Dwayne Johnson Tops 200 Million Instagram Followers After Endorsing Joe Biden: 'Speak Your Truth'.
"Even when the conversations get uncomfortable ... on the other side of discomfort is clarity and progress," said the actor.
Dwayne Johnson is celebrating an uptick in his social media following after publicly endorsing a presidential candidate for the first time.
After announcing late last month that he'd be voting for former Vice President Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 election, the Jumanji actor, 48, has now seen a growth in his follower count on Instagram, now surpassing 200 million in total.
To celebrate the milestone, Johnson posted a four-minute clip to his Instagram page on Thursday, in which he imparted a "life lesson" he has learned since speaking out about politics: "Always speak your truth."
"Here’s what I’ve learned these past few weeks and maybe, you can find value in this take away and apply it to your own life," he captioned the post. "Always speak your truth. And when you do speak your truth - do your best to speak with dignity, compassion, respect, poise, and empathy."
"Even when the conversations get uncomfortable - when you approach with respect and care - on the other side of discomfort - is clarity and progress," added Johnson.
The movie star went on to thank his fans for "giving me the space to speak my truth," and that "I always got your back." Johnson concluded: "You have my word, I’ll always do my best to speak my truth with dignity, respect, empathy, and GRATITUDE. That’s my lesson I’ve learned."
Nikki Bella Addresses Backlash Over Support for Dwayne Johnson Book After Actor Endorses Joe Biden.
Nikki Bella is responding to the backlash she received for supporting a new photograph book about Dwayne Johnson after the actor endorsed Joe Biden for the 2020 presidential election.
The Total Bellas star, 36, addressed the controversy on Wednesday's episode of her and sister Brie Bella's podcast, The Bellas Podcast, explaining that an Instagram post she shared last week promoting The Rock: Through the Lens: His Life, His Movies, His World by Hiram Garcia turned into a "political debate."
"I was really excited because in the mail I got a book, it was Hiram Garcia," Nikki recalled before explaining the feeling of publishing her own book with her sister. "We know as authors how much work you put into making your first book ... The minute you get your first book published and it hits shelves how proud you are. So when I got his in the mail, I just remember that feeling when we dropped Incomparable, and I was like 'I wanna post it out, I want to help people go buy it. Like a love post.' "
Nikki then said she promoted the book, which is filled with two decades worth of photos of Johnson, 48, with a post on Instagram and she began tending to her 2-month-old son Matteo. After she put her son down for a nap, she saw the comments section of her post pouring in with backlash.
"I looked at social media, and all of a sudden I was like, 'What the f---? How did this turn into a political debate?' " Nikki said. "It was crazy."
"The book is about The Rock, he just endorsed Joe Biden," the mother of one explained. "First of all, that never crossed my mind, not once. I'll admit, my first instinct was to delete it. I don't ever talk politics, that's been my rule about my social media. I don't do politics. There's no winning talking about politics, unfortunately. I don't like the negativity it brings. I've always been that way."
The retired WWE star went on to say that "it sucks that you can support someone, support a friend, and their amazing accomplishment and how it turns into negativity and you get this backlash and it turns into something so political."
"This is the thing that bugs me even more about the situation," Brie, 36, said. "You had to, in one moment, feel like, 'Should I have not posted that?' When you should have never felt that."
"I was really disturbed by the backlash on your post," Brie told her sister. "I was like, 'Come on people.' "
Johnson announced his support for Biden, 77, and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, in a video shared on his YouTube channel last month.
"I have been a lucky guy over the years, in my life and my career to have been part of and participated in some real defining moments, and I've never publicly endorsed a presidential candidate or vice-presidential candidate in my life, over my career," Johnson said before officially endorsing Biden and Harris, 55.
"That means a great deal to us, for real," the former vice president said in response, thanking Johnson for his support.
