Dwayne Johnson set aside self doubt for The Smashing Machine

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After bulking up to portray legendary MMA fighter Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine, Dwayne Johnson is slimming down to play a man who befriends a chicken in his next movie. Following his latest film’s buzzworthy premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Johnson, who has been earning raves as the lead in the upcoming sports drama, made headlines for his lean appearance on the red carpet.

“It’s out there now, big news is I’m teaming up with (his Smashing Machine director), Benny Safdie again and we’re gonna make a film called Lizard Music, which is based off of a novel written by Daniel Pinkwater,” Johnson said during a retrospective talk about his career during the Toronto International Film Festival.

“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 continued. “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 biopic (Oct. 3), delves into the darker sides of Kerr’s life outside the octagon, including his battle with drug addiction and a fraught relationship with his girlfriend (played by Emily Blunt).

“We became fast friends,” Blunt said after joining Johnson onstage as she remembered their first meeting on the set of 2021’s Jungle Cruise.

“We sat under this umbrella and we just talked and shared our souls and I was taken by how different he was from what I had imagined. I said to him early on, ‘The Rock is the performance of a lifetime,’” she said.

“I saw this swirl behind his eyes,” Safdie said of their first meeting. “There’s this incredible magnetism that draws you in, but there’s also complex emotions just waiting to get out.”

Johnson’s appearance at TIFF was a first for the wrestler-turned-actor and served as a bit of a homecoming for the action star. His late father, Rocky Johnson, was born in Nova Scotia and spent some of his early years living in Toronto, where he was briefly homeless.

“My dad was a very proud Canadian and where he came from,” Johnson said, as he spoke about his father’s troubled upbringing before he found fame as a wrestler.

“I always think about my dad; he passed away suddenly in 2020. So every time I come back, I get off the plane, I think about my dad and about the complicated relationship we had, but also how life can come full circle — that he was here and had one kind of life — and years later I can come back and have this kind of life.”

Before he became one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, Johnson endured some lean years. Initially, he had dreamt of becoming a pro football player and had a stint in the CFL with the Calgary Stampeders.

Instead of a life on the gridiron, Johnson found himself at the age of 22 with $7 in his pocket back home, living with his parents.

” … Seven bucks. Where do I go from here?”

Johnson became one of the biggest names in pro wrestling and went on to star in a slew of successful movies, including the Fast and Furious franchise. Seven Bucks became the name of the production company he co-founded with his ex-wife, Dany Garcia.

But his role in The Smashing Machine gives him a chance to shake things up.

Johnson said he was finally able to take a leap of faith with the encouragement of Blunt and Safdie.

“I tried to reassure (him), it’s good to be scared,” Blunt said.

“It’s important to have people around who can meet you halfway and believe in you and say, ‘You can do it’ … I felt for a few years, I was pigeonholed because I allowed it to happen,” he said. “I started to think, ‘Am I living my dream or am I living other people’s dreams?’ It comes full circle to meeting Benny (and his friendship with Emily), and saying, ‘This is for me’ … When it’s for you, a funny thing happens. The world opens up.”