The Rock meets excited Memphis teen, and millions love it

When an internationally recognized superstar with apparently granite muscles and a stage name to match meets an emotional Memphis teenager with an infectious smile and easy-flowing tears, the result is authentic movie magic of a type you don't often find in "Fast & Furious" sequels or superhero spectacles.

The "movie" in question is a video that captures the meeting between Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, 50, the professional wrestler turned movie star, and Charis Carroll, 16, the Crosstown High sophomore whose acting credits include a turn as "the Blanket" in a recent school production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown."

The video lasts 132 seconds, which is roughly 7,308 fewer seconds than the announced running time of The Rock's next starring vehicle, "Black Adam," a DC Comics-inspired action-adventure set to arrive in theaters Oct. 21. "Black Adam" likely will be a hit, but the Charis/Rock collaboration is definitely something of a phenomenon, with some 30 million views on various social media platforms since The Rock shared it on his Instagram page Monday night.

Charis — named for the Greek word for grace and pronounced like the first two syllables of "carousel," she said — had waited two hours to meet Johnson, who was shooting scenes for his NBC television series, "Young Rock," at the Annesdale Mansion, near her family's home on East Snowden Circle in Midtown. As the 132-second video taken by a Johnson assistant demonstrates, Johnson is all about Charis after he introduces himself to her (although, due to a miscommunication, he assumes "Carroll" is her first name). He asks about her school, her grades, and volunteers to take a selfie and make a video with her cellphone (that video lasts 34 seconds). "I got some long arms," he says.

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"It's good to meet you," he says. "Thanks for waiting." Making a 34-second video of himself and Charis on Charis' phone, he declares: "I'm talking to the coolest kid at Crosstown High now." When he asks about her grades and Charis says she makes "all A's," he says: "Oh, excuuuuse me — the opposite of what I had in 10th grade."

Charis' response to the encounter is charmingly, excitedly emotional. "My feelings were very genuine, I didn't think he was going to be that nice," Charis said. "I was in disbelief and shock at how nice he was."

"She was really wowed by how generous he was with his time," said Charis' father, John Carroll, 45, founder of the Memphis-promoting Choose901 initiative. "The Rock's one of the most famous people in the world right now, but he didn't talk about himself at all, he spent all this time getting to know her, and treating her with kindness and joy. I think that's what knocked her socks off." (Not literally, though Charis was barefoot during the encounter.)

"As a school, we were thrilled to see The Rock recognize a great young woman like Charis," said Crosstown's "Director of Growth & Sustainability," Ginger C. Spickler. "She's a member of our theater department so it meant a lot to all of us to have such an incredible performer connect with her. You just never know when an interaction like this will spark something long-lasting in a student."

Johnson left Memphis last week, after spending a couple of weeks here shooting scenes for "Young Rock," most of which paired him with comedian-actor Randall Park, who plays a future version of himself in the series. As that suggests, the show — created by Nahnatchka Khan and Jeff Chiang — has a strange premise: It starts with the idea that Johnson is a candidate for U.S. president in 2032. As he tells stories about his early life during conversations with Park, the episodes flash back to the past, with actors Adrian Groulx, Bradley Constant and Uli Latukefu playing The Rock as a child, teenager and young adult.

The first two seasons of the series were mostly shot in Australia, although Johnson shot his scenes in Atlanta. For the second season, stages on Australia's east coast recreated such Memphis environments as the WMC-TV Channel 5 wrestling studio, where the young Rock began his wrestling career and reunited with his father, professional wrestler Rocky Johnson (played in the series by Joseph Lee Anderson).

The Memphicentric third season of "Young Rock," however, is being shot in Memphis, to cut costs and enable cast and crew to remain closer to home. This change in scenery brought Johnson into contact with some cast members for the first time. The actor has immortalized some of these encounters on his Instagram page. For example, in one post, he refers to Adrian Groulx as an "amazing and beautiful little soul."

"Adrian started to cry after we met for the first time here on set," Johnson wrote. "As I was encouraging Adrian here, it became this emotional moment because I felt like I was going back in time to encourage my 10yr old self too."

In a post about Anderson, who plays his father, The Rock wrote that he invited the actor to take a walk with him because, "Growing up as a kid and even as a man, I never took a walk with my dad. If he were alive today, I would’ve loved to have tried this with him." He said the experience was "cathartic, in a way."

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Memphis production on "Young Rock" began the first week of September and will continue until February, on locations around the city and on sets built inside the exhibition hall on the Graceland campus. Johnson's much-viewed meeting with Charis occurred the evening of Sept. 13 and had been featured on some Carroll family social media posts, but it didn't get much attention until The Rock shared it with his 339 milion Instagram followers.

Johnson also has posted other videos with Memphis fans, including a meeting with an "Our Gang"-like group of little kids in the Annesdale-Snowden district, one of whom shouts: "Can you do the thing where you raise your eyebrow?"

Wrote Johnson on Instagram: "Back when I lived here in Memphis, when I was wrestling at the local flea market every week — I never knew beautiful neighborhoods like this even existed... Awesome folks!! Dads offering me beer and all the mamas as sweet as pie...

"Appreciate all these good families letting our YOUNG ROCK production crew shoot in their neighborhood... Thanks again everyone for being so lovely, kind and gracious."

The appreciation, apparently was mutual. "Him being so nice, that's why I was overjoyed to meet him," Charis said.

Asked if she had met any other famous people, Charis asked: "Does the mayor count?"

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: The Rock meets excited Memphis teen while in town filming 'Young Rock'