Some actors are never going to trouble the Oscars, and there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, many of the biggest stars in Hollywood history have never even been nominated, although Emily Blunt remains adamant that one of her co-stars will be on the podium collecting an Academy Award eventually.

Marilyn Monroe, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kurt Russell, Martin Sheen, Donald Sutherland, Bruce Willis, and Jim Carrey are just some of the names who’ve cracked the A-list, become legends, headlined billions of dollars worth of box office hits, and appeared in countless classics with zero Oscar nods to their name, and it didn’t prevent them from carving out impressive careers across multiple eras.

In fact, think of any of the industry’s marquee action heroes, and with the exception of Sylvester Stallone, very rarely have any of Tinseltown’s premiere gun-toting and ass-kicking legends even been considered for an Oscar. However, Blunt is convinced that not only is her Jungle Cruise colleague and close friend Dwayne Johnson going to crack that glass ceiling, he’s going to come home with the prize.

“He’s going to work with one of the greats, and I’m so excited. There’s so much to mine there,” she shared with Happy Sad Confused before favourably comparing ‘The Rock’ to three-time nominee Ryan Gosling. “They both listen so intently, and that’s the sign of a great actor as well. They’re curious; they’re looking at you in the scene, waiting to react, and there’s more to being an actor than just revealing the portrait of a person; there’s so much more to it than just making it a self-serving scene.”

While the actor, herself Oscar-nominated for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, admitted that when it comes to Johnson, “it’s probably easy to typecast him and put him in a box,” she nonetheless hedged her bets: “I said, ‘You’re going win an Oscar someday.’ I know it.”

The idea of Johnson taking home an Academy Award might seem far-fetched to some, especially when he’s spent the last decade essentially playing himself in a string of forgettable CGI-laden blockbusters; but he was willing to test himself earlier in his career before he decided that he’d be more successful as a brand.

Playing against type as a gay bodyguard in the Get Shorty sequel Be Cool, trying his hand at straightforward sports drama in Gridiron Gang and embracing the outlandishness of Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales – a movie even he didn’t understand – showed a desire on Johnson’s part to try and avoid the typecasting that typically comes attached to any stacked and jacked man of action.

Johnson’s chances to prove Blunt right are far from over, though: they might be closer than ever. More than 20 years into his big screen career, Johnson tackled his first serious dramatic leading role in Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, an unflinching story of success, addiction, triumph and adversity that sees him embodying MMA fighter Mark Kerr.

That film coincidentally stars Blunt as his onscreen wife, Dawn Staples, meaning that she’s well-placed to see if her prediction ultimately comes true or ends up coming back to haunt her should he make the Razzies shortlist instead.