Days after slamming some of his male “Fast 8” co-stars as “candy asses,” Dwayne Johnson offered a more measured philosophy about on-set tensions on Wednesday, writing: “To me, conflict can be a good thing.”
The actor offered his assessment in an Instagram post, which also included a video of Johnson celebrating with cast and crew.
The Rock began his post by raining praise on the film’s stunt coordinator and his stunt team, before seguing into a lengthy reflection on the family-strengthening quality of conflict.
“You guys reading this know how much I believe in the idea of TEAM EFFORT. That means respecting every person, their time and their value when they step on to my set or partner with our production company,” Johnson wrote. “And like with any team – that’s a family – there’s gonna be conflict. Family is gonna have differences of opinion and fundamental core beliefs. To me, conflict can be a good thing, when its followed by great resolution.”
The actor went on to emphasize that he and his castmates, whatever tensions might have arisen, were working toward a
“I was raised on healthy conflict and welcome it. And like any family, we get better from it,” Johnson wrote. “At the end of the day me and #F8 co-stars all agree on the most important thing: Delivering an incredible movie to the world.”
The tone was dramatically different from Johnson’s earlier post, in which the action star wrote.”There’s no other franchise that gets my blood boiling more than this one. An incredible hard working crew. UNIVERSAL has been great partners as well.
“My female co-stars are always amazing and I love ’em. My male co-stars however are a different story. Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don’t.
“The ones that don’t are too chicken s–t to do anything about it anyway. Candy asses,” he continued. “When you watch this movie next April and it seems like I’m not acting in some of these scenes and my blood is legit boiling – you’re right,” he added.
Johnson’s initial post prompted his “Fast 8” castmate Tyrese to clarify on Tuesday that he was not one of the candy asses in question.
“I think Dewayne aka DJ happens to be one of the most humble, down to earth and professional people I’ve ever worked with and more importantly he’s my brother we have NEVER had a problem and will never have a problem,” the singer-actor wrote Tuesday on Instagram. “WE are good over here.”
Read Johnson’s new message below.