Mark Davis/Getty Images
He was already a star, but Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson officially cemented his celeb status Tuesday as he imprinted his hands and feet outside of the famous TCL Chinese Theatre.
The Fast and Furious actor gave a shout out to Steven Spielberg for showing up and thanked him for sending him a letter “out of the blue.” He previously opened up about the letter on his Facebook page and even talked to E! News about it, but he took his honorary ceremony as another opportunity to thank the Oscar-winning director.
“This man who has inspired me over the years, inspired movie-making and created characters that I loved…this man told me: ‘you’re going for it, and just keep going for it,'” he said.
During his imprinting ceremony, The Rock told E!’s Jesse Giddens that his cementing ceremony was an “honor” and that he couldn’t believe who turned out for it.
NEWS: Listen to Sia’s song from the San Andreas soundtrack!
“I took moment to be grateful before the ceremony,” he said. “I’m lucky there’s Spielberg, Clint Eastwood right there, my mentors right there. It’s awesome!”
Johnson didn’t stay in Los Angeles too much longer, as he appeared on NBC’s Today show Wednesday to talk about his career and his upcoming action-adventure movie, San Andreas. He told the morning show hosts that he feels really “lucky” to “play a guy like this.”
The buff actor plays a first responder who constantly puts his life on the line for others, but then goes home and has to try and figure out his struggling relationship with his daughter. There is a scene where he has to cry on camera, which he revealed came kind of easily because he was “prepared” for it.
PHOTOS: Stars who started in the WWE
“I’m a divorced man. I know what it’s like to love my young 13-year-old daughter but also struggle with the relationship and hopefully you’re being a good dad, he said, “but the idea of losing my daughter and not being able to save her like we showcase in the movie…in an instant it brings you to tears.”
Although the movie has its “Terms of Endearment” moments, both Savannah Guthrie and the former professional wrestler insist that it’s “nonstop action.”
“The goal was to make an epic movie and hopefully redefine and help elevate a genre—the natural disaster genre—but also we wanted to make sure that we were anchoring it with something special, which was family,” he said.
San Andreas opens May 29.
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)
PHOTOS: More upcoming movies we’re excited about
RELATED VIDEOS:
