Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson battled depression after the breakdown of his first marriage

During an appearance on The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast, Johnson explained: "I was ... going through a separation and a divorce.

"When you guys get married, as a few of you may know, you sign up for the long haul, but then it doesn't always work out like that, and then it rocks you like it rocked me.

"And we had a baby, and what kind of father was I going to be? Anyway, I feel like at that time, I was really going through it. That was another bout of depression. I was trying to figure my stuff out ... "

The actor explained his personal problems influenced his career as he only wanted to make movies that featured a happy ending.

He added: "That was the only thing that I really wanted to do artistically; I didn't want anything that was going to challenge me to rip my guts out, I wanted stuff that has a happy ending, and so that's what that was."

Johnson - who went on to marry second wife Lauren Hashian in 2019 - added that he asked his team if he could start taking on different roles because he wanted to be a major movie star like "George Clooney" - and was met with "crickets".

He explained: "The people around me. I remember challenging them and saying: 'Hey, I may be in this funk right now, and I'm going to work hard to work out of it, try my best. But also I need some guidance here.'

"I remember having a meeting with my agency at that time, and I said: 'Hey, I know I'm in a different spot, but I'm looking at the biggest stars in the world - George Clooney, Will Smith, Johnny Depp at that time - and I want to have a career like that.'

"I was like: 'All right. What do you guys think?' And it was like crickets in the room.

"And I was like: 'Okay. Say no more.' And I remember thinking: 'Well, maybe it's time for a change.' 'I made a decision at that time that I was going to make a big change, and I just collapsed the infrastructure around me to build something new back up."