Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Shares The Real Reason He's Looking So Different These Days

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s recent slimmed-down appearances at various film festivals have left fans renamimg him The Pebble.

While promoting his upcoming Mark Kerr biopic, The Smashing Machine, the ex-wrestler has been sporting a noticeably slimmer look, alongside a more conservative dress sense and tinted glasses.

However, he has now revealed that this dramatic transformation is all for an upcoming film role – which sounds like a wild departure for the former Fast & Furious star .

The actor reportedly lost nearly 60 pounds in preparation for his upcoming role in Bennie Safdie’s Lizard Music, in which he’s set to play a “whimsical, eccentric 70-something-year-old” called Chicken Man, whose best friend is a “70-something-year-old chicken”.

Lizard Music is an adaptation of the fantastical Daniel Pinkwater novel of the same name, which follows a young boy who meets the Chicken Man and his best friend, a chicken named Claudia.

During a recent career retrospective talk at the Toronto Film Festival, Johnson explained that he was only at the start of his transformation into the character.

“I’m so excited to get a chance to hopefully transform again like I was able to do in Smashing Machine,” he enthused. “[It means] eating less chicken.”

Johnson has noticeably put his body through it over the years to gain his trademark physique. He recently took this to a new level, apparently working out for four hours a day to transform into the MMA star, and the training was all part of his process.

“The transformation part was something I was really hungry to do. I’ve been very fortunate to have the career that I’ve had and make the films that I have, but there was just this voice inside of me, this little voice, like what if I can do more,” he said during his Venice Film Festival press conferencel.

Johnson has recently been vocal about looking to change the direction of his career after feeling pigeonholed in the film industry.

“I had this burning desire and voice that was saying, ‘What if there is more and what if I can?’ A lot of times, it’s harder for us – or at least for me – to know what you are capable of when you’ve been pigeonholed into something,” he said during the same press conference. 

Benny Safdie allegedly pitched the role to the actor soon after the duo completed their work on The Smashing Machine.

Johnson is receiving rave reviews for his role as Kerr, with many critics wondering if the film festival acclaim is the start of his road to an Oscar nomination and a more serious turn for his screen career.