Interview With The Rock
courtesy of WWF.com

For the past few years, The Rock has been extremely busy. But over the past few months, it's been even more difficult to catch up with the People's Champion.
"Nobody can fathom what I'm doing now," The Rock says, and it's true. Getting an interview is nearly impossible. However, The Rock was kind enough to spare a few minutes of his time Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, literally as he was walking out of the arena after a World Wrestling Federation live event. As his car and chauffeur waited for him, The Rock discussed his movie, "The Scorpion King," as well as his singing debut and more.

WWF.com: How is the movie going? There's been some talk of you taking acting lessons and sword-fighting lessons.
Rock: As far as for the movie, it's all pre-production. Pre-production stuff requires about two to three months. We're up against a couple of deadlines. Number one, obviously, mainly, is the strike (the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Radio & Television Artists have threatened a walkout when their contract expires this summer). The strike will begin in June, so all movies have to begin by a certain time before the strike happens. It has to be in principle production by a certain date. If not, then it just can't go through. Anyway, we're up against that deadline. Universal is working diligently in completing the script. Everybody's extremely happy; everyone is working extremely hard.

As far as for the pre-production stuff we're doing, we're doing sword fighting with one of the best sword fighters in the world, frankly, who does a lot of sword fighting choreography for a lot of movies. A lot of camel riding, because the Scorpion King is actually riding an immense, beautiful camel. It's a white camel. Actually, it's the biggest camel in captivity in the United States. Also, we're doing a lot of archery lessons with an eight-time world champion in archery.
So much stuff. Really, Universal is leaving no rock unturned, so to speak. They're putting a lot of money into this. I think the budget is up around $50 or $60 million. A lot of money into it. A lot of confidence in myself. It's going to be great. I really, really look forward to it.

WWF.com: How long will it take to film?
Rock: Approximately three months.

WWF.com: Will you ever get to go home?
Rock: Right now I'm able to go home just for a couple of days here and there. Once we start principle production -- that'll be March 1 -- it's then that I'll be going back and forth -- five days of filming, two days with the WWF. From March 1 on, I'm working every single day. Nobody can really fathom what I'm going to be doing then. Frankly, nobody can fathom what I'm doing now.

  WWF.com: Media reports recently revealed that Michael Clarke Duncan has signed on for the film. What do you think about that?
Rock: I think it's great. Aside from us being good friends, and me being a big fan of his work, and him being a big fan of my work, it's great to have him on board, obviously. Because what you have in Michael Clarke Duncan is a well-established actor, an Oscar nominee -- he did a wonderful job in "The Green Mile" -- and he can only help me. That's something I made perfectly clear going into this endeavor -- much like when I got into this industry, the WWF.
I knew that I wanted to be the absolute best in this industry, raise the bar, and I needed good help around me. I surrounded myself with a very small group of people here to help me. Some of which are my colleagues and some of which are in the office. The same rule applies for Hollywood. I've made it perfectly clear to Hollywood, and anybody who's asking me, all the actors included. They know. When I come in, I need a lot of help and I want a lot of help, and with their help I can do things.

WWF.com: Have you heard about any other actors coming on board for the film?
Rock: Right now they were vigorously going after Chow Yun-Fat. I don't know where we're at with that. He's done such a wonderful job in Asia. He's done a great job in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Chuck Russell, our director, who directed "Eraser" and "The Mask," really likes to go after people who aren't well known and make them into stars. Very similar to what he did with Cameron Diaz. "The Mask" was the very first movie she was in. So he took a lot of pride in that. The same thing -- the lead female in this -- is someone they're looking to really make a big star.

WWF.com: Do we know her name yet?
Rock: Don't know her name yet.

WWF.com: What can you tell us about the movie itself? Rock: It's a prequel. So we are about 5-10 years before the Scorpion King actually became a king. Before he was a king, he was an assassin. An Akkadian assassin. Their belief is once they are given an oath to kill somebody, they will die making sure that it's done. There's so many twists and turns, fantastic surprises within the film. He had to kill a sorcerer.
I don't want to get into it because I'd have to tell you everything. A genre movie like this, and a period movie like this, especially a time period that everyone is interested in, which is the Egyptian period, is wonderful. And actually this is before Egypt, so it goes way, way back. There's romanticism; there's action-adventure.
The Rock as the Scorpion King is kicking ass like nobody else you've ever seen, guaranteed. We have a lot of people working on it. A lot of people from "Jurassic Park" and "The Matrix." We've got the best people working on this film. Universal's really gone out of its way. And they believe in this film. There's humor for levity. It's really, really good. It's going to be great.

WWF.com: You recorded the song "Pie" for WWF: The Music, Volume 5. Tell us about your singing debut.
Rock: It went great. To say I was singing is kind of a reach. It's just a fun song. That was my intent, to let everybody know that I wasn't trying to sing Bochelli. It's just The Rock having a good time, singing about something everybody loves, including The Rock, which is pie. I had the help, on the rap end, of Slick Rick, who is a well renowned rapper. He's been putting it down for many, many years. It's cool. It's important that people know that I just wanted to have a good time.

WWF.com: You'll be appearing at the NAACP Image Awards, airing March 9 on FOX. Tell us about that.
Rock: I'll be presenting at the NAACP Image Awards. Russell Simmons, a friend of mine from Def Jam, I think it was through that office that NAACP requested The Rock present an award there. Actually, I'm presenting in two categories, Best Lead Actress and best something else. So that's going to be really cool. Places like that, it's like Jordan, Oprah. And not only that. The meaning behind the NAACP is really profound. So I look forward to it.

WWF.com: Fans voted your rivalry with Triple H as "Feud of the Year" on WWFYearInReview.com. What is it about that feud that makes it so captivating?
Rock: Triple H and I have done everything -- had every type of match we can possibly have together. Fans have seen Triple H and The Rock every way possible. With that said, our chemistry is extremely great. There's very, very good chemistry between us both. We both know each other like the back of our hand. And we believe in what we do. I felt out Triple H a lot, he in return. And the fans see that. Him as a heel, Rock as a babyface. Or The Rock as a heel, he as a babyface. The matches are captivating because we absolutely believe in what we do.