Dwayne Johnson on making ‘The Smashing Machine’
Dwayne Johnson on making ‘The Smashing Machine’
TORONTO – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson can finally explain why he looks different these days.
Johnson, a former WWE superstar and board member of UFC parent company TKO, recently went through a body transformation to get bigger to play the role of UFC Hall of Famer Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine,” which releases Oct. 3.
Now Johnson is going the opposite way. Fans noticed his slimmer frame during this past week’s Venice Film Festival premier of the MMA-themed movie, and it sent the internet abuzz with speculation.
On Monday ahead of the North American debut of “The Smashing Machine” at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Johnson provided an answer to the question many have wanted to know.
“The announcement just broke, so it’s out there now,” Johnson said during a moderated Q&A session at TIFF. “Big news. I’m teaming up with Benny Safdie again and we’re going to make a film called ‘Lizard Music,’ which is based off a novel written by Daniel Pinkwater. A little bit of the backstory is Benny pitched me the movie after ‘The Smashing Machine,’ and after about 45 minutes, I said, ‘I am your chicken guy.’ What that means is, without giving too much away, the role that I will play is is a very whimsical and eccentric 70-something year-old man called ‘The Chicken Man,’ and his best friend is a 70-something year-old chicken. I’m so excited to hopefully get a chance to transform again like I was able to do in ‘Smashing Machine.’
“That’s why I’ve been slimming down, to play ‘The Chicken Man.’ I’ve been eating less chicken. This is me slimmed down. In the process of slimming down. I still have a long ways to go.”
Johnson, 53, did not reveal his target frame or physique for “Lizard Music,” but given he already looks vastly different from “The Smashing Machine” and claims he’s not done dropping weight, it will be curious to see the final result.
