Transcription
-That is a crowd, an audience full of servicemen and women are here today. Our Veterans Day show.
-Thank you so much. [Cheers and applause] Man... And I always take a moment just to say thank you so much. As many of you may know or may not know, I come from a very proud military family. I've had family members serve in wars and two very proud Navy SEALs, Cousin Ben and Cousin Jeffrey.
And, you know, every once in a while, I get lucky where I'm able to pretend to play a proud man of our military, but you guys are the real deal. And I want to say I love you, and I thank you so much for your service. [Cheers and applause]
-Thank you, for real.
-Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.
-I want to, uh -- I want to congratulate you. Okay. First of all, your GQ's Men of the Year. Look at you. The man. That's a stud right there. Look at that, man. Thank you.
-Oww!
-Yeah. Oww! Yeah. Yeah.
-Oww! You've been People's Sexiest Man Alive. Now you're GQ's Man of the Year.
-How awesome is that? That's so cool.
-What's left for Dwayne Johnson to do?
-OnlyFans, clearly.
-Yeah, we're working on that. [Laughter, cheers, applause]
-Thank you. I gotta -- I'll bring it back.
-Yeah, bring it back. You got it, dude. You're always a pro. Every time you come on, you always bring it, by the way. For years. Thank you so much for coming on, supporting us. You got to tell people about "Red One" and get the word out, but, I mean, every time --
-Well, we go way back. I was thinking about this. I mean, my very first time I hosted "Saturday Night Live" -- I've had the honor of hosting it five times. Of course, you're an "SNL" alum.
-Yeah. My very first time, you and I were together on that show like 20 years ago or so.
-It must be 20 years.
-And we did a skit for "The Scorpion King." I don't know if you remember that, but we couldn't stop laughing. We were like two idiots who were, like, breaking up on live TV. So we've come a long way, man.
-A long way, yeah. Last time I think you graced our presence, we were talking about WrestleMania XL.
-Yes.
-And before that, you said, "Well, I hope it's going to be the biggest WrestleMania." It was.
-It's crazy.
-Buddy, it almost did like a billion views. Congratulations. It was one of the best.
-Thank you so much. Thank you.
-It was one of the best things I ever saw. You and Roman Reigns.
-Thank you. That's such a great time. You know, I mean, that's --
-Cody -- I was --
-With Cody and Seth and Roman, and it was just wild. You know, I grew up in that world of pro wrestling, and there's nothing like when that music hits and the crowd goes crazy, and you can connect...
-Over 100,000 people just screaming for you just go like, "I just love it," but it feels like you're home when you do that stuff. I feel like --
-That's a good way to put it.
-Does it feel like...?
-Yeah. Because, you know, I grew up in the world of pro wrestling, and I followed the careers of my grandfather and my dad. And my grandfather and my dad used to wrestle up here at the Garden in the '70s.
And then, here I come along and, you know, not trying to screw anything up, you know, with their legacy. And then, all of a sudden, you know, the business has grown into what it's grown into. TKO now owns WWE, and I have the honor of sitting on the board of TKO. So what a full-circle moment. It's crazy, man.
-Isn't that cool?
-I started, it was 7 bucks, and now, you know...
-Yeah. And now it's not. Now it's not.
-Now it's not 7 bucks. Yeah.
-Yeah. But that broke records. And then I want to talk to you about "Red One," which is coming out this week. But "Moana 2."
-Yes, yeah.
-People are excited. The trailer alone... The trailer alone broke records, the most in Disney animated history. Disney history.
-It's crazy.
-You're breaking records.
-This is massive.
-It's teamwork, but, yeah. So we're excited about "Moana 2."
-Yeah.
-And I cannot wait for it.
-And now do you get -- do you get to sing another song in this movie? Can we --
-Yes.
-Yes. You have, right?
-Yes. I do.
-You do, right?
-Of course. Well, you know, in -- in the first one, I sang... ♪ What can I say except you're welcome ♪ And in this one, um... What I like about this one is we have Barlow & Bear who are great writing tandem artists, who won a Grammy, by the way, for "Bridgerton."
And they came in, and they wrote this song that, at first, I thought, "Well, 'You're Welcome' is gonna be hard to follow. How do you follow that? But then they come -- They came up with this idea, and the conceit of following it with a female empowerment song sung by Maui to empower Moana.
And I thought it's just not only perfect timing, but also important to empower this girl because it's like, hey, whatever you think you can't do, you actually can do. So it's great.
-You can do it.
-You can do it. Yes. It's a crazy song, though.
-It is?
-It's nuts.
-What is it called? Do we know the name of it?
-It's called "Can I Get a Chee Hoo?" Okay. So, in Polynesian culture, you know, we like, "Chee hoo!" Right? Like, that's a thing. So I'll give you a little bit here. Do you guys want a little bit of the song?
-Wow. All right! Let's hear some of it.
-All right. So when I point, you guys say, "Chee hoo!" Okay? Got it?
-Chee hoo!
-There you go.
-All right, all right.
-Can I get a...
-Chee hoo!
-Let me get a, let me have a chee...
-Hoo!
-[Laughs]
-Here's you, by the way, recording that song with your daughter, giving you a little fist bump here.
-Oh, yeah.
-So she approved.
-She did, man.
-She approved.
-She did. I'm a proud girl dad. Three daughters, one in her 20s and then 8 and 6. And she approved. They were right there the whole time I was singing the song. And the song is called "Can I Get a Chee Hoo?"
-Yeah.
-And she was right there the whole time, her and Tiana, and they were just giving me fist bumps and...
-But didn't it -- Before wrestling, didn't you want to get into country music? Didn't we have this conversation? [Laughter] Am I making this up?
-Well, thanks for laughing, guys.
-Oh, no, they're laughing with you! They're laughing with you, not at you. [Laughter] No, but I could --
-I did. So...
-Dwayne Johnson's a great name.
-Well...
-Ladies and gentlemen, Dwayne Johnson. [Laughter]
-Walking out on the Opry stage.
-Little Dwayne Johnson.
-Dude, I was 15, and I was living in Nashville in a little motel with a buddy of mine named Downtown Bruno, who's still one of my best friends, and I had this idea, because I didn't have any money. I was broke, and I thought -- and somebody said, "Hey, you could sing decently. You should go down to Music Row and sing country."
Now, I had already loved country from my dad. Just old school, traditional country, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Hank Jr., Johnny Paycheck.
-Yes. Johnny Paycheck.
-So I would go at 15. Now imagine me -- I would go to some of these honky-tonk bars and you got to audition. So I would go in, and I would sing -- For example, I would be like, um...
♪I look like I'm having a good time ♪
♪ But any fool can tell ♪
♪ That this honky tonk heaven ♪
♪ Really makes you feel like hell♪
Okay. Now... [Cheers and applause]
-Well, thank you for clapping, because I would be like, "Hey, how'd I do?" and they're like, "You suck. Keep walking." So... [Laughter]
-But it never panned out. And I love country music. And I got a lot of buddies in country music. So I always say, one day, I'm gonna sing on that Opry stage, so at some point, that's gonna come true.
-Yeah, I think you're doing pretty well. Yeah. I want to talk about "Red One." This has, uh -- it's a movie with a lot of heart. It has humor, a ton of action. Was doing a Christmas movie like a bucket-list thing for you?
-For sure, yeah.
-You know, it's Christmas, and, you know, we all love our Christmas movies. Mine is "It's a Wonderful Life," "Elf"...
-Me too.
-..."Bad Santa," um... [Laughter]
And we wanted to make a Christmas movie. Well, first of all, for me, just -- I've been lucky to have this kind of career. You and I have known each other for 20 years now. Lucky to have this career.
And a Christmas movie was on the bucket list, to make a movie that we took Christmas lore, flipped it on its head, and made a really good one, and people so far have been liking it, so I'm grateful.
-Now, "Red One"... [Cheers and applause] It's out this weekend. Red One is Santa. Red One is codename for Santa. Yes. Who's played by, by the way, the most jacked Santa of all time, J.K. Simmons.
-Yeah, he is kind of --
-Crazy. Yes.
-He is jacked, yeah. But you play the security guard. You're the security elf. You're the...
-You really minimize it when you talk like that. Like, you just -- "Security elf." He's like the --
-He's the head of -- He's taking care of Santa.
-You're right. So he would be the equivalent of the head of the CIA for...
-Sorry. [Laughter]
-Right? Yeah. "He's a little minimal elf."
-Yeah. No, not a small security guard. No, no, no.
-Head of the E.L.F.
-Yes.
-And so, for the first time ever, there's more people on the naughty list than on the nice list. Maybe in real life, um... [Laughter]
And Santa gets kidnapped, and we have to go rescue Santa, and we have to save Christmas. What's great here -- Obviously, it's fun, it's family, it's that kind of film.
But I personally, I just -- We have great chemistry with Chris Evans, right?
-I love Chris Evans.
-Amazing. Captain America.
-That's my dude.
-Yes, he's my guy.
-He's funny. He's funny, too.
-He's a funny dude. We had great chemistry. We always thought we would, and then it came true, you know, when we worked together.
But I just love the message, and the message is, the world is crazy, there's a lot of noise happening out there in the world. There's a lot of shaming and blaming and judging and stuff like that.
But there's also a lot of good out there. And we got to choose to, like, look at the good stuff, and not only look at the good stuff, but there's a great quote from Santa -- J.K. Simmons in the movie -- when he says to me, "Hey, look, it's our job to see the inner child not only in us, but more importantly, the inner child in everybody else." It's cool, man.
-That's what I'm talking about. Come on, bud. I want to show a clip. Here's Dwayne Johnson in "Red One." Take a look at this.
-Speaking of classy, watch this.
-He's a singular force in the universe.
-Okay, so worst-case scenario, is there someone that can step in for him, like a vice Santa Claus?
-Are you listening to me? No. No one can do what he does. He knows when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. And he knows that about every single person on this planet.
He has a list the size of Rhode Island, and he checks it twice. If you were to try to read that list just once, it would take you a decade. But he does it twice.
And the reason why he's able to do any of it is because he is Santa Claus, the one and only, and no one else can execute his mission.
-Which is...?
-To spread cheer, ass [bleep] [Laughter, cheers, applause]
-Spread cheer ass...
-That's exactly right. You tell him. That's exactly right.
-You got to talk to the naughty listers, right?
-Yeah. What is the holiday season -- I thought maybe if I -- If I don't see you before the -- I got you a present, and I think you'll really enjoy this.
Yeah. Uh, this is pretty cool. [Laughter]
-No! That's crazy! Wow!
-Isn't that nice?
-That is nice.
-Well, hold on. Don't put it away. What's wild and so ironic is, we're boys, and I got you a Christmas gift, too. Hold on a second.
-I think my...
-Oh. Look at this. [Laughter]
-Oh, my gosh. Wow, that is disturbing.
-It is disturbing. But hold on.
-Dwayna Claus doesn't come with only one gift. He has two. So I got another gift for you.
-You do?
-I do. Come a little closer. Let me tell you. [Laughter]
-Oh! Dude!
-[Laughing] Oh, my God!
-F--
-No, no, no, no!
-[Laughing]
-No, wait!
-Jesus!
-Wow! Wow! Wow. I really went for it. I got rage issues. I apologize. I -- Wow! That was a --
-What in the blue [bleep] just... [Laughter]
-Wow! Oh, my gosh.
-I'm supposed to go to premiere right now. Look at this. [Laughter]
-We have --
-Oh, my God.
-It is almost time for -- for Dwaynta Claus.
-Yes. [Laughter]
-But almost time -- -"Yeah, I'll hit you with a pillow, it'll be great." [Laughter]
-I think you're -- You're supposed to open my --
-I'm supposed to.
-All right. Sorry about that. I apologize.
-Oh, my God. Yes, by the way... [Laughter and applause]
♪♪ Oh, my God. Here we go. [Laughing] Ahh. [Cheers and applause]
-You do actually have a --
-I do. I do.
-You do have a gift.
-We have a gift. So, uh... [Laughter]
-Feathers. Wonderful. Uh, the gift is this -- as just a way of saying thank you to all the military men and women here in the audience, and this audience is comprised of all military men and women, you guys are going to see "Red One" on me. You and a guest.
-Thank you! IMAX! [Cheers and applause]
-In IMAX!
-In IMAX!
-[Cheers and applause]
-Thank you, everybody!
-Thank you.
-You're going to see "Red One," courtesy of IMAX.
-Love you.
-Dwayne Johnson. "Red One" hits theaters and IMAX this Friday. We'll be right back with more "Tonight Show." Stick around, everybody.