As far as movie pitches go, “The Rock fights the world’s biggest building” is pretty much a winner. But Skyscraper‘s writer and director Rawson Marshall Thurber didn’t just set out to just make a high-octane actioner; he wanted to make a film with real heart. Still, telling an intimate family story while your hero battles bad guys high above the ground is a tall order, which is why when we had a chance to sit down with both Thurber and Dwayne Johnson we wanted to know how they managed to walk that fine line without falling.
Ahead of the film’s release this week, our own Amy Vorpahl had a chance to talk with The Rock and Thurber about how a movie with such a zany premise also manages to ground itself by making its main character a family man who wants to save his loved ones. Thurber thinks this might even be The Rock’s best performance ever.
Of course, we also had to ask the age-old question: Is The Rock a dad or a daddy? (In case you missed it, Johnson weighed in on Twitter with an emphatic “both,” depending on the situation.)Â But in the interview, Johnson gave a new answer that reveals what made him the best choice to star in an action movie that is both heartfelt and heart-stopping.
What other action films do you think manage to carry big sequences with big heart? Give us your favorites in the comments below.
