EDITOR’S NOTE: On Jan. 11, 2019, the Washington Examiner published the story “The Rock chides ‘generation snowflake’ for ‘looking for a reason to be offended.'” It cited reporting originally in the Daily Star that has since been called into question and removed. The story has been updated to reflect this.
Actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson said that he never gave an interview published Friday in which he reportedly attacked millennials for being the snowflake generation.
“Earlier today, online, an interview dropped with me — apparently it was with me — where I was insulting and criticizing millennials. The interview never took place. Never happened. Never said any of those words. Completely untrue. One hundred percent fabricated. I was quite baffled when I woke up this morning,” the Rock said in a video he posted to his Instagram Friday.
The piece with the comments published by the Daily Star was pulled from its website after Johnson’s video was posted.
The piece had claimed Johnson lamented the “snowflake” generation for too easily taking offense and that he wished people would allow others to express themselves, saying “So many good people fought for freedom and equality — but this generation are looking for a reason to be offended.”
“People can be who they want, be with who they want, and live how they want,” the Daily Star had reported Johnson said. “That can only be a good thing — but generation snowflake or, whatever you want to call them, are actually putting us backwards.”
In his video, the retired professional wrestler challenged those statements.
“You know it’s not a real DJ interview if I’m ever insulting a group, a generation, or anyone, because that’s not me, that is not who I am, and that’s not what we do,” the Rock said to his fans in the video. “So to the millennials: the interview never happened. To the plurals, the baby boomers, the snowflake generation — I don’t even know where that term came from — … I always encourage empathy, I encourage growth, but most importantly, I encourage everybody to be exactly who they want to be.”
