Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, as he would like to be called, attended the 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards as he was awarded the Generation Award for being such a big inspiration to everyone. As the actor accepted the award, he delivered a very heartfelt speech that did strike the right chords with all the viewers! He began his speech by talking about the hardships he faced as he first dipped his feet in the pool of Hollywood.
"When I first got to Hollywood, Hollywood, they didn't know what the hell to do with me. I mean, I was half black, half Samoan, six foot four, 275 pound pro wrestler," he recalled and further continued, "I was told at that time you gotta be a certain way. You gotta drop some weight. You gotta be somebody different. You gotta stop working out, stop doing the things that I love. You gotta stop calling yourself 'The Rock.'" Further delving into how he decided to stop being somebody that he isn't, Johnson made a wise choice, "For years I actually bought into it because you think, oh, that's what—that's what I'm supposed to do. I was miserable doing that so I made a choice. The choice was I wasn't gonna conform to Hollywood. Hollywood was gonna conform to me."
As inspiring as it sounds, the central idea behind his speech is to be true to yourself. "Yes it's important to be yourself," he shared. "[But] you gotta recognize the joy and the responsibility of bringing everybody with you. We bring everybody with us and you do that by being kind, by being compassionate, by being inclusive and straight up, just being good to people because that matters." He continued, "And if you can hit that place, that's when you become influential. That's when you can have real global influence in a positive...When I was 15-years-old, I heard a quote and I will never forget it and I bring it with me everywhere. It's ingrained in my DNA. It's nice to be important but more important to be nice."
MTV's special award, The Generation Award celebrates the beloved actors from the industry who have provided diverse contributions to films and television. The previous recipients of the award are Chris Pratt, Will Smith, Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock and more.
