Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has repeatedly transformed himself to fit various movie roles or where he is in life.
The actor has bulked up, slimmed down and changed his physique to meet demanding character requirements. His physical transformations often spark conversation among fans.
Johnson has pushed his body through intense training regimens that raise alarms about his hollow appearance.
Back in 2024, he gained about 30 pounds and used prosthetics and makeup to resemble MMA fighter Mark Kerr. Johnson was portraying him in his biographical film “The Smashing Machine.”
On the set of the live-action version of “Moana,” Johnson wore a bodysuit and a medium-length curly wig. He played Maui, a demigod he voiced in the 2016 animated film.
For his next role, the 54-year-old is slimming down quite a bit, and the transformation has stunned fans.
On Oct. 20, new photos of Johnson filming on set in Brooklyn, New York went viral. The 6-foot-4 actor, usually hard to miss, looked completely unrecognizable in his new movie.
“Lizard Music” follows a young boy who finds a late-night TV broadcast about lizard musicians. This leads him to meet and befriend a whimsical old man, The Chicken Man, who has an 85-year-old chicken as a companion.
Johnson portrays an elderly character called The Chicken Man, and everything about him—except his height—looks different.
The images show Johnson with gray hair and deep facial wrinkles, and a sunken face. He smiles and holds a slice of pizza with his child co-star, Theo Clark Leber.
In his normal life, the “Jumanji” actor keeps a clean-shaven face, but as “The Chicken Man,” he sports a stubbly white beard.
Fans reacted to Johnson’s transformation online. One fan who noticed something else about him wrote, “Why is he white?” Another person impressed by the change said, “Whoa, unrecognizable.”
A third person, who wasn’t fully convinced the images were Johnson, typed, “How do we know that it’s him?”
Last month, the actor opened up about the drastic weight loss required to play The Chicken Man.
In a post-workout video shared on Instagram in September, he discussed his weight-loss journey.
“I took almost a year to lose approximately 50lbs – from stepping on set to film, ‘The Smashing Machine’ weighing 282lbs, to my current weight today – 235lbs,” Johnson wrote in the caption.
He said he was that slim during high school and his freshman year at the University of Miami.
“I really feel phenomenal,” he said in the actual video. “Metabolic health, inflammation, brain health, have all been really phenomenal.”
He explained that because he filmed the live-action “Moana” just two to three weeks after wrapping “The Smashing Machine,” he had to maintain his 282-pound weight. Many people familiar with “Moana” know that Johnson’s Maui is muscular.
Johnson said he took his time dropping the weight in preparation for playing The Chicken Man.
“I went through a lot of trial and error. Wound up dropping 50 pounds over the course of the year, but in the process of that I learned so much,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he likes being at 235 pounds and plans to maintain it for a while before gaining five more pounds.
“Lizard Music” is set to release in theaters next Christmas 2027. It is directed by Benny Safdie, who also directed “The Smashing Machine.”
