Dwayne Johnson has revealed his recent weight loss is for a forthcoming role in a film, where he plays a 70-year-old man whose best friend is a chicken.
The wrestler-turned-actor is at Toronto Film Festival promoting his new movie, The Smashing Machine, where he plays real-life MMA fighter Mark Kerr. Fans were surprised at the Venice premiere for the film when the actor, known for his muscular physique that became a talking point in the film’s trailer, turned up looking thinner than usual.
The star explained the weight loss at a career retrospective talk in Toronto on Monday (September 8). The change is for his upcoming film Lizard Music where he reteams with Benny Safdie, the director of The Smashing Machine. The film is based on a novel by Daniel Pinkwater, where Johnson will play an elderly figure named Chicken Man who joins a young boy on a fantastic adventure.
“Benny pitched me this after,” Johnson said during the talk (via Variety). “And after about 45 minutes, this pitch ended and I said, ‘I am your Chicken Man.’” He shared that he has lost 30 pounds of muscle since playing fighter Kerr, and admitted: “I still have a long ways to go.”
However, the Fast & Furious star added: “I’m so excited to get a chance to hopefully transform again like I was able to do in ‘Smashing Machine. (It means) eating less chicken.”
The Smashing Machine has been earning Johnson some of the best reviews of his career, as well as rumours of Oscar contention. NME’s four-star review described it as “a thoroughly entertaining sports biopic that packs one hell of a sentimental gutpunch. It’s smashing stuff.”
The film received a 15-minute standing ovation after its world premiere at Venice last week (September 1), with footage from the event showing Johnson visibly moved to tears.