During a recent Q&A, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson revealed that he lost out on the role of the title character in Jack Reacher to none other than Tom Cruise.

In a nearly seven-minute video shared to his Instagram on Saturday, Johnson explained that the role in the 2012 action flick was one that he 'really wanted,' but the loss led to 'another door' opening. 'Business is business and I'm happy [Cruise] got it,' insisted the 47-year-old actor to his 178million followers.

The Rock admitted that he wanted to play Reacher because, unlike his prior roles, the iconic fiction heroine was not 'made' for him. 'All of the roles for me - because I am a lucky son of a b*tch - have been made and designed specifically for me, except Jack Reacher.'

Johnson, who was vying for the part over ten years ago, recognized that he was 'in a much different place in [his] career' at that time and that Tom was, obviously, the biggest movie star in the world and [he] was not.' 'I wanted that role so badly because I was a big fan of that character and I thought I could do him justice.'

Jack Reacher, the protagonist in a series of novels by the same name and written by Lee Child, is described as being 6feet4inches and between 275 and 280 pounds - both parameters that Johnson fit.

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`Was there ever a role in Hollywood that I wanted so badly and I went after, and I didn't get it and it went to another actor? That answer is yes, and that role is Jack Reacher.`

A post shared by IGN (@igndotcom) on Apr 13, 2020 at 2:50pm PDT

Dwayne eventually got the call that he 'didn't get the role.' He continued: 'But the universe works in funny ways though, as when that door shut on me, another door opened with the opportunity to create a character from scratch that was of my DNA.'