Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson has emotional reaction to live-action 'Moana'

Disney's live-action reimagining of the beloved Oscar-nominated animated adventure, 'Moana' hits theatres on Friday, July 10, and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is back as Maui.

This time he's stepping out of the recording booth and into the Hawaiian sun.

He sat down with Joelle Garguilo to talk about how this film hits especially close to home.

"Everything carries a different weight. Real flesh and blood, human beings, soul behind the eyes, like, and then bits as real as us sitting here. It was the opportunity for us to, I think, showcase our culture in a real way, live action way. But also, we had a shot to do something pretty cool and different. And especially, you know, it all starts with a vision, starts at the top, starts with the Maestro, myself. So you got it. It started with Tommy, and he he had a an amazing vision for the film, but also a deep profound respect for culture," Johnson said.

Johnson said he felt pride sharing the story of his ancestors in this way as well as the pride of getting to bring his family along.

"It was surreal. He's used this analogy before. He goes, you know, a lot of times when we create stuff and we create it in the sand, it gets washed away. I feel we have something here that we can action stone that will be remembered forever. Is there something here for my mom and my and my daughter just generational and I'm looking at them and I was raised by women. I still have all women around me and and he said, yeah. Absolutely. Got this idea. So they were right there. And it was just so cool to sit there on set and and and watch them," Johnson said.

Watch 'Moana ' in theaters everywhere on Friday.

Disney is the parent company of this station.