You’re not wrong if you think every awards show that comes out of Hollywood is an insufferable bore.
It’s a bunch of multimillionaire celebrities pandering to working class Americans about how humble they are and how their roots were “just like you.”
But sometimes there’s an exception and that was on full display Monday night when Dwayne Johnson gave some beautiful heartfelt “Rock” solid advice at the MTV Awards show when he received a high honor.
The early part of every year is when the major awards shows happen, which include the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.
In early 2017, Hollywood celebrities clamored about their disdain for President Trump and that’s why ratings fell so drastically because the last thing people want to hear is rich snobs infusing liberal political rhetoric into their speeches.
They all did it. Academy Award winner Meryl Streep was the best example of this. It caused millions of Americans to change the channel and give up on Hollywood altogether.
But then you have the good ones. Chris Pratt is a conservative pro-gun Christian and he’s one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Tim Allen is a proud unapologetic conservative whose fourth installment in the “Toy Story” franchise is about to hit theaters this upcoming Friday.
Keanu Reeves is having an outstanding year and will also appear as Duke Caboom in “Toy Story 4.” One of the reasons why he’s so beloved isn’t just his genuine persona; it’s also because he doesn’t bloviate about his political affiliation like the rest of them.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is one of the biggest icons in the world and nobody demands more in the box office as a movie star than him right now. On Monday night, Johnson accepted the Generation Award at the 2019 MTV Movie and TV Awards and his speech was rather inspiring.
His surprising humility was on full display when he said, “I also want to thank my family at home. My girls — I got a houseful of strong ass women. But mainly, I want to thank the ones who make this whole thing happen. I want to thank you — the people, the fans. I thank you. All of you at home, you are the reason I’m getting this, so I wanna share a really quick lesson with you guys that I’ve learned over the years.”
It was then that he let us in on his journey to superstardom.
He said, “The most powerful thing that we can be is ourselves. I love what Zachary 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. 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 six foot four, 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?!”
Johnson candidly mentioned, “What you saw here tonight, that’s who I am. I’m proudly half-black and half-Samoan and I wanted to bring those cultures here for the world to see. So yes, it’s important that you are your most authentic self,” he said referencing the Samoan dance performance. I’m a walking example of that, but here’s the thing that I want to share with you guys – that’s not enough. Because there’s another side to being your authentic self, your true self – and that’s the side that the magic is on. That’s the side that’s gold. While yes, it’s important to be yourself – you’ve got to recognize the joy and the responsibility of bringing everybody with you. And you do that by being kind, by being compassionate, by being inclusive and straight up just being good to people because that matters.”
What he’s talking about is incredibly rare, especially by Hollywood standards. They rule with an iron fist and they’re the ones who decide who will be famous even if there are surprises now and again. Johnson might be the biggest surprise in Hollywood history given his WWE background and wrestlers/athletes largely don’t do well in movies.
Finally he concluded, “When I was 15 years old, I heard a quote and I will never forget, and I bring it with me everywhere I go and it’s ingrained in my DNA. The quote is this: ‘It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.’”
That last quote is also a rarity in Hollywood. It’s good to see some celebrities like Chris Pratt, Keanu Reeves and Dwayne Johnson stay humble. That’s why they’re so beloved.