Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson was listed as the highest paid actor of 2016, earning $64.5 million before taxes. In 2017, he dropped to No. 2 on Forbes' ranking, behind Mark Wahlberg, but still earns a sizable paycheck: Between June 2016 and June 2017, he made $65 million, pretax.
The former wrestler-turned-actor now commands eight figures to be featured in films like "Baywatch" and "Jumanji." Plus, he earns an estimated $650,000 per episode of HBO's "Ballers," in which he plays a retired football superstar re-inventing himself as a financial adviser.
According to those who know, Johnson really works to earn those checks. "He's grinding every day," says Alvin Streeter, who has worked as the actor's stand-in for several movies, including "The Fate of the Furious" and "Baywatch."
"There's an intensity when you're working around him and you can see it and feel it in the air. He's going 150 miles an hour every day."
Streeter, an Atlanta-based father of four started doing background work on movie sets in 2015. "Atlanta is a hot spot for movies," he tells CNBC Make It. "There's so much happening here. All your major films are made here and there are so many jobs in the industry that are pretty lucrative."
In early 2016, the Johnson look-alike submitted an application to do background work on "Baywatch," which came out in May 2017. It happened to be The Rock's next movie at the time.
"I never heard anything [back], so I went on about my business," says Streeter. "Then I get a call around mid-March asking if I'd like to come down to Savannah and stand in for Mr. Johnson. I didn't know what they were talking about at first. I thought it was a prank call."
He headed down to the movie set in Savannah, Georgia, met Johnson and his team, and, "to my surprise, there was a lot of similarity," Streeter says. Johnson's team agreed. A few weeks later, they asked Streeter to stand in for Johnson's next movie, "The Fate of the Furious" (2017).
Since, Streeter has also worked on "Jumanji" (2017).
A typical day on set will start at 7 a.m. and last 12 to 14 hours. As a stand-in, Streeter substitutes for Johnson before shooting each scene to help the film crew light the set and focus the camera.
"The other stand-ins and I set up all the shots," Streeter says. "Basically, once the camera and lighting and everything is set up, and the shot is ready, then [Johnson] steps in and does the shot."
Depending on the director, he's sometimes asked to rehearse lines for the actors.
While Streeter acted in high school, a theater background isn't required of stand-ins. Mostly, he just has to resemble Johnson, which he does to the point where an actor who worked on a movie with Johnson once mistook Streeter for The Rock while he was out shopping one day.
It helps that Streeter has always worked out — "it's my therapy," he says — and has even done bodybuilding for a few years.
"We're not best buds. We're friends," Streeter says of Johnson. "We engage and we talk to each other on the set. It's really a business relationship, to make sure the shot is right."
While standing next to The Rock is a pretty cool gig, an unexpected perk of the job has been getting to do stunts. Johnson has an official stunt-double, but Streeter has been asked to do a few anyway, which is, by far, the coolest part of the job, he says.
"Hollywood is funny because it's like a club," Streeter says. "Once you become a member, you're in. ... I don't know if I can do this long term, but right now, it's a lot of fun."
This is an updated version of a story previously published in February 2017.
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