Dany Garcia, who grew up in Belleville, created one of Hollywood's top partnerships with ex-husband Dwayne Johnson.
By GERRY STRAUSS | For INSIDE JERSEY
DANY GARCIA always had a plan.
Even as a young girl living in Belleville, Garcia believed that life was going to take her far beyond the streets of her Essex County town.
"My father had come over from Cuba at a very young age and worked really hard to put three children through school and to give us this middle-class lifestyle, and it inspired me," she says. "It really put a fire in my belly, and I had a love for enterprise and I had
a love for making an impact and making money."
Dany Garcia met ex-husband Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson at the University of Miami. Their success as a tag-team business enterprise has allowed them to give back generously to their alma mater. Here, they donate $1 million for the school to renovate its football facilities. The girl who would go on to marry Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and create a multimillion-dollar film and TV production company says she enjoyed a very happy and typically suburban Jersey childhood.
"My high school and my middle school were just a few miles away, so we'd walk to school, and it was barbecues and the pool, and being on a track team and marching band. It was very much a great American experience. I loved it."
But there was always something tugging at her. Garcia understood her parents' sacrifices. She wanted to do the same -- and more -- taking the dream even further.
"I just had this thought that I would take care of my family and build tremendous enterprise, and it would just be such a different life."
So by the time she entered high school, Garcia already had her eye on a career in business. "I decided that I wanted to be involved in international finance marketing," she says.
Next stop, the University of Miami.
"It was the gateway to Latin America, which I felt was the smart place to be if I was looking for this international perspective," says Garcia.
But the view expanded to the hunky defensive tackle on the University of Miami Hurricanes football team. It wasn't long before Garcia was dating Johnson. They married in 1997.
She graduated with honors and quickly rose up the ranks at Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith to become a vice president, and then founded a private wealth management firm.
Meanwhile, as Johnson's football career faltered, he turned to pro wrestling, becoming a World Wrestling Federation superstar, an actor and -- eventually -- a box office kingpin.
The couple had a daughter, Simone, in 2001, but by 2007, the marriage was over.
Their business partnership, however, remained intact. Garcia would go on to establish her own talent management and production operation called The Garcia Companies.
She and Johnson were then the biggest entertainment tag team in America.
"While we were going through our divorce, we made the decision to continue to work together, and that was pivotal," she says.
"I think that is extremely rare -- for individuals (who) are ending a marital relationship to be able to continue in such a close partnership. But we recognized the great work we had done in the past and we knew we could do so much more."
"While we were going through our divorce, we made the decision to continue to work together, and that was pivotal," Dany Garcia says, of her business relationship with ex-husband Dwayne Johnson. For several years, Johnson, 43, and Garcia, 46, tried to break into Hollywood's elite by following the industry's standard advice for a professional wrestler: Walk away from the sport, drop the nickname and lose some muscle mass to look more relatable. In
essence, bag all of the things that made Johnson a star in the first place.
"We eventually received an opportunity for Dwayne to star in a small film called 'Faster,' " Garcia says. "Our decision to do that movie meant walking away from how a Hollywood actor's supposed to look and feel. The film was dirty, it was intense, it had action and he just said, 'I'm going to be me.' He gained his muscle mass back and he was raw in this role. It was ... a career-turning moment."
And the couple has never looked back. Huge box office earnings came from The Rock's arrival in "The Fast & Furious" and "GI Joe" franchises, along with stand-alone blockbusters such as this summer's "San Andreas."
Yet, it's the duo's savvy insight and openness to outside-the-box projects that has put the pair over the top as a global force in entertainment. While some established film stars might stubbornly stick to the big screen, Garcia's strategy landed Johnson on
HBO this year in the comedy-drama series "Ballers," which has already been renewed for a second season.
"I attribute the success to the opportunity for Dwayne to play a character that is so close to who he is," Garcia says about Johnson's role as a former NFL player-turned-financial manager.
Future projects for Johnson include the "Rock and a Hard Place" documentary for HBO, and "Rock The Troops," a live television concert in the works for next year.
At press time, Garcia, who also is a bodybuilder, was planning to return to New Jersey to compete in the Europa Games in Atlantic City.
MORE FROM INSIDE JERSEY MAGAZINE
Follow Inside Jersey on Twitter. Find Inside Jersey on Facebook and Google+