On Tuesday, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson told People magazine that “there’s a good chance” he’d run for president one day.
Johnson, who was dubbed this year’s “Sexiest Man Alive” by People, explained that fans have always asked when he’d enter politics. Now, he’s giving it some serious thought.
“And so I started to really think. Could I make a difference? Could I surround myself with really brilliant people to help me make decisions? Do I care about this country?” Johnson told People. “And when the answers continued to come up yes, then I thought, there’s a good chance. Yeah, one day.”
This isn’t the first time that Johnson has hinted at a future in politics. Last summer he told GQ, “I can’t deny that the thought of being governor, the thought of being president, is alluring.”
And why not? If we’ve learned anything from this past election cycle it’s that a little stardom and panache can go a long way. We know Johnson, one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, has that in spades.
If anything stands in his way, it’s an inescapable similarity to a character from Mike Judge’s Idiocracy — a 2006 satire that takes place in a distant future where the average IQ has plummeted and the world, as a result, is falling apart.
In the film, America is run by President Dwayne Camacho (played by Terry Crews), a former professional wrestler who wears star-spangled spandex and would rather entertain than govern.
Remind you of anyone?
Idiocracy had a revival this past year for foretelling America’s preference for leaders that are better entertainers than politicians. Back in February, Ethan Cohen, the screenwriter for Idiocracy, tweeted, “I never expected #idiocracy to become a documentary.” At the time, he was referring to the election, which eventually resulted in President-elect Trump. If Cohen thought the film felt prescient then, he should just wait for what's next.
