He seems like the one of the most confident, upbeat people in Hollywood, but action hero Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is opening up about his struggle with depression on Oprah's Master Class.
In the episode airing Sunday, Nov. 15, the Ballers star, 43, talks about how being passed over by the NFL and then getting cut from the Canadian Football League at the age of 23 led to a dark period in his life.
Living in his parents' small apartment and unsure of what to do with his life, he was at a low point.
"I found that with depression one of the most important things you could realize is that you're not alone," he says. "You're not the first to go through it, you're not going to be the last to go through it and oftentimes you feel like you're alone and you feel like it's only you and you're in your bubble. I wish I had someone at that time who could just pull me aside and [say], 'Hey, it's going to be okay.'"
Six weeks after he was cut from the Calvary Stampeders, his coach called and asked him to come back. But Johnson turned him down and told his father, a professional wrestler, that he wanted to follow in his footsteps.
"He said, 'You are throwing it all away. It is the worst mistake you will ever make. You're ruining your career,'" Johnson recalls. "I said, 'Maybe I'll be no good, but I feel like, in my heart, I have to do this.'"
He asked his father to train him "and it wound up being one of the greatest chapters in my life."
Johnson became WWE's "The Rock" before making the move into acting and Hollywood superstardom.
Although his life is better than ever, as he looks forward to the birth of his daughter with girlfriend Lauren Hashian, Johnson, who has a teenage daughter from a previous relationship, recalls the lessons he learned all those years ago: "You've just got to remember, hold on to that fundamental quality of faith, have faith, and on the other side of your pain is something good."
Oprah's Master Class airs Sunday, Nov. 15, at 8 p.m. ET on OWN.
