Dwayne Johnson has said it before and he’ll say it again: PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive title might be an annual honor, but his 2016 reign never really ended.
“I’ve been saying it since birth: I am, in fact, the sexiest man alive,” jokes the 51-year-old actor, producer and businessman. “I’m actually the only one who has it in perpetuity.”
Johnson’s good-natured take on the honor even once led him to joke that he was all set to become the first official back-to-back titleholder, until a certain “absurd fanny pack picture” resurfaced and dashed his chances. But the Teremana tequila founder’s memories of his SMA days also hold a deeper, more personal significance — a “full-circle moment” he shares in PEOPLE’s 50th anniversary issue.
“The best part about it was that I got to go back home to Hawaii to shoot it,” says Johnson, who spent his teen years in Honolulu. “I’m there on the beach — the mana, the spirit, the aloha spirit. I’m looking at our all-local crew: all our Polynesian boys and girls working hard. That was so cool.”
The shoot — which took place in September 2016 on Oahu, where Johnson was filming Jumanji — also reminded him how far he has come.
“I was kicked off the island, we were evicted as a family, because we couldn’t pay the rent,” he says. “So years later, to be able to go back to Hawaii and shoot Sexiest Man Alive? George Clooney, Patrick Swayze and then, years later, this big, bald, brown, tattooed guy? Thank you.”
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For Johnson, the cover story was a “milestone” in a career that continues to rack up milestones: Earlier this year, the former wrestling superstar joined the board of directors of TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of WWE and the UFC. In March, he launched Papatui, a skincare line. One of Hollywood’s most bankable actors, with global box office earnings eclipsing $5 billion, he’s also currently gearing up for The Smashing Machine, a biopic of mixed martial artist Mark Kerr, directed by Benny Safdie, and a live-action Moana adaptation for Disney.
Then there’s November’s Red One, a Christmas-themed action-comedy that pairs him with Chris Evans, PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive 2022. Rest assured, Johnson broke the news to his costar gently.
“My conversations with my fellow SMAs are always the same,” he says. ‘“I said congratulations, welcome to the club, but just so you know — you guys have it for a year, but I have it for life.
