The Rock Inspires Through Acceptance Speech For The Generation Award

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson gave an inspiring speech at the MTV Movie and TV Awards last night while accepting the Generation Award honor.

“The most powerful thing that we can be is ourselves. I love what Zachary was saying because that’s us. We were always that little kid. We’re still that little kid. Right — just aspiring to be something better. Aspiring to be important,” Johnson said, referring to host Zachary Levi’s comments before he took the stage. “When I first got to Hollywood — Hollywood, they didn’t know what the hell to do with me. I mean, I was this half-black, half-Samoan and six foot four, 275-pound pro wrestler. You know; I was told at that time, ‘Well, you got to be a certain way. You got to drop some weight. You’ve got to be somebody different. You got to stop working out. Stop doing the things that I love. You got to stop calling yourself The Rock.’ What?!”

Johnson said he then made a choice not to conform to Hollywood, and to forge his own identity in a town of cookie-cutter celebrities.

“So I made a choice. And the choice was I wasn’t going to conform to Hollywood, Hollywood was going to conform to me,” Johnson said. “So, Hollywood conformed to me and here I am with all of you getting the Generation Award.”

Johnson’s speech was widely praised for its authenticity and inspirational message to young people struggling with identity issues.