'Faster' Star Dwayne Johnson Talks Channeling Clint Eastwood

'I've got one big bullet and I'll put it right between your eyes,' he tells MTV News of throwback action flick.
By Eric Ditzian, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Dwayne Johnson
Photo: MTV News

Dwayne Johnson started off the year rocking a pink tutu in "Tooth Fairy." He's ending the year, though, in pretty much the exact opposite fashion, kicking ass like we've never seen the former pro wrestler kick ass before.

In "Faster," Johnson stars as an unnamed ex-con on an utterly brutal mission to avenge his brother's decade-old murder. The movie is like a flashy throwback to ultraviolent 1970s films like the Clint Eastwood-starring "Dirty Harry" and Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs." Those flicks, it turns out, were the inspirations for "Faster," which opens Wednesday.

"The movies of the '70s, a lot of Peckinpah movies, Eastwood movies from the '70s, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson — movies like that where they just have that tone and that texture," Johnson told MTV News. "There weren't big explosions for the sake of explosions, so all the action was fueled by an emotion. Not big bazookas or anything like that. I've got one big bullet and I'll put it right between your eyes. It's that type of action."

That's a far cry from January's "Tooth Fairy," in which Johnson played a vicious hockey player magically transformed into a tooth-snatching, cash-bestowing pixie. It's a role that had him squeezing into tights and donning the aforementioned tutu. So, um, which Johnson character — fantastical fulfiller of dreams or cruel destroyer of lives — falls closest to the guy he really is?

The 38-year-old actor says each role has something in common with the other — a trait he also proudly shares. "There is nothing I wouldn't do to protect someone I love," he said.

Check out everything we've got on "Faster."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1652937/20101123/story.jhtml

Kasey Chambers Kat Von D Kate Beckinsale Kate Bosworth Kate Groombridge