It all started with a YouTube video.
After this video of a dude dancing with his cousins at a wedding went viral, amassing almost 100,000 views to date, not only did it help propel the aspiring hip-hop dancer to Internet stardom, but it also proved to be his Hollywood calling card, too.
When the filmmakers behind the buddy comedy Central Intelligence needed a much heavier (and younger) version of star Dwayne Johnson for an opening sequence set years back when his and costar Kevin Hart‘s characters were in high school, they opted not to use a fat suit and instead cast a very real dude.
That dude is Sione Kelepi, a 23 year old from Florida whose videos on Vine and Instagram have drawn hundreds of thousands of views to date (Kelepi currently has over 500,000 followers on Vine and over 100,000 on Instagram).
“The first thing they told me was that it was a shower scene, and I automatically thought I’d be nude,” Sione recalled while speaking to Fandango about his experiences making the movie. “I didn’t want to ask because I felt weird, and then they told me that, yes, it was a nude scene. But I was excited! Because, yeah, I knew it would be uncomfortable, but I was okay with that because that’s the only way to really push you out of your comfort zone.”
The sequence is a pretty powerful opening moment for a summer comedy, as Johnson’s Bob is dragged naked from the locker room showers into a packed gymnasium by a group of bullies. It’s right then that Kevin Hart’s Calvin – decorated sports star and the most popular kid in school – comes to Bob’s rescue, covering him up and saving him from further humiliation.
“It’s a dark scene to set the movie up,” Johnson said. “And then there’s one dude in the entire gym who cared – and it’s him [pointing to Kevin Hart]. “And 9 times out of 10, that kid in school is actually that guy,” Hart added. “When you’re loved by everybody, it’s because you’re giving off nothing but love. So to have [my character] Calvin be the one to say, ‘Hey man, are you alright?’ it shows who this guy really is. Regardless of all of this, he still has a heart. And [Dwayne’s character] Bob saw that heart years ago, and that’s why Bob is holding on to that moment.”
And what a moment it is! While face-replacement technology was used to swap in Johnson’s face and help make Kevin Hart look 17 years old again, everything else you see in that scene happened as is. So, yes, Sione really did have to strip down to his birthday suit in front of a packed gymnasium... and what an experience that was.
“It wasn’t difficult to do, but I was nervous,” Sione said. “I was preparing myself all day – I woke up at like 4 a.m., and when I got on set I just kept telling myself, okay, you’re gonna get naked today. And then I saw a gym full of people and I was like… crap!”
Prior to this moment, we first meet Sione (as Johnson, playing Bob) in the school’s locker room where the colorful teen got to show off some of those dance moves that have made him so popular online. With assistance from choreographer Denise Faye (Burlesque, Chicago) – who Sione credits with helping bring out his “inner sexy kitten” – the two worked on a series of moves that Sione could pull from during a shower scene in which he was completely naked except for his “package,” as he put it. “It was like a strapless thong – a lot of tape, put it that way.”
Then came the moment of truth inside that gymnasium. It’s one thing to get naked in front of a small group of people, but it’s another to do it in front of a couple hundred.
“When I dropped my trousers all of a sudden there was complete silence,” Sione recalled. “You could hear a pin drop in that gym, and I was like, someone say something! I hated the silence. Then I got on the ground and Kevin Hart came up to me and asked me if I was ready. I said, ‘I’m ready now!’ And he joked, ‘You ain’t got no choice!’ After that it was smooth sailing. I got comfortable. I was like, you’ve already seen my ass – it doesn’t matter now!”
“And that’s brave!” Johnson said. “He got naked in front of everybody and did his thing, and they threw him out on his ass and everything. Not only is it a brave scene as an actor, it’s also a heartbreaking scene for anyone who’s been bullied.”
Count Sione among those who’ve been bullied.
“I was definitely bullied growing up,” he told us. “I wouldn’t say I was bullied as harshly as what you see in the movie, but I was picked on and made fun of a lot. And I didn’t stick up for myself – I didn’t have a backbone back then.“
Sione said that filming this scene and exposing all of himself in front of a packed gymnasium was a scary moment, but a proud one. Because his accomplishing this goal was a reminder that he’s over it – he’s moved on.
He’s found his confidence.
“[Filming the scene] brought back memories of people calling me fat or stupid, but it didn’t bring those memories back in a bad way,” he said. “It was more like, look where I am now. Look who I’m working with.”
That kind of confidence and optimism didn’t appear overnight, and Sione attributes much of his attitude to his experiences on Vine – both positive and negative.
“On Vine, I was just making dumb videos,” he said. “Putting out dance videos. There were some haters at first – okay, a lot of haters. And I guess you could say that’s where I began building up a backbone, finding confidence in myself.”
Sione explained that while he was navigating a flood of negative comments that just became repetitive after a while (“they were all saying the same thing”), there were even more people who loved what he was doing and celebrated his style and personality.
“Honestly, I’m so secure with myself right now that anything anybody says won’t affect me,” he said. “Look, I’m aware that I am fat and it’s not healthy, but I’m also aware that it’s something I can always work on.”
Sione described Kevin Hart as being “a really chill dude” and called Dwayne Johnson a “great person,” reminiscing about the time he and Johnson first met while getting their faces scanned. In fact, one of the most surprising things he learned while making the film was that everyone from “Hollywood” was actually pretty cool.
“Not that I thought they were all going to be jerks, but you know the typical Hollywood stereotype that everyone is stuck up and whatever. Well, there was none of that,” he said.
Next up for Sione is a big fancy movie premiere and a lot of pressure from his friends to all go see the movie together when it hits theaters on June 17, of which Sione wants nothing to do with. “I hate making things all about me,“ he said.
But if people do make it about him, and come at Sione in a negative way either in person or online, know that this is a dude who’s heard it all and is ready for just about anything.
“If someone has a negative opinion of me, I know it doesn’t matter because of how secure with myself I am,” he said. “I think other people [like me] just need to find that security. And they don’t have to show, like, oh I’m confident, oh I’m sassy – if you’re confident, just be you."
Central Intelligence opens in theaters on June 17.
