Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has revealed that he was once passed over for the leading role in action thriller Jack Reacher.

• Read more: In praise of The Rock: why Dwayne Johnson is the hero we all need

Based on the book One Shot by Lee Child, the 2012 movie follows homicide investigator Jack Reacher as he digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper who shot five random victims. Tom Cruise ended up getting the lead role.

On Friday (April 10), Johnson took to Facebook to answer fan’s questions and he was asked whether he had ever lost out on a role to another actor.

“In Hollywood, actors are kind of like in-a-box,” he answered. “There are actors that can vie for a particular role because it allows for them to have a certain look, skin colour, size, etc. Fortunately, for me, there aren’t a lot of guys at all who look like me. So, all of my roles, from the beginning of my career, I’ve been a lucky son of a bitch that they’ve been created and designed for me – except Jack Reacher.”

“Now, this was ten years ago, and I was in a much different place, I recognise that,” the wrestler-turned-actor continued. “Tom was the biggest movie star in the world, and I was not.”

However, Johnson believed he was prime to play Reacher at the time, given his physical similarities to the character in height and weight, and they both were ‘bad dudes’.

“I got the call saying ‘Hey, you didn’t get the role’,” he continued in the FB video. “Look, I didn’t even know if I had a shot for it, but the people around me at that time made me think that I did. I felt like I did, I felt like ‘Why not me?’”

Back in November, Johnson revealed the release date for upcoming DC movie Black Adam – he also shared some concept art of his character.

Due to arrive in cinemas on December 22, 2021, Johnson said that he was “honoured to join the iconic #DCUniverse and it’s a true pleasure to become, BLACK ADAM.”