Related: Complete Coverage of TCA Summer Press Tour
Beverly Hills, Calif. — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson addressed the racially charged comments made by wrestler Hulk Hogan.
“I was pretty disappointed by what I heard,” said Johnson, who spoke during a panel for HBO’s Ballers at TCA on Thursday.
Hogan, real name Terry Bollea, came under fire after it emerged earlier in July that he had made racist comments about the Rock and black wrestlers in a sex tape that is the center of a lawsuit against Gawker Media. Hogan has since been dropped by the WWE.
“It’s one of those things where, and not justifying what he said, we’ve all talked trash, especially in private,” said Johnson, who has known Hogan for years. “And he said what he said and he’s paying the price.”
Other highlights from the panel included:
—The Rock opened up about wanting to be like his Ballers character Spencer Strasmore when he was younger. “My No. 1 goal was to make it to the NFL so I could buy my parents a house. I failed at that.”
—Ballers is Johnson’s first foray into television and he said that he chose the show for its quality. “If I was going to get involved in television, throw my hat into the television ring so to speak, HBO was the right place.”
—If Ballers and all his movie projects weren’t enough, Johnson is teaming with the cabler on documentary Rock and a Hard Place, which looks at a juvenile correction facility in Miami-Dade County Florida.
