It looks like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wasn’t up for the “Hot Ones” challenge.
The YouTube series has gotten everyone from Charlize Theron to Shaquille O’Neal to sit down for flaming-hot wings with a side of spicy questions, but host Sean Evans recently told Bloomberg that Johnson floated a pretty dramatic menu change when he was considering an appearance on the show. (“Hot Ones” and HuffPost share a parent company, BuzzFeed.)
“We’ve been pitching [The Rock] obviously for years and one time I got a note back that was like, ‘would you be willing to do, instead of wings, grilled salmon strips?’” Evans said.
“And in my head I was like, that had to come from his mouth,” he added. “That’s as close as we’ve gotten. And then it fell through.”
But was maintaining hyper-lean eating habits actually a non-negotiable for the wrestler turned actor?
Curiously, Johnson has admitted he isn’t a big fan of salmon. While detailing his diet in an interview with Delish in 2021, he said he hated the stuff but that “it’s a great fish in terms of your health and fitness.”
In the same interview, the “Moana” actor acknowledged that cheat days are a part of his life (as the internet knows well), so it doesn’t seem like his aversion to wings is based on calories alone.
“I do believe in working hard throughout the week and earning your cheat meals,” he told Delish.
Perhaps Johnson just wasn’t ready to test how far he could go up the Scoville scale ― which, as “Hot Ones” heads know, is the scientific measure of how foods rank in spiciness.
As the saying goes, if you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.