How Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Came Back From Rock Bottom People's 'Sexiest Man Alive,' who, oh yeah, is also the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, has launched a new YouTube series called 'Seven Bucks Moment.'
By Stephen J. Bronner Edited by Dan Bova
Ever feel like you've hit rock bottom? Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has.
People's "Sexiest Man Alive," who, oh yeah, is also the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, launched a new YouTube series Tuesday called "Seven Bucks Moment." In the premiere entry, Johnson discusses the lowest point in his life: when he was cut from the Canadian Football League after two months.
"I was so broke that I couldn't even afford a cab to the airport," Johnson says in the video.
He was 23 or 24 at the time, and he returned home to Miami and called his father for a ride back to his parents's apartment. In his father's truck, Johnson discovered that he had only $7 in his pocket -- hence the name of the series.
Related: People's 'Sexiest Man Alive' Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson on How to Be a YouTube Star
"It's the time in your life when you faced such adversity, such challenges, and you felt you had hit rock bottom and there was no place to go but rise back up again," Johnson says. "We've all been there. We've all been through hard times, and we know what it's like to get our asses kicked and get knocked down, but we also know what it's like to come back up again."
For two weeks, Johnson sat in his parents's apartment watching the O.J. Simpson trial and cleaning "every scuff mark" he found.
"Then I realized there was something else for me. The world was going to hear from me," he says. "I didn't know how. I didn't know when. But I did know my life wasn't just sitting around this apartment. I started turning my life around and I started training again."
Johnson decided to end his pursuit of a professional football career to go into professional wrestling. As he puts it in the video: "The rest, as they say, is history."
Watch The Rock tell his story here:
