This weekend’s world premiere screening of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s new movie, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, was temporarily interrupted due to sparks of fire from an electrical outlet at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The smoke and crackling sounds caused a mob of scared guests to flee their seats Saturday, creating an intense and chaotic commotion.
About 30 minutes after the film began, attendees seated in the center-front orchestra section saw smoke and quickly began to make their way to the exits. The rest of the audience inside the theater was confused by the disturbance; they jumped to their feet and left their seats, fearing the worst.
Soon after a theater employee announced that a beverage had accidentally spilled on an electrical outlet located under the theater’s chairs—which led to the fire. Johnson and costar Jason Statham were sitting just rows away. Nobody was harmed, and after a 20-minute delay, Johnson took to the stage to relax the crowd. He also seized the opportunity to tease and act out the onscreen rivalry between him and Statham before the film resumed.
“When things started to seemingly go sideways and everyone was exiting this theater, just for the record, I stood right there and I waited,” said Johnson. “My security wanted me to leave, but I wanted to see that all the people were safe. Jason Statham ran his ass so fast! I’m only kidding.”
On the arrivals carpet ahead of that intense interruption, Johnson said that headlining the first spin-off film from the Fast & Furious franchise, in which he plays U.S. Diplomatic Security Agent Luke Hobbs, was an opportunity to pay homage to his roots.
“This film is deeply personal to me. It is the very first time that half of my culture, which is half black and half Samoan, is showcased in a global, Hollywood-blockbuster action movie,” said Johnson, who brought his mother to the premiere. “My Samoan culture has never been really seen before, and I’m excited that we are changing that.”
The former WWE pro wrestler also said Hollywood executives “still need to recognize” the lack of diversity in front of and behind the camera.
“Representation is important, and we are not seeing enough of different cultures in movies,” said Johnson. “It’s a critical thing and a vital thing. We need to normalize it. We still have a long ways to go, but we are making progress. This is an ongoing dialogue, and my hope is that eventually we will make our way to a place where we can showcase multicultures and have real life represented on the screen.”
In the action-packed film—out August 2—Johnson and Statham, who plays Hobbs’s frenemy Deckard Shaw, repair broken relationships and come to realize that connecting with family is the most important aspect in life—typical for a film in this franchise.
“The anchoring elements of all these Fast & Furious movies, and our movie, is the f-word, which is ‘family.’ We wanted to make sure that we had the element of heart,” said Johnson, who joined the series in 2011’s Fast Five. “We also wanted to have our own identity, which was something that was fun, unique, fresh, and introduce amazing new characters.”
The Crown and Mission: Impossible alum Vanessa Kirby joins the spin-off as Statham’s sister, Hattie Shaw, a tough-as-nails MI6 field agent, while Vanity Fair cover star Idris Elba plays a menacing villain with superhuman strength.
“We created female characters that could hold their own, like they do in these Fast & Furious movies—be even more efficient, badass, and cool,” said Johnson. “When Vanessa came on board, we knew that we had one of the greatest actors on the planet. She’s amazing. And Idris is one of the greatest villains that the Fast & Furious franchise had ever seen. We have the best cast—the baddest of badasses.”
Johnson indicated that Hobbs & Shaw was a happy, efficient set—perhaps unlike that of 2017’s The Fate of the Furious. During production of that film, Johnson and Vin Diesel famously clashed. When asked if Diesel or his costars from the previous Fast movies, such as Michelle Rodriguez, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Jordana Brewster, and Tyrese Gibson, had gotten in touch with Johnson to congratulate him on the new film, The Rock revealed that some of them had been in contact.
“There have been a few who have quietly reached out to me, and these are the ones who I have been friends [with] for a very long time,” said Johnson, without giving exact names. “And you know what? I appreciate that. It meant a lot to me that they did, and they don’t have to do it publicly, I understand. That’s not a problem. The fact that they did on the side is what matters.”
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