Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has added a major career milestone to his résumé, earning his first Golden Globe nomination on Monday after a film career spanning more than 60 projects. His acclaimed portrayal of MMA legend Mark Kerr in Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine finally put him in contention for one of Hollywood’s most prestigious awards.

Johnson spoke with hollywoodreporter.com shortly after the nominations were announced, sharing the moment he learned the news. He described a morning that began like any other in his household, only to take an emotional turn.

“Today has been very surreal. I sleep in airplane mode on my phone and keep it by my bed. I get up, and of course, I know the nominations are happening, but I also know that I got to get up with the babies at about 6:05 a.m. So I take it off airplane mode and start to get up. I’m getting ready to go wake up babies and I just hear one buzz. I went, ‘Oh, I got one text. That can’t be good.’ I grabbed my phone, and I see that my first text is from Ryan Coogler. I went, ‘Well, he’s not texting me to tell me, ‘Hey, I’m sorry.’’ So I opened up that text and he said ‘Congratulations, brother.’ Then come to find out that the one buzz I got wound up being just the indicator that I had about 250 texts. But Ryan broke the news to me.”

The nomination marks a turning point for Johnson, who has spoken frequently about wanting to take on more challenging roles. He explained that this project, and the recognition attached to it, reflect years of personal and professional growth.

“A few things. One of them is the importance of listening to the little voice that sits behind your rib cage, that at times whispers to you, and at times pounds on your chest to say that you can do more, and there is more, and it can be scary. And it might be scary because it will require you to step out of a comfort zone. And when things are good, you don’t want to step out of that zone, because it’s going good.

But there was more: I wanted to really push and challenge myself and chase that challenge. I had something very special to me, which was the story. It’s been a long go with The Smashing Machine: seven years ago is when I first met Benny [Safdie] about this. So it’s been over half a decade to get this going and so, it represents believing in and listening to that little voice, and also doing the work, even when it’s scary, and surrounding yourself with like-minded people who are chasing the challenge as well. That would be Benny, Emily and Kazu [Hiro], who helped with this transformation every day.”

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