There are numerous Hollywood celebrities who’ve lost major film roles or were turned down for popular projects, but there aren’t many who ended up being grateful for the same. Surprisingly enough though, Dwayne Johnson happens to be one of those rare actors.





The former professional wrestler revealed that he’d apparently been close to bagging the lead role in Christopher McQuarrie’s Jack Reacher before it was ultimately signed off to Mission: Impossible star, Tom Cruise. But as disheartening as losing such a colossal project must be, The Rock didn’t regret the missed opportunity for a single second. Talk about taking rejection in stride.


Adapted from Lee Child’s novel titled One Shot, Jack Reacher is an action/thriller film helmed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie starring Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Lee Child, and Werner Herzog. After garnering positive reviews and grossing about $218 million globally on a budget of $60 million, the film turned out to be wholly successful. 4 years later, a sequel named Never Look Back made to the big screens too, helmed by Blood Diamond (2006) director, Edward Zwick.


During a Q&A session on Facebook live, the Black Adam star talked about how he’d gotten any and every role he’d wanted, except for Jack Reacher.


“The truth is, you know, in Hollywood, actors are kind of like in a box, and the roles that are written..there are a lot of actors who can vie for a particular role because it calls for them to have a certain look, skin color, size, etc. Fortunately for me, there’s not a lot of guys in Hollywood, at all, who look like me. So, all of my roles from the beginning of my career – I’ve been a lucky son of a b**ch that they’ve been created and designed specifically for me, except Jack Reacher.”