Making a name for himself in ‘Game Plan’

What’s in a name?

For Dwayne Johnson, it is the phasing out of one name and making a smooth transition to another.

For nearly a decade, Johnson has been known by the name he used in the wrestling ring: “The Rock.” He’s been billed as such in several of his films, including “The Mummy Returns” and “The Scorpion King.”

But with his last few movies -- including “The Gridiron Gang” and the Disney family comedy “The Game Plan,” which opens Friday -- the 35-year-old entertainer is credited as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Johnson, who is a charmer in person, didn’t have a specific plan for changing his moniker.

“I just wanted it to happen naturally,” he says. “And it kind of just happened naturally. It happened through the media. They started to say a couple of years ago Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, and before you know it. . . .”

And in his next three films -- the comedy “Get Smart,” the indie “Southland Tales” and the remake of the 1975 Disney fantasy “Escape to Witch Mountain,” which he’ll shoot next year -- “The Rock” will totally disappear. Johnson will be billed by his given name only.

“Everybody calls me Dwayne,” he says, flashing his smile.

“The Game Plan” is Johnson’s first completely family-friendly film. A broad comedy, it is the latest riff on the tried-and-true movie genre in which a single man or woman suddenly is saddled with taking care of a child.

Johnson’s Joe Kingman is a swinging bachelor who loves Elvis Presley -- Johnson too is a devoted fan of the King -- almost as much as he loves dating top fashion models. A legendary NFL quarterback, Kingman is also as tough as they come.

But he more than meets his match when Peyton (Madison Pettis), an adorable 8-year-old girl, arrives at his door -- the daughter he never knew he had from a brief marriage years earlier. She naturally puts a crimp in Joe’s style, yet just as naturally, he is enchanted by her, even going so far as to appear in her ballet recital.

The film gives Johnson, who first showed his comedic chops as a guest host on “Saturday Night Live” in 2000, a chance to do some slapstick -- especially when he gets an allergic reaction to the cinnamon cookies Peyton makes -- and to perform a lovely rendition of the Elvis hit, “Are You Lonesome Tonight?,” which he also briefly reprises during the interview.

“I think there is something inherently charming about a guy who is finding his way through being a dad and a caregiver, especially when he has no idea how to do that before,” he says.

It’s a dilemma with which he can identify. Johnson went through the same emotions after his daughter, Simone Alexandra, was born six years ago. (Johnson and his wife of 10 years, Dany Garcia, announced their separation in June.)

“I was born an only child,” he explains. “There is great comfort in being by yourself and having silence, all of those things. You embrace that. But there is also, I believe, a wiring in us that makes us selfish in a way. Not that you don’t care for your loved ones; you do. But you make sure to take care of ‘me.’ I was like that until my little girl was born. I was fortunate to be able to bring that to this role and understand that.”

Johnson beams as he acknowledges that his daughter has him wrapped around two of her fingers, especially when he accompanies her to her horse-riding classes near their home in Davie, Fla.

“She goes to this great little farm where there are all of these little girls,” he says. “They all ride. They have the helmets, the riding crops and the boots. It’s very sweet. And the picture of me sitting there with all the little girls’ moms. . . .”

Johnson treated young Madison like his own daughter. “Our chemistry was great,” he says. “We spent a lot of time together.”

“The Game Plan” also gave Johnson an opportunity to return to his football roots. “I was able to play football for 10 years,” he says, referring to his youth. He hoped to make it to the NFL but was beset with injuries during his college years, including a ruptured back. He doesn’t make excuses, however. “If I was meant to play in the NFL,” Johnson says, “I would have. I was a good player at the University of Miami, but I wasn’t good enough.”

Injuries followed him to the football field in “The Game Plan.”

“I ruptured my Achilles,” he says. “I had to get it reattached. I was on the field rehearsing and on this particular play, I threw the ball and landed at that precise point where your body aligns perfectly to snap your Achilles.”

After the surgery, he returned gingerly to the movie. “We were able to shoot around things, including the ballet. I was doing a lot of one-legged pliés.”

He’s still rehabbing every day. “I am basically still recovering,” Johnson says. “It’s a year-and-a-half or two-year process.”

Although he’s enjoyed success in films over the last five years, Johnson says that when he was a wrestler, he wasn’t thinking of making movies. He had his mind set on sitcom stardom.

“I was writing scripts,” he says. “I was writing comedy. Comedy has always been incredibly rewarding for me. It’s always gratifying to make people laugh.”

That’s why “The Game Plan” was so rewarding. “I was waiting for the opportunity to do a big, broad comedy,” says Johnson. “And all of these elements came together. There is something very special and unique with making people laugh at me, whether it be self-deprecating comedy or dark comedy or physical comedy. As long as people are laughing, I love that.”

susan.king@latimes.com