Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson checks in

WHAT does a man mountain do when he's not pumping iron, high-fiving fans or beating celluloid villains to a pulp?

"Haiku poetry," Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson says, deadpan.

Really?

"No. I just relax. I wish I had something more entertaining to tell you."

Not that there's much time for haiku poetry, stamp collecting or trainspotting in Johnson's schedule.

He's stepped nimbly from a 10-year football career to four years as a superstar wrestler and now into a movie career -- and it's one in which he has invested deeply.

Ask most actors if they sweat box-office figures and they'll deny it with a platitude about the fact their job is restricted to the screen.

Johnson says they're lying.

"I think you would be hard-pressed to find an actor, producer or director who doesn't sweat over that stuff," he says.

"You put so much hard work and effort into your movie and you always want it to do well."

But Johnson doesn't just hope his movies do well, he's behind the scenes engineering the push himself.

"I love getting into the grind of promoting the movie," he says. "Constantly two weeks out checking and tracking numbers, where we're strong in each age group, what demographics, where we can use a pick-me-up and using those opportunities, whether I go on the Disney Channel or the Today show. I love that process."

He displays a cast-iron grip on the business, reeling off statistics about his latest flick, The Game Plan, which spent two weeks at No. 1 on the US box-office chart with takings so far of $84 million.

"But more important than the box-office success have been the exit polls," he says.

"We've had A-plus scores across the country, which is very hard to do. Only five other movies this year have had that -- I believe the last one was The Bourne Ultimatum."

He's not a man to gloat, but he can't help but note The Game Plan was written off as an also-ran against The Kingdom on its opening weekend.

"It's a great call to get on Sunday, 'Guess what, we're going to do $23 million, beating The Kingdom by $5 million'," he says, "because I've been on the other end of that where you get that Sunday call, 'Sorry, we're not going to do that well'."

Born in the US to a Samoan mother and American father, Johnson, 35, may have made his greatest mark in an industry that relies on bravado and vocal self-belief, but he insists humility is hard-wired into his psyche.

"I came from not having much at all and there's a saying if you've ever truly been hungry you'll never be full. I literally and metaphorically know what that's like," he says.

"Coming from that background, you have a great deal of appreciation and gratitude for any success that comes your way.

"I think it comes from your constitution, your make-up, the type of person you are."

The character he plays in The Game Plan -- Joe Kingman -- is a self-obsessed quarterback hero whose apartment is a temple to himself and his achievements. He is forced to recognise there's more to life than himself when the eight-year-old daughter he never knew he had enters his world.

His character's egomania is something Johnson insists he can't relate to.

"I have to be honest with you, it was never like that," he says.

"Every dollar I made I was just very thankful. I never got lost or too heady."

If anyone has an excuse to get lost in his own hype it's Johnson. Asked if there's anywhere in the world where he can be anonymous, he thinks hard.

"Not so much. No," he finally says. "It's not like I blend in."

A case in point is his visit to his homeland three years ago. His Samoan stopover had him upstaging national leaders, including John Howard, who was in the country for a Pacific Islands forum.

"My mum, who went with us, was telling me, 'You know it's home, everybody's going to be respectful and leave you alone'. I'd brought my own security and my cousin, who is the head of police over there, was like, 'We are your people. There's no need for security. It's OK that you brought them but you can just relax here at home'.

"Cut to 30,000 people," Johnson guffaws. "And he's doing everything he can to keep them off me, giving them shoulder blocks. It was awesome."

It's clear the story Johnson's telling isn't a woe-is-me celebrity whine, it's a simple illustration of what his life is like.

He's right in noting he doesn't blend in. Tall, chiselled, perfectly manicured and with blindingly white teeth, he'd be a movie star even if he wasn't a movie star.

He's well aware of the pitfalls of trying his hand at acting.

"Typically, you get singers and athletes who want to make the transition and they rely on their celebrity, not necessarily the material, so I knew that challenge was there," he says.

But he argues his background in wrestling meant acting wasn't such a stretch.

"Wrestling's very over the top and theatrical -- it was my theatre of 20,000 to 30,000 people.

"The audience will let you know how you're doing with your monologue, with your comedy. Your jokes, if they bomb, you know right away."

That theatrical world has been drawn into renewed controversy recently after wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife, son and himself in a steroid-fuelled rage.

Johnson confirms he saw steroids being used. "Sure, I saw it. I've always thought that's a choice guys make; those guys are grown adults.

"Even though they're adults, clearly there's a problem in that they're not arming themselves with knowledge about the dangers of taking these drugs, and then mixing with that lifestyle of always being on the road. It's a dangerous concoction.

"I've never been a proponent of steroids. I never cared about being the biggest guy or the loudest, I just always wanted to be the most entertaining."

Which isn't to say staying in peak physical condition isn't still important to him. He starts every day with a workout, but laughs off any suggestion he has his manager scout out gyms in each of the towns he visits to ensure they have weights that are heavy enough.

"Who said that? That's another bad rumour. I don't work out that heavy at all."

He says the only thing he requires is that the gym he goes to makes him really sweat.

"So many gyms today have the airconditioning at 18C and people are chatting away having a wonderful time," he says.

"When it's time to work, it's time to work. It has to smell a bit. You have to get sweaty and dirty. If you're going to be an animal, you have to be an animal."

He says he'd willingly gain or lose weight for a part if it was the right one, but he changes his mind twice in the course of his answer, citing Christian Bale's dramatic weight loss to play an insomniac in The Machinist.

"I understand why he wanted to do that, but I wouldn't do that. I really enjoy working out and training. It's a lifestyle for me and I love it. It starts my day."

The Game Plan opens today.