When it comes to riders and contract clauses, many performers are known for making some strange and often high-maintenance requests.
For example, the trick of having a clause in a contract to have a bowl of M&Ms with all the orange ones removed.
There is more to this than you might think, as it’s actually a ruse to make sure that the contract has been properly read and understood to the finest detail.
But Dwayne Johnson has a strange contract clause all of his own when it comes to how his movie contracts are written.
The clause originated in the Fast and Furious franchise, and is intended to help to communicate just how tough the main cast including Johnson, Vin Diesel, and Jason Statham all are.
Keeping up the tough guy image for all of the characters is an important part of the franchise.
So what exactly is this rule that Johnson has written into his contract?
It’s that he can’t ever lose a fight on screen, or even be seen to take too much punishment in his many on screen fights.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Vin Diesel was the first to have such a clause in the Fast and Furious franchise.
Vin Diesel had reportedly developed a system where he assigned a numerical value to each blow he receiving on screen.
These were meticulously counted up by a producer, his younger sister, to make sure that the rules of the contract were being followed.
Johnson and Statham saw this system and had a similar clause added into their contracts.
The report said: “Mr. Johnson, 47, enlists producers, editors and fight coordinators to help make sure he always gives as good as he gets.”
So he doesn’t have to always win, but he can’t ever come off worse.
Meanwhile, Statham had something similar implemented.
The report continued: “According to producers and crew members on the films, Mr. Statham, 51 years old, negotiated an agreement with the studio that limits how badly he can be beaten up on screen.”
However this can also cause some problems, especially when the two actors end up having to face each other in a fight, like in Furious 7.
It’s like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, as the contracts mean that the scene has to be meticulously choreographed so that the contracts are both honoured.
While the practice started in the Fast and Furious franchise, Charles Peralo, a business culture news junkie who posts videos to TikTok, claimed that Johnson carried over the practice.