We are getting extremely close to NBC’s big premiere of Young Rock, a look at the life of Dwayne Johnson as a young man and how he got to be the major star he is today. The Rock has been hyping the new TV series in recent weeks and last night Jimmy Fallon shared a post comparing himself to the former wrestler, athlete and actor. Yeah, there are a few differences.
The Rock has spoken out even recently about being a huge young man, big enough that as a teen kids even thought he was an “undercover cop.” Oppositely, as you might already be able to guess, Jimmy Fallon did not have the same physique. Though he had a lot of fun sharing a side-by-side about the differences.
Sometimes we look back at images of our past and they can be a little embarassing, but we also see the people we will still be years and years later. Jimmy Fallon is small and adorable in a bowtie at 15 and yeah, years later, he's still not exactly the type to share his workouts online. But you still see a lot of what he's turned into. There's a certain theatricality and confidence about his appearance. There's his trademark smirk, which would later be seen in dozens of Saturday Night Live sketches. Meanwhile, The Rock at 15 is already jacked. He already looks like the most intimidating guy in his town, but there's also a quiet confidence beneath the surface. It's an understated cockiness that would come out in a bit more aggressive ways later, especially during his time in the WWE. Long story short, this all makes sense.
The side-by-side was shared by Jimmy Fallon as part of Dwayne Johnson’s recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon promoting Young Rock. During the interview, Johnson also spoke out about how when he was on tour for wrestling, he and his buddies would constantly be in new cities, picking up new stories to share. Years later, a comedy seemed like a good vehicle for these types of stories.
Back when I was wrestling, and I would wrestle in a different town every night. We would all travel together and every time we’d land, every major city across the country I would say, ‘Yeah, see that gas station over there? Well, that’s where I bought my first car from a crackhead.’ They’re like, ‘What?’ The next town I’d go, ‘See that Motel 6? Well, here’s what happened there…’ So, all those stories finally we started thinking like, ‘Well I wonder if there’s value in creating a show that has the lens of comedy but value in those lessons I learned.’
Meanwhile, I’m not sure a Young Jimmy series would ever come down the Peacock network’s pipeline, though I do know that Jimmy Fallon was into comedy as a young man. He later landed a role on Saturday Night Live, which launched him down his own career path. The people we are when we are young are never the same people we are as adults, but the germs of our interests and capabilities are already starting to show up. A lot of that will be what the Young Rock series will be about when it hits NBC next week. And you can hear The Rock talk more about it in the interview below.
Young Rock will premiere as part of NBC’s Tuesday lineup on February 16 at 8 p.m. ET. It’s not the only impending winter premiere, either, and you can see what else is coming with our full TV premiere schedule.
