………‘Excited to transform again’
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, the popular Fast and Furious star has shared that the reason behind his slimmed-down physique is for a role in a new film, where he plays a character called the Chicken Man.
The 53-year-old Hollywood super star was at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month promoting his newest role as MMA fighter and UFC pioneer Mark Kerr in the Benny Safdie-directed new biopic, The Smashing Machine.
At the festival, photographs showing his noticeable weight loss began to go viral, with fans joking that the actor now resembled “The Pebble”.
According to reports, he lost around 60lbs (27kg) to bring his weight closer to 240lbs (108.8kg) than his usual 300lbs (136kg).
However, Johnson has now shared he needs to slim down even further, in preparation for a role as a “whimsical, eccentric 70-something year-old” called Chicken Man for Safdie’s forthcoming film Lizard Music.
“A little bit of backstory for you guys here is Benny pitched me this after we wrapped The Smashing Machine, and after about 45 minutes, his pitch ended, and I said, ‘I am your Chicken Man,’” Johnson said at a career retrospective talk at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday. “Now what that means is, without giving too much away, the role that I will play 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.”
The Fast & Furious star acknowledged that he still had more work to do before he completely resembled the Chicken Man.
“I still have a long ways to go,” he said. “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.”
Lizard Music is reportedly an adaptation of a Daniel Pinkwater novel of the same name, following a young boy who meets the Chicken Man and his best friend, a 70-year-old chicken named Claudia.
