Dwayne Johnson fired his agents because they didn’t agree he could be bigger than Will Smith and George Clooney. Now his movies have made more money than theirs.

Dwayne Johnson’s goal was once to be a bigger star than George Clooney and Will Smith. GQ reported that Johnson fired agents who didn’t agree with his ambition. Now, Johnson said he just wants to do what he loves. Dwayne Johnson said he used to hope he’d be a bigger star than George Clooney or Will Smith. Now, he’s more commercially successful than both of them.

Since the 2010s, Johnson has become one of Hollywood’s biggest and most sought-after action stars, following his appearances in box office hits including “Fast Five” and “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.” His films have grossed roughly $4.6 billion in the US and Canada alone, according to IMDBPro, and the actor has made millions from his film career.

In a video cover interview with GQ published on Monday, the writer Zach Baron described how Johnson sacked his agents early in his career because they didn’t agree he could be bigger or better than Clooney and Smith, two of the biggest male actors of recent decades.

Johnson has reached that goal in terms of box office and financial success. From 2012 to 2020, Johnson appeared on Forbes’ highest-paid actor list, and he was above Smith and Clooney in 2016, 2019, and 2020. In addition, per IMDB Pro, Smith’s films have grossed $4.2 billion in the US and Canada, while Clooney’s have fetched $2.5 billion.

But Johnson said his ambitions had changed. “That was the idea back then,” he said. “I’m not dismissing my thought back then because I felt it, because there’s no blueprint, I feel like, for a guy like me, who looks like me. But I feel now, looking back on the career, the declaration is just different.”

Johnson’s goal now is simpler. “Get up every day and run toward the stuff that I love doing,” he said. “It could be a hundred things, it could be 10 things. There’s human beings, I want to run toward them. There’s my children, I want to run toward them. My family, etc.”

Johnson said he thought this new goal would bring him joy. “You reach a point in life where on the other side of running, it’s the stuff you love,” he said. “Maybe a few people loved it too. Maybe they didn’t. But you did, and that’s all that matters.”