Gloucester, Mass. — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson brought some Hollywood glitter to Gloucester on what was otherwise a gray, drizzly day on Cape Ann.

The former college football player and World Wrestling Federation wrestler turned actor arrived at Addison Gilbert Hospital just after noon Wednesday where scenes for the Disney film “The Game Plan” are being shot over several days this week.

Word that the Hollywood actor and film crew were working at the hospital spread quickly throughout the city.

One Gloucester woman had the surprise of her life when she went to the hospital to visit a friend and found herself in the same elevator with Johnson.

“I almost missed my floor,” Brenda Delaney said. “I want to go back and get a picture if I don’t faint. I still feel like I’m going to pass out. I knew something was going on, but I never imagined this.”

Gloucester police Lt. Jerris Cook was working a detail yesterday for the filming, duties that seem to come up every year or so. He worked during the filming of the “The Perfect Storm” and “Baby’s in Black,” which was released as “Moonlight Mile.”

“It’s exciting to see all the action and different actors,” Cook said.

Barbara Brooks and her son Jordan, a Fuller School fifth-grader, learned about the movie when her son went for an X-ray at Addison Gilbert. The boy was more interested in seeing Johnson pull off one of his wrestling moves than obtaining an autograph. But the filming was contained to one area inside the hospital, which made catching a glimpse of the actor nearly impossible.

The central character in the film, which was previously known as “Daddy’s Girl,” is a professional football player on a fictitious New England team, the Boston Rebels.

“He’s a high-living bachelor, a star quarterback, who owns his own restaurant and then one day a kid knocks at his door. He thinks she’s probably selling cookies but she says ‘You’re my dad,’” explained publicist David Linck, who worked on Cape Ann in the same capacity during the filming of the Steven Spielberg movie “The Love Letter.”

Johnson, who stands 6-feet, 4-inches tall and weighs 240 pounds, was a high school football player before starting at the University of Miami. There he played with Warren Sapp and Ray Lewis, who are now playing in the National Football League.

“He never took a steroid in his life. He is hard work personified and he’s among the nicest persons I’ve worked with and I’ve been doing this 20 years,” Linck said. “His smile lights up the room.”

Johnson, the son of a wrestler, was prevented from pursuing an NFL career after suffering an injury. He turned to professional wrestling, where he earned the name “The Rock.” His father was called Rocky “Soul Man” Johnson.

In the film, actress Kyra Sedgwick plays the role of Johnson’s agent, who is suspicious of the young girl’s paternity claim after her mother dies.

But once Johnson’s fatherhood is confirmed, he has to adapt to his new role as a parent at the same time he is preparing for a championship game.

“He comes to love this little girl and learn what it’s like to be a parent,” said Linck, who said this is the funniest movie he has worked on since “City Slickers.”

The producers, Mark Ciardi, who briefly played professional baseball, and Gordon Gray, have a history of hit movies involving sports, including “Invincible,” “The Rookie” and “Miracle.”

“The Game Plan” has a cast and crew of 250.

Filming has also taken place at Gillette Stadium, the football stadium at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, at Lawrence Municipal Airport in North Andover, and in Framingham.

In the scene unfolding at Addison Gilbert during the morning shoot, a stand-in for Johnson was seen rushing a small girl in his arms into the emergency room after she has an allergic reaction to peanuts. Scenes were also planned for inside the emergency room and a hospital room.

Lynn and Sean Sigman of Somerset, the parents of the young stand-in for the actress playing Johnson’s daughter, stood under their umbrellas in the light rain while the film crew buzzed around them in action.

They watched as their 7-year-old daughter Ali was whisked away in the arms of a handsome stand-in, who is Johnson’s second cousin, Tanoai Reed. Both Reed, a stunt coordinator in Los Angeles, and the Rock are of Samoan descent.

This was Lynn Sigman’s first trip to Gloucester and the entire family is loving their stay here, even 3-year-old Benjamin Sigman.

“It’s a beautiful place, the food’s great and were just enjoying it all,” Lynn Sigman said. “Ali just loves the acting, the travel and the attention. She’s treated like a queen.”

Ali Sigman, whose long curls bounce with every step, has taken dance classes since she was 18 months old. The actress in the film playing Johnson’s daughter is Madison Pettis.

Also on the set Wednesday was local actress Heidi Dallin, who was dressed in a blue nurse’s uniform.

Peter Anastas, a writer and local historian, knows that Cape Ann has a long history as a filming site, going back far longer than recent decades. Its picturesque waterfront locations and perhaps its relatively isolated location away from urban chaos have attracted filmmakers for nearly a century.

Anastas remembers well his mother telling him the story of the 1937 filming here of Rudyard Kipling’s “Captains Courageous,” starring Spencer Tracy, who won an Oscar for playing the role of a Gloucester fisherman, a doryman in particular, who worked off the Grand Banks.

“She told the story many times,” he said.

Even prior to that, “Bride 13, “ a 1919 silent serial, was shot on Salt Island and even before that “As Ye Sow,” a 1915 silent film, was also filmed here.

credit: mexia daily news