Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson says he’s “learning how” to hit the proverbial pause button more often, and he has Complex’s own Speedy Morman to thank for it.
In a video shared to Instagram over the weekend, Johnson, whose Moana 2 is currently the No. 1 movie in the country, let fans know that he was doing something truly rare, at least for him and others whose schedules remain brimming with commitments, fulfilling or otherwise.
“It’s so good to finally be home,” Rock told fans on Saturday. “I’ve just been running and gunning this entire year nonstop. It feels so good to be home. I think you can hear the ocean waves crashing behind me. It’s a beautiful sound. Perpetual, powerful. The swaying palm trees of Hawaii. Man, there’s no place like home.”
Johnson continued, “So I’m doing something right now that I have not done in easily over a year. You’re like, not drink tequila? No, not that. That’s forever. No, I’m doing something that I have not done in easily over a year and it’s put my feet up. Putting ‘em up, relaxing. We all work hard and we should enjoy and put our feet up. I know a lot of you guys do that well. I need to do a better job of it.”
“Finally,” Speedy, whose 360 interview with Johnson (seen in full above) has been cited by the man himself as one of his personal favorites, said when hopping into the comments. “Happy for you, bro. Stay a while.”
Johnson was quick to reply, noting that Speedy was “the one who motivated me to do this.”
While doing research for his one-on-one conversation with The Rock, as Speedy explained in a subsequent TikTok, he came to the realization that the star of Benny Safdie’s upcoming The Smashing Machine likely didn’t have much time for “a lot of fun.” This ultimately led to Speedy asking Johnson about whether his assumption was true, marking a question for which Johnson seemed genuinely grateful.
“My job is to ask questions, so asking a question that is thought-provoking and could somehow incite a change in someone of that stature is really all you could ask for,” Speedy told fans.
To that end, we could all take a page from Speedy and Dwayne’s book. Pushing through full-fledged burnout, for example, can have detrimental consequences. If one is able, it’s key to carve out time for yourself amid the chaos. As trite as it is to say, much less type, it remains true: This life is best viewed as a marathon, not a sprint.