China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Skyscraper caper puts The Rock in a high place
A literal Hollywood giant and one of the most familiar faces to audiences in China, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has already dominated the country’s big screens twice in the first half of this year.
His first outing was the boxoffice smash, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the boardcum-video game action adventure. Then, in April, the former wrestler returned to theaters in the guise of primatologist Davis Okoye who’s tasked with solving a genetically-modified monster crisis in Rampage.
But now, the 195-centimeter-tall athlete turned actor, has reinterpreted the muscular hard-man role for his latest action epic.
In the upcoming film Skyscraper, he stars as a “wounded” hero, an amputee who has lost one leg, the Californiaborn star explained during his recent visit to Beijing, the latest stop on the film’s promotional tour.
An original tale, written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, the film will be released in Chinese mainland theaters on July 20, one week later than the film’s North American release.
The film is set in a fictional Hong Kong high-rise building called The Pearl, which, at over a kilometer tall and comprising of 240 floors, is depicted as the world’s tallest building in the movie. The plot centers around Johnson’s character, Will Sawyer, a US war veteran and former FBI hostage rescue specialist who loses a leg after being seriously injured during a mission.
Sawyer begins a new life as the eponymous skyscraper’s security consultant, but criminals start a fire and frame him. With dazzling stunts, including jumping from a giant crane into the burning building, the protagonist has to clear his name as well as rescue his family, who are trapped inside.
Speaking about his preparation for the role, Johnson recalls it was helpful to learn from Jeff Glasbrenner, the first American amputee to summit Qomolangma, the world’s highest peak.
“I would say the biggest challenge was making sure that I did right by people who are amputees, because, to my knowledge, this is the very first time in the history of Hollywood that a movie of this size portrays the central character as an amputee,” explains Johnson, who’s also credited as a producer on the movie.
“I was able to spend a lot of time with Jeff. He has really done extraordinary things as a human being … I was able to walk away from this movie with a higher respect for and consciousness about amputees,” he says, adding the acting experience has normalized his view about disabilities.
During the filming, Johnson wore a special mechanism to help him move like he only had one leg. It was wrapped in a green sock, to allow the special effects team to replace it with an artificial limb in postproduction.
“I want to make sure that I performed all the movements correctly and put in a respectful performance,” says the 46-year-old star.
Aside from the physical challenge, Johnson, a father of three children, also feels personally connected to the role. In the movie, Sawyer marries the doctor who treats him following his amputation — played by actress Neve Campbell — and has two children.
The cast also includes Singaporean actor Ng Chin Han, Taiwan model and actress, Hannah Quinlivan, and Hong Kong-born American actor, Byron Mann, who play the roles of The Pearl’s builder, a killer and a Hong Kong police officer, respectively.
An unlikely choice to play the villain, Quinlivan, also known to the public as the wife of Taiwan pop singer Jay Chou, says that acting the role was an interesting experience for her. She reveals she attended the audition in a wheelchair being pushed by her husband, just three days after giving birth by caesarean.
After winning the role, the new mother prepared for her villainous turn by exploring the darkest side of her own soul to accurately embody a ruthless killer, she explained at the Beijing news conference on July 3.
For US director Thurber, who is ironically scared of heights, Skyscraper is a love letter to his favorite movie Die Hard, a 1988 action thriller starring Bruce Willis as a New York policeman who has to rescue hostages in a Los Angeles high-rise.
The film itself will have a fight on its hands, facing off against the 60-odd new films slated for release during the July-August summer vacation — one of China’s most bankable box-office seasons.
“With a movie like Skyscraper, it has an epic scale. We want to make sure it cannot only to compete with the other rivals for the summer release, but also to stand out in a way,” says Johnson, confidently.
Reportedly, two more big box-office Hollywood blockbusters, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Mission: Impossible — Fallout, are also on course for a China release in August, but their dates have yet to be confirmed.
I was able to walk away from this movie with a higher respect for and consciousness about amputees.” Dwayne Johnson, actor