognition and you can either fall in line — ‘Well, it’s status quo, things are good, I don’t want to rock the boat’ — or go, I want to live my dreams now and do what I want to do and have a place finally to put all this stuff that I’ve experienced in the past that I’ve shied away from.”

“I’ve been scared to go deep and intense and raw until now, until I had this opportunity,” the Jumanji talent confessed.

“I made those (previous) movies, and I liked them. Some were really good and did well. And some not so much,” Dwayne Johnson concluded.