American actor, film producer, and retired professional wrestler Dwayne Johnson was the first guest to be featured on Spotify’s highly anticipated original podcast What Now? with Trevor Noah.
On the first episode of What Now?, Trevor and Dwayne got real discussing everything from Dwayne’s troubled youth and his lifelong struggles with depression. Dwayne also speaks about listening, understanding and responding to public feedback surrounding the launch of his fund following the Maui fires, and whether he’d ever consider running for President of the United States.
Dwayne said he always wanted to be a wrestler, and loved the antics and characters of it. he said back in the 80s wrestling was a whole different. He added that it was a unique experience in that a lot of people bought into it and they felt like it was real.
“I loved all that, and I had a front-row seat watching my dad and my grandfather and everybody in my family live their passions and it’s what they, I believe, were all born to do… And so. I think the yearning of, it started to happen for me when to be honest, when we were evicted from Hawaii. So we were living in a little apartment. We were evicted when I was 13 or 14,” said Dwayne.
Pivotal moment in life
Speaking about starting the People’s Fund of Maui and reacting to the initial backlash, he said it took him a couple of weeks to really process that. He said he felt like that moment was a pivotal moment for me in my life for a few reasons.
“Number one, I want to go back to the brass tacks of it and the whole idea of creating this fund, the People’s Fund of Maui, is to help people and help them survive and thrive. These are my people. These are my Polynesian people. My Hawaiian Kanaka Ohana. My grandparents. They’re all buried in the islands, you know. So it meant so much to me. And I know it meant so much to our people.”
“It’s really beautiful, but what’s interesting is when all that started to happen and the backlash started to happen and it started to come our way. So I always feel like in moments like that, it’s important. Not to get caught up in it. It’s important just to pause. Let’s be prudent. Let’s pause. But let me just wait and see. And. I felt like my gut said it was going to take a couple of weeks, but let me really take a look at it. I don’t want to respond to it right now.”
