The Rock makes big splash
in Be Cool
By Jamie Portman ? CanWest News Service

CENTURY CITY, Calif. ? He brought the other side to a shuddering halt as a
star defensive lineman for the University of Miami Hurricanes. In the wrestling
ring, he sent beefy adversaries hurtling through the ozone with such impressive
dispatch that he set a record as a six-time World Wrestling Federation Champion.
And when he moved over to the big screen, he brought mythic stature to the role
of The Scorpion King and was a formidable small-town sheriff in Walking Tall.

But The Rock, a.k.a Dwayne Johnson, admits that the acting job offered him in
Be Cool posed a different kind of challenge.

He figures that every actor worth his salt wants to do something ?fearless
? where they can jump off the cliff.? Well, the role of Elliot Wilhelm in
the new MGM action comedy offered the opportunity to take that jump.

Elliott is an underworld bodyguard, a massive guy with more brawn than brain
and the ability to break somebody?s neck with the flip of a wrist. But he?s
really a frustrated actor and singer who sports this impressive Afro and sees an
ability to curl his eyebrow as evidence of his thespianic gifts

Stealing the scene

More to the point, this monumental tough guy also happens to be gay. Even
more to the point, every time The Rock is on the screen, he?s stealing the
scene from such formidable acting competition as John Travolta, Uma Thurman,
Harvey Keitel, Vince Vaughn and Cedric The Entertainer.

?I didn?t take the role specifically to get away from the action
genre,? The Rock explains. ?I took the role because for me it was a meaty
role ? it was a challenge ? an opportunity to play a guy who was conflicted
in a world he didn?t want to be in and at the same time felt he had something
to offer the world through song and dance. And he was a proud gay man who by the
end of the movie embraced being gay even more.?

Be Cool, which opens March 4, is the long-awaited sequel to Get Shorty and
further chronicles the adventures and misadventures of mobster Chili Palmer (Travolta)
as he brings his underworld expertise and laid-back style to the world of
entertainment. In the earlier movie, Chili gets into the movie business. In this
one, he switches to the music industry and discovers a world that is just as
dangerous and predatory as the one he left.

Both films are based on novels by the indestructible Elmore Leonard. And in
the case of Be Cool, the veteran writer was actually thinking of The Rock when
he created the character of Elliot, the gay bodyguard.

?I met Elmore, which was a thrill. He had come in from Detroit and he said:
?Oh thank you so much for doing the movie. I wrote this for you six or seven
years ago ? and I thought of you ? this aspiring actor.??

The Rock was both flattered and amused.

?I said: ?Where did the gay part come from?? And he said: ?Oh no! I
just thought that would be interesting.? I said: ?I love it. It?s
great!? ?

But will The Rock?s macho fans love it?

?I have always wanted to entertain?

?I think they?re going to be very supportive,? he says confidently,
?because at the end of the day, I have always wanted to entertain, and I think
they would appreciate my taking on the role.?

He doesn?t believe the gay community will object either.

?I didn?t want to turn anything into a mockery or a Saturday Night Live
skit, but to try and play it as straight as I possibly could ? no pun
intended.

?The temperature that I?m reading from the gay community and the gauge
from the gay community has all been very very positive. So hopefully it will
stay that way.?

The Rock, who lives in Florida with his wife and daughter when he?s not
working, says that he had no trouble understanding where Elliot comes from.

?In terms of drawing things from my own life, I connected with Elliot.
Here?s this aspiring actor ? that was me five years ago. This is a guy who
doesn?t have any money ? that was me eight years ago.?

Then there are The Rock?s own positive feelings about the gay community.

?I was lucky in my life because I had a lot of positive gay influences and
my mentor for many years was a strong, steadfast, truthful gay man (Pat
Patterson) who, by the way, I?ve seen kick a lot of people?s asses ? he
was a former professional wrestler.?

The Rock even gets the chance to sing in Be Cool. One of the funniest
sequences features a music video in which a garishly costumed Elliot
demonstrates his questionable vocal prowess with a rendition of Loretta Lynn?s
You Ain?t Woman Enough.

Singing ambitions

?I?ve never sung before, certainly not in movies,? laughs The Rock,
adding that at home he drives his family crazy whenever he breaks into song. But
in his preliminary discussions with Be Cool director F. Gary Gray, he suggested
that Elliot would be even more interesting if he had singing ambitions ? and
since the actor was a big fan of The Coal Miner?s Daughter, why not have him
bawl out something by Loretta Lynn? ?It makes sense, a gay man singing to
another gay man,? he adds mischievously.

credit: halifaxnews