WWE wrestler and actor Dwayne Johnson shocked everyone, including his fans, when he showed up for the premiere of The Smashing Machine sporting a new, leaned-out look. The actor had actually gained a lot of muscle to play real-life UFC fighter Matt Kerr for the film, which made the fans wonder about this new transformation. During a recent career retrospective talk at the Toronto Film Festival, The Rock opened up about his weight loss.
Dwayne has been involved with action franchises for most of his career, and his role as Matt is an attempt to reinvent himself as an actor. During the talk, he revealed that right after filming The Smashing Machine, director Ben Safdie offered him another role. “Benny pitched me a film after The Smashing Machine. After about 45 minutes, this pitch ended, and I said, ‘I am your Chicken Man.’” The film is titled Lizard Music, and the actor will be playing a septuagenarian whose best friend is a 70-year-old chicken.
Talking about the kind of roles he has done in the past and his transformation into the ‘Chicken Man’, Dwayne Johnson said, “I felt for a few years I was pigeonholed because I allowed it to happen. The films that I made in the past – I love them. I’ll go back to making them again. But I’m so excited to get a chance to hopefully transform again like I was able to do in Smashing Machine because it means eating less chicken.” He added that even though he has lost almost all of the muscle he gained for Lizard Music, there is “still a long way to go.”
The Smashing Machine has been directed by Ben Safdie, and the cast includes Dwayne, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, and Lyndsey Gavin. The Rock also confirmed that he will be going back to the sets of Jumanji with Kevin Hart to shoot the third installment of the series. He is also continuing his run in the WWE as one of the members of the board of the parent company TKO Holdings and his in-ring persona of The Final Boss.
The Smashing Machine releases on October 3.
