From Dwayne Johnson to LeBron James, more and more athletes have begun to embrace La La Land and have shifted to the art of makin’ movies. With Shaquille O’Neal’s recent announcement that he would now be co-writing, producing a new animated short, “Headnoise,” I wanted to take the time to talk about how much athletes have begun to embrace the art and why I think it’s so cool.
First and foremost, it places these athletes in a completely new light. For example, I don’t know about any of you, but I didn’t know much about Dwayne Johnson during his WWE days, and what I did know about him was that he was an angry wrestler in a staged fighting show. Nowadays, Johnson is one of my favorite actors. Not only is he a great actor, with a résumé as long as my arm, but he’s genuinely hilarious.
I went from not really knowing who he was to watching movies specifically because I know he’s in them. Not just that, but “The Rock” has become one of those actors that everyone seems to love, in the industry and outside it (maybe except for Vin Diesel.)
The same happened with John Cena, who used to be a dude I hardly knew anything about, and now I can’t wait to watch him on “Vacation Friends.”
I guess it makes sense, at least with the WWE gang. Many of these wrestlers are selected because of their personalities; they know how to be marketable and to appeal to people across all spectrums. Maybe acting is a way to get them to harness the power of their influence fully, and if so, it’s working.
I still haven’t seen “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” so I can’t say much about LeBron’s turn on the screen, but I’m glad he’s also going for it. As for Shaquille O’Neal’s project, though little is known about it, I’m very excited about his debut.
The project is currently in the final stages of production and is planning a 2022 festival rollout.
