{"id":211172,"date":"2025-09-08T21:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T21:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/211172\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T21:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T21:55:08","slug":"dwayne-johnson-says-weight-loss-is-for-chicken-man-movie-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/211172\/","title":{"rendered":"Dwayne Johnson Says Weight Loss Is for Chicken Man Movie Role"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHaving earned raves for bulking up to play the wrestler Mark Kerr in his MMA fighting prime for \u201cThe Smashing Machine<\/a>,\u201d Dwayne Johnson<\/a> is about to undertake another radical transformation. He\u2019s shedding pounds to portray a \u201d whimsical, eccentric 70-something year-old\u201d called Chicken Man in \u201cLizard Music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film, which will reunite Johnson with \u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d director Benny Safdie, is an acting challenge that the Rock jumped at the chance to pull off.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBenny pitched me this after,\u201d Johnson said during a career retrospective talk at the Toronto Film Festival<\/a> on Monday where \u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d will screen. \u201cAnd after about 45 minutes, this pitch ended and I said, \u2018I am your Chicken Man.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson, who had shed much of the 30 pounds of muscle he packed on as Kerr, still looked like he could benchpress a Humvee.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI still have a long ways to go,\u201d he acknowledged. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m so excited to get a chance to hopefully transform again like I was able to do in \u2018Smashing Machine,’\u201d Johnson added. \u201c[It means] eating less chicken.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThe film is an adaptation of a Daniel Pinkwater novel and tells the story of a septuagenarian whose best friend is a 70-year-old chicken. Like \u201cThe Smashing Machine,\u201d which has earned Oscar buzz for Johnson, it\u2019s an opportunity to subvert his action hero image. After starring in blockbusters like \u201cJumanji\u201d and \u201cFast Five,\u201d Johnson said he was ready to shake things up.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI felt for a few years, I was pigeonholed because I allowed it to happen,\u201d Johnson admitted. He added, \u201c\u2018Smashing Machine\u2019 is for me.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThe sports drama doesn\u2019t shy away from showing the darker sides of Kerr\u2019s story, including his toxic relationship with his girlfriend (Emily Blunt) and substance abuse struggles. It\u2019s about as far removed from \u201cMoana\u201d as one can get.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou hope it\u2019s like, \u2018Hey, we made this thing,’\u201d Johnson said. \u201c\u2018We love it. We hope you do too, and if you don\u2019t, it\u2019s OK. Maybe you\u2019ll like the next thing.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNot that Johnson is abandoning big-budget crowdpleasers entirely. He revealed he\u2019ll be re-teaming with Kevin Hart on \u201cJumanji 3,\u201d which will start shooting in November.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe films that I made in the past, I love them,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI\u2019ll go back to making them again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having earned raves for bulking up to play the wrestler Mark Kerr in his MMA fighting prime for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":211173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[60990,171,107384,77123,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-211172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dwayne-johnson","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-the-smashing-machine","11":"tag-toronto-film-festival","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115170910207266495","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}