{"id":698277,"date":"2026-06-11T19:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/698277\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T19:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:18:10","slug":"dwayne-johnson-on-cancer-scare-not-talking-politics-and-oscar-snub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/698277\/","title":{"rendered":"Dwayne Johnson on Cancer Scare, Not Talking Politics and Oscar Snub"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDwayne Johnson<\/a> gave a wide-ranging interview to Esquire magazine<\/a> ahead of the release of Disney\u2019s live-action \u201cMoana<\/a>,\u201d in which he reprises the role of demigod Maui. The cover story begins with Johnson\u2019s revelation that he had a cancer scare earlier this year that coincided with his \u201cJumanji<\/a>\u201d press duties at CinemaCon. The actor discovered a lump on one of his testicles and went to the doctor in the morning before his trip to Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\n\tPer Esquire<\/a>: \u201cThe doc felt the lump and said it was probably epididymitis, inflammation of a tube at the back of the testicle that stores sperm, but it could be cancer. \u2018What\u2019s your schedule today?\u2019 the doctor had asked. Johnson told him about the all-day\u00a0\u2018Jumanji\u2019 event. His doctor said Johnson needed to get an ultrasound first thing the next morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo I had to live with that for those 24 hours, not knowing \u2014 and I had to be\u00a0on\u00a0all day, joking around, making speeches. But! I\u2019m okay,\u201d Johnson said, noting he did really just have epididymitis and not cancer. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJumanji\u201d and \u201cMoana\u201d bring Johnson back to the blockbuster fold after last year\u2019s A24 drama \u201cThe Smashing Machine<\/a>\u201d stretched his dramatic acting chops and earned him career-best reviews. Oscar buzz was instant the second \u201cSmashing Machine\u201d premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where Johnson notably broke down in tears during a standing ovation for the movie. Alas, Johnson was not nominated for best actor earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt would have been incredible to get nominated for an Oscar,\u201d Johnson admitted to Esquire<\/a>. \u201cI realized very quickly that it\u2019s a rare thing to reach this pinnacle where you\u2019re even having these conversations. And it\u2019s exciting! It would have been amazing. I wish it happened. But it didn\u2019t. But in no uncertain terms did I ever think,\u00a0\u2018Oh, that doesn\u2019t matter.\u2019 I always thought it mattered. And it has lit a fire in my spine, which is: Let\u2019s go back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Johnson is open to discussing his relationship to acting and awards, he is staying quiet when it comes to politics. He notably told Fox News<\/a> in 2024 that he regretted endorsing Joe Biden for president in 2020 because it caused division amongst his fans, adding: \u201cMy goal is to bring this country together. I believe in that. There will be no endorsement. At this level of influence, I will keep my politics to myself. It is between me and the ballot box.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson expanded on his newfound aversion to political talk by telling Esquire: \u201cWhat I have learned through experience is that I need to keep \u2014 need, not want \u2014 the main thing. And the main thing for me, the thing that in the morning I swing my legs out of bed and I run towards, is creating. It\u2019s art. It\u2019s storytelling. I\u2019ve learned I\u2019m going to keep my politics to myself. There are moments when, hey, there\u2019s nothing we can\u2019t talk about. If I\u2019m wrong, I\u2019ll tell you I\u2019m wrong. Or if I feel like I got a leg up and this is the right way to go, I\u2019ll share it with you. Politics is omnipresent and it\u2019s forever. I don\u2019t like it. I hate it at times. I hate the slinging. I hate all the bullshit that comes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson is writing off political talk, but he\u2019s not doing the same with AI. Esquire noted that Johnson was \u201ccautiously interested, even excited\u201d when the topic of AI and its threats came up during the interview.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve always been an advocate for embracing big change\u2014after taking a hard look at it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can either stick our heads in the sand and be afraid, or we can say, \u2018Okay, we\u2019re here. Let\u2019s see. Let\u2019s explore.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHead over to Esquire magazine\u2019s website<\/a> to read Johnson\u2019s cover story in its entirety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dwayne Johnson gave a wide-ranging interview to Esquire magazine ahead of the release of Disney\u2019s live-action \u201cMoana,\u201d in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[4224,88,255410,44069,74423],"class_list":["post-698277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-dwayne-johnson","tag-entertainment","tag-jumanji","tag-moana","tag-the-smashing-machine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}