Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson sank into depression when his youthful dreams "were dashed".
The ‘Hercules’ star was devastated when, after failing to make it as an NFL player, he signed with Canadian Football League but was later let go, and then split from girlfriend Dany Garcia – who he later married – and he admits the rejection was too much for him to cope with.
He said: "There was no injury. It’s just, ‘That’s it. You’re not good enough.’ That was very sobering.
"The dreams I had, they’re dashed. There is no more football. My relationship was crushed. That was my absolute worst time.
"I didn’t want to do a thing. I didn’t want to go anywhere. I was crying constantly. Eventually you reach a point where you are all cried out.
"I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know why I didn’t want to do anything. I had never experienced anything like that."
The 42-year-old former wrestler also explained how he vowed to transform his physique when he was 14 after he and his mother were evicted from their home.
He explained in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter: "We were living in an efficiency that cost $120 a week. We come home, and there’s a padlock on the door and an eviction notice. My mom starts bawling. She just started crying and breaking down. ‘Where are we going to live? What are we going to do?’
"That was the tipping point. It was about, ‘What can I control with these two hands?’ The only thing I could do was train and build my body. The successful men I knew were men who built their bodies."
And the ‘Scorpion King’ star later had to "deconstruct" himself and re-transform his appearance when making the transition from wrestling to Hollywood.
He said: "I was told that I had to conform to a standard in Hollywood that would beget me more work, better roles.
"Which meant I had to stop going to the gym, which meant I couldn’t be as big, which meant you had to distance yourself from wrestling. You essentially had to deconstruct yourself."
Dwayne Johnson recalls depression battle
