Jill Simonian is a correspondent for ReelzChannel TV's Movie News, and occasionally shares stories from the field. This week: Race to Witch Mountain and The Rock
Dwayne Johnson is scared of rides at Disneyland. The former Rock may as well be made of steel with arms bigger than the size of my head, but he admitted to me (at the Race to Witch Mountain junket this past weekend) that not being in control of his own motion somewhat creeps him out a bit. To be specific, he "doesn't like rides with lots of hydrolics." The topic came up with director Andy Fickman while discussing a filming device used for Race to Witch Mountain called the Go-Mobile, which allowed them to shoot high-intensity car chase scenes with Johnson actually inside the car. I asked Fickman if he sensed any fear from Johnson while filming the chase scenes, and he responded, "Why don't you ask Dwayne if he's been on any other rides at Disneyland other than the carousel." When I addressed this with Dwayne himself, he laughed, clarified the "hydrolics" specifics, and then added that since he was able to control the bouncing in the car chases, shooting worked out just fine. But Dwayne, if you ever want to give the rides at Disneyland another go around, I'm sure we can find a few girls who won't mind holding your hand through Alice In Wonderland.