Earlier today actor and musician Khleo Thomas was a special guest on WrestleZone Radio’s WZ Weekly. Khleo is probably better known to pro wrestling fans for his work in the movie Walking Tall (feat. The Rock) as well as his iconic role as Zero in Disney’s Holes.
You can find some of Khleo’s comments about working with The Rock transcribed below.
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On whether he was a pro wrestling fan when he met and worked with The Rock:
KT: I was a HUGE wrestling fan. Come on, man. This was the Attitude Era of wrestling! This is what I grew up watching. So I step on to the set 1-on-1 with the great one in these scenes and I’m just like, “Man! This is The Rock! This is the guy I know!” The jabroni beating, pie eating… I was aware of all of that. At the same time I was aware that we were on set, we’re professionals and The Rock on TV is not the same Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson that I am on set acting with in these scenes.
On a funny story that happened on set with The Rock:
KT: I definitely had the Smackdown video game for PS1 on set while shooting that film. I did play The Rock in the Smackdown game. He played himself. I played Stone Cold. He did get whooped but it’s great to know I have that memory.
On whether he thought The Rock would become the sensation that he is today:
KT: I think so. The only reason I say that is because this was a building block to everything. He wasn’t getting the crossover coming from the WWE to all of a sudden being the number one guy. In a whole different market. He was incredible with what he did inside that ring. He still is. When he touches that microphone and he comes out and that music drops the whole crowd pops through the roof. It’s still one of the greatest things you’ll ever see. This was Walking Tall tho. This was maybe his fourth or fifth film I believe in the repertoire of however many The Rock films there are now. How many Fast and the Furious films does he have at this point? This was a building block. This was one of the first films that we had to be introduced to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The action star. I honestly felt that there had to be a new star. There had to be a new Arnold Schwarzenegger. There had to be a new Sylvester Stalone. There had to be someone new. Luckily The Rock had the charisma and knowhow to know how to create these roles and characters and pick the right scripts to get where he is today. The number one actor in the industry.
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