Dwayne Johnson is about to take on another radical transformation as he bulged and won a rave to play a wrestler mark car in the “Smashing Machine” MMA Fighting Prime. He drops the pound to portray the “fake and eccentric 70-year-old era” called Chicken Man on “Lizard Music.”
The film reunites Johnson with Benny Safdy, director of The Smashing Machine, but is an acting challenge that brings Rock to the chance to escape.
“Benny pitched this to me,” Johnson said during his career retrospective talk at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday, when “The Smashing Machine” was shown. “And after about 45 minutes, this pitch was over and I said, ‘I’m your chicken guy.’ ”
Johnson had dumped many of the 30 pounds of muscle he had packed as a car, but it seemed he could still bench pressing the Hunvee.
“I still have a long way to go,” he admitted.
“I’m so happy to have the opportunity to transform again, as I can with the ‘smashing machine’,” Johnson added. “(That means eating less chicken.”
The film is an adaptation of the novel by Daniel Pinkwater, telling the story of Septuarjan, whose best friend is a 70-year-old chicken. It’s an opportunity to destroy the image of his action hero, like Johnson’s Oscar-winning “The Smashing Machine.” Johnson said he’s ready to shake things up after starring in blockbusters like “Jumanji” and “Fast Five.”
“I felt for a few years. I allowed it to happen, so I was in the pigeon hole,” Johnson admitted. He added, “The ‘smashing machine’ is for me.”
Sports dramas don’t shy away from showing the dark side of Kerr’s story, such as his toxic relationship with his girlfriend (Emily Blunt) and the struggle for substance abuse. It’s as far away as you get from “Moana.”
“You hope it’s like, ‘Hey, we made this thing,'” Johnson said. “We love it. I hope you do that too. Otherwise it’s fine. Maybe you like the next thing.”
It’s not that Johnson is completely abandoning the big-budget crowd. He has revealed that he will play with Kevin Hart in “Jumanji 3,” which will begin filming in November.
“I love them, the movies I’ve made in the past,” Johnson said. “I’m going back to making them again.”
