Brian Damage
Professional wrestling and Hollywood seemingly go hand and hand. There has been a long list of pro wrestlers that have made the transition from grappler to thespian. From the likes of Mike Mazurski, to Hulk Hogan, to the Rock, Dave Bautista and even the late, great ‘Hot Rod’ Rowdy Roddy Piper gave it a go. Some have succeeded, while others not so much. Then there’s the case for ‘The Game’ Triple H aka Paul Levesque. At one time in the late 1990’s to early 2000’s, Triple H played the Hollywood game. This is all about the game and how Triple H played it.
With Triple H’s wrestling career soaring and the WWF doing big business, it only seemed natural that Vince McMahon would try to make his top heel a leading man in Hollywood. McMahon always had a passion to break into the Hollywood scene starting with writing and producing a film vehicle in 1989 for his then top star Hulk Hogan with the movie called ‘No Holds Barred.’ The movie pretty much flopped at the box office, but this wasn’t the end to McMahon’s quest.
When ‘the Rock’ Dwayne Johnson got offered a very small role in the film ‘The Mummy 2,’ and became a hit with audiences, he was immediately offered his first starring role in ‘The Scorpion King.’ Vince McMahon would receive an executive producer credit and receive a sum of money for doing nothing, simply because he owned the Rock moniker. We all know how Dwayne Johnson’s movie career eventually exploded and became one of Hollywood’s elite, but that’s another story. It did lead Vince to want to have more of his WWF superstars make the transition to acting and for Vince to control a piece of the pie.
Enter Triple H, who was in a serious relationship with Vince’s daughter Stephanie. Triple H was groomed by his soon to be father in law to be the next wrestler to break out in Hollywood. While Dwayne Johnson’s movie career was taking off, Vince lost a top star for his wrestling company, the WWE. While it seemed risky for Vince to want another of his top stars to try his hand as a successful actor, it was rumored that Vince wanted someone he could control more. Imagine Triple H could takeover Hollywood as a big star and continue to wrestle more frequently in the WWF/WWE? That was something that was lost once Dwayne Johnson hit it big.
With Vince McMahon’s urging, Triple H began his journey into Hollywood with a few small television roles in shows like Pacific Blue and the Drew Carey Show. While it didn’t seem like all that big of a deal at the time, Hunter was making connections in Hollywood that would later serve him well. Triple H would also make a cameo appearance along with Mick Foley and the Big Show on an episode of Saturday Night Live that was hosted by The Rock. Incidentally, it was The Big Show who stole the show in that appearance. Triple H also had a more significant role guest starring an an episode of Mad TV.
While Triple H was getting his foot in the door in Hollywood, Vince McMahon created his own production company called WWE Films in July of 2002…later renamed WWE Studios. The objective of this company, was to create films that could take WWE stars like Triple H and others and make them into stars in the acting world.
All of those roles were fine, but nothing that would create a bonafide movie star. It was reported in Variety magazine that Triple H and Stephanie McMahon were spotted in Los Angeles, where Triple H was spending a lot of time going on various movie auditions during his off days. His big break would finally come, when he landed a small role in the Marvel movie ‘Blade: Trinity.’ In it, he would play the small role of a vampire named Jarko Grimmwood.
It was reported, that just like the Rock who earlier was a hit with the cast and crew on the set of The Mummy 2, Hunter was getting the same rave reviews from the cast and crew of the Blade movie. Reportedly, Triple H was committed to his role and would spend off hours before and after filming to ask about the various inner workings of filmmaking. All of that impressed director David Goyer so much, that he expanded Triple H’s role in the movie. Blade: Trinity, ultimately made over 132 million dollars worldwide.
With the buzz being mostly positive about Triple H as a potential star in Hollywood, more substantial roles began to emerge for the Game. He was attached to a movie that was written by Alan McElroy (Spawn) and Academy Award nominated John Milius, who wrote movies such as Dirty Harry, Apocalypse Now, Red Dawn and Conan the Barbarian called ‘Jornada del Muerte.’ The movie was a modern day western, which would have Triple H playing the role of Jonah Hawk and he would fight off outlaw bikers in the southwest. The movie also had the Undertaker, Batista and Shawn Michaels attached to it, but eventually all were removed from the project, leaving only Triple H as the star. At the time, it was believed that this movie would make Hunter into Hollywood royalty. The film ended up in “developmental hell” and was never made.
Another project that Triple H was attached to star in was a sequel to the Conan the Barbarian franchise titled…”King Conan: Crown Of Iron” which was written by John Milius and produced by the Wachowski brothers. Ultimately, that movie was also scrapped when the Wachowskis apparently dragged their feet on getting it made and Warner Brothers lost the rights to the franchise. Another film that might have helped Triple H’s acting career that went nowhere.
Triple H did go on to star in a couple of low budget WWE produced films namely ‘The Chaperone’ and ‘Inside Out.’ Critics were not so kind on either film and they bombed. Triple H was finding it hard to be taken seriously as a good character, especially when he prided himself on playing a heel in WWE. A lot had been riding on Triple H’s projects, but many never saw the light of day.
In the end, Triple H was rumored to wanting to get out of the movie business, as his heart was mainly into being a wrestler more than anything else. He voiced a few roles in projects like Scooby Doo, the Smurfs and Robot Chicken, but his movie career never became what was expected and somehow, many believe that Triple H aka Paul Levesque was fine with that.