Dwayne Johnson: “Black Adam, he's not Shazam!” [interview]

For his first superhero film, Dwayne Johnson chose a troubled character almost unknown to the general public. Quick meeting with The Rock.

This interview originally appeared in issue 533 of Première, still available on our online store. We are sharing it again on the occasion of the first broadcast of Black Adam clearly on television, this Sunday on TF1.

Black Adam: nothing new under the superhero sky [critique]

Black Adam was in development for many years, what happened?
Dwayne Johnson: The idea of ​​the original script was to combine the origin stories of Shazam and Black Adam. In this version, Shazam took up more space, and Black Adam was the bad guy…This script was quality, but deep down, I knew that if we wanted to do things correctly and then expand the DC Comics universe, so we were going the wrong way. We tried to skip steps: the two characters had to have their own dedicated film. And then make a Black Adam movie with the tone, style, intensity and rage it deserves – while still pushing PG 13 [déconseillé aux moins de 13 ans] all the way to the end – would have been very complicated within the confines of the Shazam universe. Furthermore, at Seven Bucks [sa société de production]we also had in mind to introduce the JSA [Justice Society of America, groupe de super-héros]those awesome characters from the DC pantheon who predate Justice League. We had a slot for that, we had to take it.

And was it more complicated than expected?
The thing was, for it to work, we all had to put a little bit of our guts into it and agree to take risks. Because I am well aware of what is asked of companies like Warner Bros. and DC when they are asked to invest in characters that no one knows. From a studio's point of view, there are Excel tables to fill in and figures to pay close attention to, and that's normal. So we collectively had to have faith and be courageous, really take a chance and think big. Anyway, all that to say that it took a long time.

Black Adam is black. Can he be seen as an identity hero?
Yes. And that's one of the reasons why Black Adam caught my attention. As a kid, I was already a “DC boy” and I found myself in Black Adam precisely because he was a superhero of color, and he came from a time and a place in the world where people had dark skin. And even though all of this doesn't completely translate to what I experienced – I'm half black and half Samoan – I totally identified with him. The identity aspect is very important in Black Adam, and we also thought about it a lot during the casting process. Without spoiling too much, the scenario is about an oppressed country, and it was essential for us to show that this champion is capable, even after spending 5,000 years locked up, of galvanizing this country and its inhabitants once again. But his methods are so unusual that many people who populate the DC Universe – and perhaps even some of the audience who will see the film – disagree with his philosophy.

You are talking about “rage” to describe Black Adam, and the film seems to rely a lot on his antihero side.
Yes, that was one of the attractions of the character: he is in the gray zone. Neither good nor bad. He's super fun to play, a guy you can't really put a label on. We have a lot of fun with that: no one other than him dictates his rules. He thrives on anger because he tragically lost his family, and his son even sacrificed himself for him. Then he spent 5,000 years in a tomb! What he will learn during the film is self-control. Pause before reacting, don't let your reflexes speak and your rage take over. And paradoxically, that makes it even more powerful.

So the tone is relatively serious?
Relatively. Let's say it's not Shazam ! What you have to understand is that he is a character who uses his intelligence as a super power, who likes psychological games. There may be touches of dark humor in there. For example: when he wants to assert himself intellectually in front of someone, he will just start floating up high, forcing the other to look at him by raising their head. It's not much, it's subtle, but it's fun. We wanted to respect the mythology of the comics but also bring something new. The cool thing is that no one has played him on the big screen yet. No point of comparison. I was free.

Trailer for Black Adamby Jaume Collet-Serra:

Why Dwayne Johnson's plans in the DCEU failed