Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart on their new movie Central Intelligence

The Rock and the comedian star in the spy-themed action comedy, and say there were a lot of laughs during shooting.

Kevin Hart, left, and Dwayne Johnson in Central Intelligence. Claire Folger / Warner Bros Entertainment Inc via AP Photo

On their first day of shooting Central Intelligence – a spy-themed action comedy about two high-school pals, one of whom is in the CIA, who reunite to foil a criminal plot – Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson and Kevin Hart were given an extremely difficult scene.

Difficult, as in it was impossible not to laugh and ruin the shot. They were face-to-face, trying not to blink or speak. For Hart especially, this was very hard to do.

“Kevin could just not keep a straight face,” says director Rawson Marshall Thurber. “We had 12 minutes of him laughing, and I was like: ‘Oh man, I don’t know if we’re ever going to finish anything!’ Dwayne was a good sport, he held it together, but there’s only so much a dam can hold before it breaks.”

About that staring scene...

Johnson: It's the funniest thing that I have ever done, that's ever broken me up like that. And you see it in the out-takes, it was very real.

Hart: It was me who was breaking up. One hundred per cent. He stayed locked in and I just couldn't.

Johnson: That was day one, and that was really an indication of how the rest of the movie was, for us, just in terms of chemistry and in terms of friendship.

Did you know each other before then?

Johnson: We'd met very quickly backstage at the Teen Choice Awards. Then the opportunity came to make the movie together – and the moment we got on set, it was instantaneous.

Hart: We got lucky. We hit the ground running. We looked at each other and said: "We've got something special here."

Did you two have to stretch yourselves for this movie?

Johnson: The interesting challenge was [finding] the balance in a CIA operative, with the other side of his brain that did not develop past 18 years old.

Hart: It was different, which is why I jumped at the opportunity. So many of the other characters around me were funny, were responsible for the jokes. I was adamant about that, making sure that the director and myself communicate and that I don’t cross a certain line. Making sure that I don’t always try to be funny in moments where I can. That’s a big thing.

Central Intelligence is in cinemas now