Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson revealed the reason why he is currently shedding weight.
Johnson recently starred in Benny Safdie film Smashing Machine, co-starring Emily Blunt. The movie shares its title with 2003 documentary about former MMA fighter and UFC heavyweight champion Mark Kerr, who secretly battled addiction while he reigned in the ring.
While promoting the film at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, during its In Conversation With… series held at Royal Alexandra Theatre, Moana star opened up about his career trajectory from a professional wrestler to a renowned actor.
The Junmanji: Welcome to Jungle actor also announced that he is “teaming up” with Safdie again for the next project.
Speaking with TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey, he said, "We're gonna make a film called Lizard Music, which is based off of a novel written by Daniel Pinkwater."
About his role, he said that his character "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."
As the audience laughed over the strange plot, he grinned saying, "I'm so excited because I get a chance to hopefully transform again like I was able to do in Smashing Machine. Can't wait."
To play the Chicken Man, he quipped that he's eating "less chicken."
"This is me slimmed down," he said. "In the process of slimming down. I still have a long way to go."
Johnson then also shared how he switched from being a wrestler to a film star.
He said that the lesson he had learned from his wrestling days was the importance of "[sending] people home happy... That helped me when I made the transition into Hollywood because it really allowed me to stay connected to the audience."
"Remember that they are the ones who get you to where you want to go. They buy the tickets, they spend the money, they will cheer you, they will not cheer you," he added.
While Johnson is working on his slimming down, The Smashing Machine is set to release in theatres on October 3.
