SALT LAKE CITY — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson received the Icon Generation Award on Monday night at the MTV Movie & TV Awards, becoming a pop culture icon.
Johnson thanked the normal assortment of people — fans, family and those who helped him along the way. But he said it’s important to be yourself.
- “The most powerful thing that we can be is ourselves. I love what Zachary (Levi) was saying because that's us. We were always that little kid. We're still that little kid. Right — just aspiring to be something better. Aspiring to be important.”
Johnson said that he rose through Hollywood without conforming to traditional Hollywood standards, according to Fox News.
- “When I first got to Hollywood — Hollywood, they didn't know what the hell to do with me. I mean, I was this half-black, half-Samoan and 6-foot-4, 275-pound pro wrestler. You know; I was told at that time, 'Well, you got to be a certain way. You got to drop some weight. You've got to be somebody different. You got to stop working out. Stop doing the things that I love. You got to stop calling yourself 'The Rock.' What?!”
- “And for years I actually bought into it because you think, 'Oh, that's what I'm supposed to do.' And I was miserable doing that. So I made a choice. And the choice was I wasn't going to conform to Hollywood, Hollywood was going to conform to me. So, Hollywood conformed to me and here I am with all of you getting the Generation Award.”
- "When I was 15, I heard a quote and I'll never forget it, 'It's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice.'"
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Context: Johnson received the Icon Generation Award, which has previously honored such celebrities as Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pratt, Will Smith, and Robert Downey Jr., according to CNN.