Dwayne Johnson has revealed that his 2007 divorce from ex-wife Dany Garcia not only took a toll on his mental health but also altered the trajectory of his acting career, prompting him to seek out roles that offered emotional comfort.
Speaking on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, the actor said the end of his 16-year marriage deeply affected him, especially as he co-parented their daughter, Simone, now 24.
“When you get married, as a few of you may know, you sign up for the long haul, but then it doesn’t always work out like that,” Johnson said. “And then it rocks you, like it rocked me. We had a baby, and I asked myself what kind of father I was going to be.”
The Moana star shared that he struggled with depression during that time, which led him to pivot towards lighter, family-oriented films like The Game Plan and Tooth Fairy.
“I was trying to figure my stuff out, and that was the only thing that I really wanted to do artistically,” he admitted. “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 said he genuinely enjoyed making those films, describing them as a form of self-therapy. “I felt I had manifested them during a time when I needed positivity and healing,” he added.
Despite the heartbreak, Johnson and Garcia continued to work together through their production company, Seven Bucks Productions.
On the work front, Johnson was last seen in the sports biopic The Smashing Machine, where he played mixed martial arts and UFC fighter Mark Kerr.