Look at them side by side and you’d swear it was a scene out of “Twins,” the 1988 comedy that paired Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito as siblings who couldn’t be more different. But the truth is, the former professional wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and the short, stocky Andy Fickman, who directs Johnson in “The Game Plan,” are kindred spirits whose body types are just about the only thing they don’t have in common.

A wonderful sense of humor about their working relationship is probably the most endearing trait they share. “I would say you are only a tyrant director when you’re working with untalented people like Dwayne,” Fickman said jokingly and with a bright, affectionate smile. “My job is to provide the studio with anything resembling a film and they saddle me with baggage like a former wrestler – and I’m not even sure why he chose former, because the acting thing is not going to pan out.”

“He’s more a dictator than a director,” Johnson shoots back in a tone of sarcasm not often heard by those who are only familiar with his wrestling persona and action movies (“The Scorpion King”). “And he has no creative vision at all – I think he just likes bossing people around.”

In the movie, Johnson plays Joe Kingman, an arrogant all-pro quarterback who learns he has a daughter (Madison Pettis) from a previous relationship. Much to the dismay of his avaricious agent (Kyra Sedgwick), pet bulldog and free-wheelin’ bachelor lifestyle, he gets stuck caring for the girl as the playoffs loom. This being a comedy, she naturally terrorizes his life and home with a variety of little girl-isms.

There’s an old adage in Hollywood that actors shouldn’t work with children or animals, but that didn’t deter Johnson. “The dog is a dog, it’s not like he was a lion or anything,” Johnson said, adding that he was more worried about his eight year-old co-star working on her first movie. “With Madison my only concern was the timing of the comedy, because so much depends on how well you work with your partner,” Johnson said. “But when she got on the set and I saw she’s smart as a whip I knew we’d be fine.”

Fickman thinks he had it harder with the dog, and may be right. “I would say I was the one who inherited the curse,” Fickman said, noting that he found Madison after conducting a nationwide search and couldn’t be happier with her performance. “But the dog, you know, animals are animals. It’s the most humbling experience as a director because he couldn’t care less what you’re saying. He’s not exactly lying around in the trailer saying ‘I’d better get ready because I start working in two hours.’ Instead he’s just lying around, licking himself, thinking where he’ll poop next, so it’s always a challenge.”

While both men credit their own children for readying them for the movie (Fickman has a 10 year-old son), Johnson’s six year-old daughter had him more than prepared. “There was a huge leak at the house one day after one of the faucets was left on – literally three or four inches of water in the house. We had to pull everything up, all the carpet and furniture, and it easily caused more than $150,000 worth of damage.

“At first we had no idea how it happened, and I was blaming a lot of people, but I wasn’t going to blame my little girl. To her credit, she pulled her mom aside and told her she left the faucet on. We appreciated the honesty and thanked her very much for being honest, and then told her she’s not going to college because daddy and mommy just spent the tuition money to fix the house.”

Although Fickman may always see his friend as a brutish wrestler, Johnson has slowly moved away from his image as “The Rock” in the last few years as his acting career has taken off. “It’s naturally gone in this direction without me having to push it,” Johnson said. “I never wanted to make a statement, but what’s happening is there’s a whole new generation of kids out there who never knew I wrestled, so for them it’s a separate life that they’re not aware of.”

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