The Rock Speech: Be Nice!
Learn English with The Rock’s speech. From the day he was born, Dwayne Johnson knew exactly how he was going to make his mark on this world. Through sheer hard work, dedication, and guidance from mentors-Dwayne went from wrestling in high school gyms and empty motels alongside his father, to winning the WWE Championship, to becoming a global brand—The Rock. But after years of laying the foundation and building upon his success, The Rock’s life-long mantra is still ‘BE NICE!’ In short: be nice to everyone you meet because you don’t know what they’re dealing with or how they’re feeling.
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The Rock “Quote”
“It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.” The Rock
The Rock | “Quotes” from English Speeches
The Rock | FULL TRANSCRIPT:
“Thank you. Thank you, thank you so much. Thank you. I paid you guys a lot of money and I love you too. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. I want to thank, thank you, thank you to the city of Los Angeles. Thank you for this, the wonderful speeches that you guys have given on my behalf, thank you. Thank you to my friend, Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony; we go back a long way… I first started my career, one of the first movies I did was with Tom, we did the Tooth Fairy. So yeah, Whoo! And I remember calling Tom, and I said Tom, you know, as your guy, your star of the movie, I’m so committed to this movie. I’m so committed to ice skating. I’ve never ice-skated in my life. I tried to ice skate one time; we had rehearsals, I fell and I almost killed myself. I said Tom, I don’t think I’m gonna be able to ice skate in the movie. We’re gonna have to figure something out. There was a long pause, he goes, you do know you’re a Pro Hockey player, right? I said I do, yes. Long pause and as great chairmen of our industry will say and do, he pauses, he goes, you just go out there and kick ass. Let me take care of the rest. So Tom, thank you so much. I appreciate that.
I also want to, I want to recognize a few people who are here who came. We have my good friend, Josh Greenstein is here. Some say S-T-E-I-N some say S-T-Y-N-E. Josh, where are you, buddy? There he is. He is a marketing and distribution genius. Josh, thank you so much for everything we’ve done together over the years and we’re very excited obviously about Jumanji.
My good friend, the president, the man over at Warner Brothers now, Toby Emmerich. Toby, thank you so much for coming out. All the movies we’ve done in the past. Of course, we have Rampage coming out. I appreciate it. Thank you so much, and thank you so much for paying my full freight price. Thank you. Blair Rich… Blair Rich, we love you. Thank you so much, Blair from Warner Brothers. Thank you for coming.
So, I got to say this, I didn’t write anything down. I didn’t wanna write anything down. I figured this is such a monumental moment and significant time for me. I just felt like it’s probably best I just speak from the heart and from my gut. Now, if I happen to, if you hear me say, hold on a second, that just means I’m getting a little emotional, I’m just going to calm myself down. Yes, and then I’ll reset and everything will be good. You know, this moment means… it’s so significant because it means full circle. And I came into this business, 2018 will mark 18 years in Hollywood. And that is a very long time, a blood sweat and earning respect and doing the things that we do, that we like saying on social media. You know, we talk about our almost 200 million fans and family that we have on social media; all of you are here, we talk about being the hardest workers in the room, we talk about getting after it, we talk about getting up at four o’clock in the morning. Well, maybe that’s me. But, you too, nice. Well, it does come full circle because when I got into this business, I didn’t come in the traditional way. I didn’t go get my headshots done in black and white. Although I would have used color, ‘cause my skin is kind of good-looking and, yeah, I gotta exfoliate. So I might have chosen the color headshots, but I didn’t come in that way. I came in a different route. I made my teeth cut, cut my teeth, made my bones in the wild and crazy world of professional wrestling in the WWE. Thank you. Can I get some water? The people’s water, yes. It’s actually vodka. But yes, thank you.
The only thing I knew when I got into this business and these guys will tell you, Ron Meyer who’s not here, was part of that group, of course, Toby and Tom and so many others is, the only thing I knew was I was gonna be committed to putting in the work and I was going to put in the work my own two hands. That was what I was gonna do. So, for me, years later, to be here and celebrate this and get this star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame signifies things coming full circle, but also signifies one of three things that I wanted to share with you guys today. And the first thing is the willingness to always put in the hard work with our two hands. Because at the end of the day, regardless of what our dreams are, regardless of what we do now, what we want to do in the future, whatever it is you want to do, it will always come down to working your ass off and putting in the work. So that’s the first thing.
The second thing I thought I should say, it’s probably the most important, is gratitude. Now, yeah, thank you for saying, whoa, cause I’m almost there… hold on a second. It’s gratitude. I am so grateful. I wake up every day. My heart is so full of gratitude for the position that I’m in, for the opportunities that I have, for the opportunities that I’m able to create. But guys, here’s the thing with success, right? We’re here. We’re celebrating this, we’re in the mecca; this is Hollywood. We’re in LA, we’re the mecca of entertainment around the world. It all starts right here, right? So, here’s the thing with success. There is no success regardless of what you do, right? We all have different careers here. There’s no success alone. You don’t do it alone. No, no, it takes a team. So, I am so grateful right now to just, to recognize a few people in my life and it just a few and they are here, who, without them, there would be no me.
So the first, yes, so the first one would be my biggest fan. You know who I’m talking about. Well, yes, but she is literally my biggest fan. When we met President Obama and his beautiful wife, Michelle, she takes out the photo album; would you like to see my son? This is him as a baby. My mom Ata Johnson, the strongest woman I know. Mom, I love you. Love you. Yes, that’s Mama Rock. It’s crazy. We were driving over here and she was like, did you ever think this would be possible? I said, no! I said God, you know, no, not at all… I said we were evicted when I was 15 and now we’re here. This is amazing. Yes. God is good. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
Next person is when I first had my first lunch with this man and I said, look, I don’t know. I don’t have the answers on how we’re gonna get there. But I just know there’s a bigger future for us and there’s greatness in the future. I don’t know how we’re gonna get there, but I’m committed to you to getting there. He goes, brother, we don’t have to know how we’re gonna get there. Just know, we’re gonna get there and when we do get there, we’re going to keep going and we’re not going to stop. This man has been in our lives for years. He is our lead agent, is a partner at WME, the company which represents me. His name is Brad Slater. I’m so grateful, your brother. Thank you so much for being here. You are the man. Thank you.
Another guy who I have to mention… Actually, before I mention him, there’s two directors I think are here. My first director, I think is Jake here? So Jakey, Jake Kasdan, ladies, and gentlemen, is director of Jumanji. Welcome to the Jungle, brother. Thank you so much for being here. Jake said, I want to create a character that the world has never seen you play before and he was right. And considering how audiences around the world have already seen the movie and loving it, you are right Jake. So thank you so much.
Another director who is here. We directed Central Intelligence together. We have a big movie, yes, we have a big movie coming. Well, I know you’re cheering for me and not Kevin Hart. We have a big movie coming out this summer called Skyscraper. He is a dear friend, he is my brother and he is a phenomenal collaborator and a brilliant creative writer-director, Rawson Thurber. Thank you so much for being here. And you just had a baby. Congratulations! Yes. Soon as we find out who the dad is, I’ll congratulate you again. Phenomenal.
This next guy is, he is our number one producing partner, and I’ve known him for years. He matches my ambition, my drive, and he is so successful. We have done, we produce movies like Hercules and Journey to Mysterious Island and what I mean, San Andreas, Rampage coming out, Jungle Crowd, I mean you name it. The best part about this man is, he is an amazing father to his two daughters two beautiful daughters, and he’s also a high-quality human being and it matters. Character matters these days, especially these days in Hollywood and everywhere else, right? Being a good person, a decent person matters, high-quality human being. He’s my brother, and I’m so grateful that you’re here, both Lynn. Thank you.
Alright, next guy is, he started off as my assistant on The Scorpion King. He overslept so many times, I had to go pick him up. He is my assistant. I’m not kidding. It’s unbelievable. That’s like, there’s no way this kid’s gonna make it. There’s no way. Years later, he is, I’ve known him since I was 18 years old since he was 14 years old; years later, he is the president of Seven Bucks Productions, Hiram Garcia. I love you. I’m so proud of you and thank you so much. Thank you so, so much for being here. I appreciate you… Hiram’s sister is a woman who co-founded Seven Bucks with me. She founded the Garcia Companies and, which is a holding company, management company for enterprise. She’s an incredible partner. She is also my ex-wife and the mother of our beautiful sixteen-year-old daughter Simone, who, we are so proud of her. So just this past week within the past two-three weeks, Simone was named the very first, very first-ever Golden Globes Ambassador. Yes, and just this past Monday, she was up at 2 a.m. with her mom and they were getting ready and at 4:45, I think they were announcing the Golden Globes nominations. Simone, you are not here. I love you so much. You inspire me every day. I miss you. I wish you were here, but ladies and gentlemen, I want to introduce you to her mom, a real force in Hollywood, and again, one of the greatest human beings ever, Mrs. Dany Garcia Rienzi.
Little bit of water… Little bit of this… Alright, here we go. People’s water. You know I love you, too. Thank you.
Okay. So, you know, the success part is… Yeah a little, you know… The people’s towel. Yes. Yes, buddy. For those of you who don’t know in the world of the WWE, I’m known as the one and only people’s champion.
And yes, yes… And in the world of the WWE like on the count of three, they all start chanting Rocky 1, 2 3. Thank you. Thank you, you know, the Peoples Champ, by the way, that moniker was given to me by the one and only, Muhammad Ali and I thank you, and I thank his presence today. You know, this kind of… people always ask me, well you know, what’s the secret to success? What’s the secret? I said, well, there’s not just one secret. Well, what are the many secrets to success? What can you share with me? Well, what I always ultimately say is, success doesn’t happen without a foundation. Success doesn’t happen without your home being your foundation. Success doesn’t happen without a great partner, without a great wife, without a great mother to your children and Emmett, hold on… Yeah! I have to save this one for last, ironically because she is number one. And that is, you know, this woman is the most loving, caring, inspiring to me and to everyone she meets, woman and she is the mother of our beautiful, yes, the mother of our beautiful little daughter Jazzy who is here, and we also just announced this past Monday that we’re having baby number two. Ladies and gentlemen, my much better and better-looking half, Lauren Hashian, I love you. Thank you, I’m so grateful to you. I’m so, so grateful to you. Now, yes, oh Jazzy’s clapping. That a girl, honey.
And I want to thank everyone who’s here, by the way. Thank you, guys. Thank you, thank you, thank you all. Thank you, everyone. So, alright, so very last thing that’s two. So, the first one is hard work that we put in with our own two hands; the other one is gratitude and living every day in gratitude. I’m so internally grateful for everyone who I just thanked, and I also want to point this out. I am so grateful. I am so grateful to the core, to my bones, for the fans.
Yeah, I mean it, thank you. Thank you, because, at the end of the day at… look at the end of the day, all this goes away if it weren’t for you and it’s true and I thank you. I thank you, guys. I love you guys. Thank you. Okay. So last thing, very quick, is last night Lauren said to me, “Hey, do you know what you’re going to say?” And I said I don’t know. I’m probably just going to speak from the heart and talk from my gut. I said, what do you think? She goes well, she goes you can talk about so much. She goes well, what if you just talked about what it all meant and what it all means. And I don’t know what you meant by that, and I said, well, what do you mean? She goes I don’t know, like what does the whole thing mean? What does it all mean to you? And I never had it put that way and then it dawned on me when I drove over here, what it means and I’m going to show you what it all means. Hold on.
Alright, well, this is what it all means, right? So, the hard work you put in the work with your own two hands, right? We live every day in gratitude. That’s Daddy’s microphone, yeah. But it all comes down to this, it all comes down to your family. That’s what it all comes down to. It all comes down to your family and working hard to love and protect and do everything that you can to make your family and the ones you love their lives better. So, with that guys, I thank you. I love you. I love you. Hey, hey Q, What does mommy and daddy say, aiyu, I love you. That’s what she’s saying, yes. So, when I was 15 years old and I talked about earlier, I was evicted, we were evicted out of our one-bedroom apartment in Honolulu, Hawaii. We are forced to leave the island. And here we are today. I heard a quote when I was 15, and I thought if I’m ever in a position one day, I’d love to be able to live this quote. And years later, I’m celebrating with all of you around the world now who’s watching this, my family, my friends, who I all love, my three beautiful girls, one on the way… And the quote is this, and I figured this is the perfect time to deliver this quote to you guys, because it means so much to me in here, in my mana, in my spirit, which is, ‘It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice’.
And with that, I love you, and I thank you.”[/read]
The Rock
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