Rise to Fame
At 30, he borrowed money from a coworker to buy his kids Christmas presents, then decided professional wrestling was his exit. That logic held up: within five years he was in Evolution alongside Triple H and Ric Flair, and by 2005 had won the Royal Rumble and beaten Triple H at WrestleMania 21 for the World Heavyweight Championship. By the time he got the call about Guardians of the Galaxy, his house had been foreclosed and he'd sold most of what he owned. He cried in his car.
In the Spotlight
Post-Drax, his ambitions are obvious: dramatic lead roles, not action franchises. Kevin Feige has called him one of the best actors they've ever worked with. The Killer's Game pulled $5.9 million on a $30 million budget. The market keeps casting him as muscle anyway. He's been vocal about wanting to play Ernest Hemingway, which tells you everything about where his head is at and how far that is from the projects currently landing on his plate.
Side Notes
By nine, he'd watched three people get killed outside his D.C. home. By 13, he was stealing cars. Somewhere between there and here, he got a Mister Rogers tribute tattoo ('143'). He also covered a Manny Pacquiao tat with a sugar skull after Pacquiao made homophobic remarks publicly, a move that got more coverage than most of his movies. His daughters were born in 1990 and 1992, which means he was already a grandfather before he shot a single MCU film.