With years of professional wrestling and a Herculean build like his, one would expect Dwayne Johnson to be the most intimidating man on the set of a film. Unless there’s Arnold Schwarzenegger present, then Johnson would probably get bumped down to the ‘second most intimidating.’ Nobody, however, would anticipate Jason Statham to be scarier than The Rock.
Idris Elba Found Jason Statham More Unnerving Than The Rock
David Leitch’s Hobbs & Shaw is a classic buddy cop film with tons of action, with the iconic duo of an agent and a mercenary who form an unlikely alliance to fight a common threat. Starring Dwayne Johnson as the American agent and Jason Statham as a British lawman-turned-outcast, the film is a spin-off in the Fast & Furious franchise. The remaining ensemble cast includes the likes of Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Roman Reigns, and Ryan Reynolds.
Despite working with not one but two professional wrestlers (the other now retired), Idris Elba, 50, found the most intimidating man on set to be Jason Statham. When asked by Stephen Colbert who out of The Rock and The Transporter star was “more daunting,” Elba said the latter undoubtedly took the cake.
“It’s Jason. He’s just like, wiry,” the Luther star pointed out. “The Rock’s kind of like, ‘Give me a hug boy. You don’t want to fight.’” Even Colbert seemed to agree, remarking how, though Johnson might look like he could crush you with little or no effort (which he definitely can), his personality is that of a “big lovable teddy bear.”
Jason Statham & Dwayne Johnson – A Classic Duo
If stereotypes have taught us anything, it’s that the short and grumpy one is always more daunting than the tall, muscular guy who’s actually goofy and incredibly amicable. And the Hobbs & Shaw actors fit this cliché perfectly.
Sure, the Black Adam star has almost a decade of professional wrestling over Statham, but it shouldn’t be a complete surprise to know that Johnson resembles a giant teddy bear outside the ring. The man literally lets his daughters put makeup on his face and dapple it with pink paint. Needless to say, he’d easily be one of the least intimidating of the lot, isolating the fact that his body is nothing short of a muscled shrine and he could overpower someone in a matter of seconds.
Then there’s Statham, the tough guy who’s either always furious or wholly indifferent with nowhere in between, and has something akin to a permanent sneer etched onto his face. The gritty counterpart of Johnson’s goofy, if you will. Not to mention The Expendables star geeks out on martial arts and karate along with kickboxing. So that explains the lethal streak in his personality.
In fact, the characters they portray in the 2019 action flick resemble them to a great extent, with Johnson’s Luke Hobbs the charming but brash guy with a sense of humor, as opposed to Statham’s Deckard Shaw who’s calm, reticent, but terrifying. No wonder Idris Elba felt more unnerved by the latter.