Why Hulk Hogan's Acting Career Flopped

These days, it’s almost a foregone conclusion that a popular wrestler will become a movie star. It happened to John Cena, Dwayne Johnson, and many others. One of the biggest names in the sport, Hulk Hogan, did enjoy a brief acting career, but it’s nowhere near the level of his peers. For some reason, Hogan had a lackluster Hollywood career that flopped, leaving few noteworthy performances.

He popped up in cameos at first, which isn’t uncommon for new actors breaking into the industry from professional sports and eventually landed leading roles. Decades later, Hollywood simply wants no part of Hogan any longer, leading many of his fans to wonder why Tinseltown turned its back on him. After all, there’s no denying that Hogan is an excellent entertainer, having commanded the attention of millions of people throughout his career in the ring, so why hasn’t he become a movie star?

To be fair, he was sort of a movie star for a brief moment in his own right. Of course, just because someone pops up for a cameo in “Gremlins 2: The New Batch,” playing a comedic version of themselves, that doesn’t mean they’ll be the next wrestling-to-acting transplant. Hogan’s Hollywood career fizzled out relatively soon after it began, and there’s little chance he can turn that around. Here’s why Hulk Hogan’s attempt at an acting career fell as flat as a choke-slammed opponent.

Hulk Hogan’s path to becoming a movie star began in the ring, and it’s not hyperbolic to say he was the mascot of the WWF for the latter half of the 1980s. Of course, he didn’t start out as the massive personality he ultimately became — initially, he was a heel, riling up the crowd before he switched things around and became a dominating force in the ring. It was in the early ’80s that Hogan developed his iconic look, catchphrases, and nickname, and the crowds loved him.

This presented Hogan with opportunities, but unlike today, professional wrestling wasn’t a path to Hollywood. In many ways, it was Hogan who opened the door for future wrestlers-turned Hollywood stars like Dave Bautista and others, but it wasn’t easy. Hogan was a pop culture icon when suits from Hollywood began courting him, but there wasn’t a ton of imagination behind the types of characters he could play.

Most of them were approximations of the character he’d played for years. While Hogan is firmly established in popular culture today for his iconic style and intense desire to tear off any shirt he happens to be wearing, it’s little more than a gimmick when applied to movie characters. Granted, the former WWF-turned-WWE is all about its many gimmicks, but it was more so in the ’80s, and with a great deal of work and effort, Hogan managed to snatch roles relatively early in his career.

Long before he traveled to Tinseltown to try acting, Hogan spent plenty of time performing for cameras. That’s largely what professional wrestling is: entertainment, and Hogan excelled at it. He threw everything he had into his persona, making him a star. While he’d appeared in tons of televised pro-wrestling events shown around the world, Hogan’s first foray into acting came via “Rocky III,” when he played Thunderlips, a professional wrestler who fights Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in an exhibition match.

Fictionally speaking, Rocky was the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion at the time, so pitting him against a giant from another sport was designed as a charity event. Hogan pulled from his days playing a heel to transform himself back into a proper villain. Everything about Thunderlips is exaggerated as he calls himself “The Ultimate Male” while calling his opponent “The Ultimate Meatball.” The fight served to showcase Rocky’s future opponent, Clubber Lang (Mr. T), but it also gave Hogan a taste of Hollywood.

That said, very little of Hogan’s performance was new to him, as he truly plays another version of himself. Granted, he fights a boxer and not another wrestling performer, but that’s kind of what exhibition matches are for. Rocky tries to reason with the nearly seven-foot-tall behemoth, who deftly throws him around the ring with ease. The fight ends in Rocky’s favor, but only after he takes a beating from the wrestler whose moves don’t exactly align with his fight training.

After “Rocky III,” Hulk Hogan appeared in a plethora of televised wrestling events, TV shows, and TV movies, but it would be years before he landed the lead in a feature film. Most of his work during this time came from walk-on appearances in shows like “The Love Boat,” where he played himself. Finally, in 1989, Hogan landed the lead in the Vince McMahon-funded project, “No Holds Barred.”

The film is about a wrestling match between Zeus (Tom Lister Jr.) and Rip Thomas (Hogan). Unlike his work in “Rocky III,” the film offered Hogan the chance to act in and out of the ring. Rip is recruited by a scuzzy network executive to fight in a no-holds-barred wrestling match. When he declines, the exec has Rip’s younger brother beaten to a pulp, while Rip’s girlfriend, Samantha (Joan Severance), is kidnapped.

Much of what plays out in the film is vulgar and predictable, and it wasn’t a hit by any measure. That said, “No Holds Barred” has since become a cult classic, showcasing Hogan early in his film career despite its paltry score of 10% on Rotten Tomatoes. McMahon shelled out $8 million for the film, which managed to barely double its cost, making the whole thing a financial wash. Still, it showed Hogan’s ability to lead a film, even with a derivative script, which opened more doors in Hollywood. Though none would lead to a successful acting career.

If you go back and look at many of the movies released in the 1980s and ’90s that didn’t work well, it wasn’t unusual to find poorly made science fiction films. One of the absolute worst from the period was the 1991 Hulk Hogan-helmed “Suburban Commando.” The film is about an interstellar vigilante named Shep Ramsey (Hogan) from another planet who winds up on Earth. To fit in, which is effectively impossible, he moves in with a kind family in the American suburbs, and the result is laughably awful.

That said, Christopher Lloyd and Shelley Duvall both signed up for the movie, so it had some star power. Regardless, even their impressive acting chops couldn’t save “Suburban Commando” from becoming a joke among movie fans. The film is a run-of-the-mill fish-out-of-water story that attempts to inject humor where it can.

The jokes fell flat, the action was poorly choreographed, and the film was so bad that it pushed famed Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert to write, “By golly, by the time it was over, I was feeling kind of tired of going to the movies.” The movie didn’t do Hogan’s career any favors, but it wasn’t the last time a Hollywood exec signed him up for something. Pretty odd, seeing as the film cost $11 million and only made $6.9 million. It also maintains a 15% on Rotten Tomatoes, so, at the very least, it performed better than “No Holds Barred.”

Most of Hulk Hogan’s films are forgettable wastes of celluloid, but one rises to the top of the heap in terms of being remembered. Hogan plays Sean Armstrong, a former pro wrestler hired as the bodyguard and nanny for two bratty children whose wealthy father is being stalked by a rival.

The film is predictable and derivative, and the reason it’s remembered has nothing to do with Hogan or his co-stars, which include Sherman Hemsley. The reason people are still talking about Mr. Nanny decades after its release is because of a shot in which Hogan rides his bike along a shoreline in a montage of sorts, just moving along to the music.

In the brief clip, just before Hogan adjusts his famous mustache, you can see a man in the background inexplicably throwing a dog into the water. It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, as the action isn’t on the man, but he and his dog weren’t meant to be in the film. He’s not an extra or anyone associated with the film — he’s just a man in the background chucking his dog into the water. Nobody knows who he is or why this happened, but it’s the only reason anyone remembers this otherwise forgettable film that holds a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Hulk Hogan’s acting career consists of almost nothing but box office bombs. His most successful film is “Rocky III,” which features him for one scene, and he’s nowhere near the lead. When Hogan plays a side character, the films aren’t all terrible, and some make decent money, but these are rare among his acting credits. Looking beyond the financials and the production aspects of the films themselves, critics and audiences alike have largely panned Hogan’s films

Many of Hogan’s films fail to make a lasting impact, likely explaining why critics haven’t bothered to rate them. The aforementioned films all scored 15% or lower on Rotten Tomatoes, but his lowest-rated film is easily “3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain,” which pulled in an impressive 0% from critics. Hogan plays the iconic action star Dave Dragon, whom the film’s three child leads sneak into an amusement park to see. The movie is silly on all levels, but it’s also made for children, though few would find it entertaining.

Getting a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes is no easy task, but Hogan managed to score one in his filmography. Because his movies often cost more money than they made and were critically pulled apart, it’s unsurprising Hollywood stopped calling. That’s not to say Hogan’s acting career completely dried up, because it didn’t — he just moved on to other areas of entertainment, including reality TV and elsewhere. Of course, his reality TV series didn’t do his career or public image any favors.

In 2005, Hulk Hogan jumped on the reality TV bandwagon with “Hogan Knows Best,” a documentary series about Hogan and his family. The show focuses on Hogan’s family, placing emphasis on the raising of his and Linda Hogan’s children. Notably, the series was also a vehicle for the couple’s only daughter, Brooke Hogan, who launched her singing career via “Hogan Knows Best.” The show lasted for four seasons, showcasing the family and their lives, which devolved across the seasons.

In August 2007, shortly before it was canceled, Nick Hogan was involved in a near-fatal car wreck. He was charged with reckless driving, underage drinking, and a DUI. Nick received 12 months of probation and 100 hours of community service following a plea of “No contest.” Around this time, Hulk was caught cheating on his wife with one of his daughter’s friends, shedding light on the couple’s failing marriage, leading to their divorce.

Reality TV is meant to show the reality of its subjects, and in the case of Hogan’s show, it was perhaps too controversial for some viewers. These incidents were the impetus for the cancellation of “Hogan Knows Best,” and they also highlighted Hogan’s private nature, showing that he wasn’t necessarily the good-guy persona he’d put on display for years. The series further marred Hogan’s public image, which made it even harder for him to secure acting roles.

“The Wrestler” was a comeback vehicle for Mickey Rourke, whose acting career stalled for a variety of reasons. The film brought Rourke back into the spotlight, earning numerous accolades and nominations, including a nomination for best actor from the Academy Awards. According to Hulk Hogan, he declined the film multiple times. Seeing as Rourke was a former professional boxer and Hogan was a professional wrestler, it makes sense that he’d be approached.

Still, as Hogan explained during an interview with Digital Spy in 2012, “When the script for “The Wrestler” kept coming to me, I said, ‘This movie is so good if you put me in the film as a wrestler people are going to say, ‘No credibility, Hulk Hogan isn’t a good actor.’ Whatever Hollywood thinks of me.'” Hogan added, “As soon as they put Mickey Rourke in there, I knew it had a chance, and he did such a great, great job it relit his career.”

While Hogan went on record saying he was thrice offered the role, the film’s director, Darren Aronofsky, says otherwise. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Aronofsky wrote, “For the record, the role of “The Wrestler” was always @mickeyrourke; it was never Hulk Hogan’s as he claims on @howardstern.” In the referenced 2012 Howard Stern interview, Hogan also claimed to have been offered the leading role in “Highlander,” though it’s unclear if he was offered anything more than a script.

There’s no denying that Hulk Hogan has lived an interesting life, and a feature film biopic starring Chris Hemsworth as Hogan is something many would be interested in seeing. That was the plan, but the film fell apart and was scrapped. Todd Phillips was tapped to direct, and Hogan was all-in on the script. The project ran into delays, placing it smack dab into development hell before it was canceled in 2024.

Phillips revealed during a 2024 interview with Variety, “I love what we were trying to do, but that’s not going to come together for me.” Hemsworth was attached in 2019 alongside Bradley Cooper as a producer, so there was plenty of star power behind the biopic. Ultimately, Hogan was the reason the film didn’t move forward, which he explained was the result of a contract violation via Netflix.

Hogan explained during an appearance on the “PDB Podcast,” “They [Netflix] kind of, like, missed a beat in the contract … There was a payment that wasn’t placed at the right time,” leading Hogan to pull out. Technically, the project has been canceled, and most of the folks involved have moved on to other things, but it could still be made. It’s unclear if Hogan would support this, but he raved about the script and Hemsworth playing him. With the fans hoping to see the movie made, it’s possible that could happen, but for the time being, it’s dead in the water.

While Hulk Hogan’s on-camera acting career has been somewhat disastrous, he’s not out of the game and still acts. Granted, most of his acting is done behind the microphone and not in front of the camera. It’s not uncommon for actors to transition to voice acting as they get older, but for Hogan, it was more of a necessity as there weren’t many options to continue his acting career, which, for the most part, was at an end.

Still, Hogan remains active, occasionally lending his powerful voice to characters in television and in films. He voiced Abraham Lincoln in the “Robot Chicken: Star Wars” special, and he voiced himself in the same series alongside other characters. He also played himself in “American Dad!” and was featured in other roles. While many of these parts were small and didn’t blossom into a massive career like with other actors-turned-voice actors, Hogan did land a minor part in “Gnomeo & Juliet.”

Hogan voices Terrafirminator V.O. in the film, and while “Gnomeo & Juliet” didn’t blow away the critics, earning a 55% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, it raked in nearly $200 million at the box office, which technically makes it the second most profitable film Hogan participated in after “Rocky III.” Granted, the Hulkster didn’t have a massive role in the movie, but he played his part, proving he still had what it takes to act in a film, albeit off-camera.