The Rock Reveals Reason For Dramatic Weight Loss

The Rock debuted a new, slimmed-down look at the Venice Film Festival last week while promoting The Smashing Machine, and Dwayne Johnson has revealed the reason for the dramatic transformation.

Appearing at the Toronto Film Festival during a career retrospective talk, Johnson noted he will continue to lose weight in order to play Chicken Man, a "whimsical, eccentric 70-something-year-old" in the upcoming movie Lizard Music, which will see Johnson reunite with The Smashing Machine director Benny Safdie.

"I still have a long ways to go. I'm so excited to get a chance to hopefully transform again like I was able to do in Smashing Machine. [It means] eating less chicken," The Rock added.

Lizard Music will be an adaptation of the Daniel Pinkwater novel that sees a boy, when left to take care of himself, stumble upon a community of intelligent lizards. The boy's search for answers leads him to the Chicken Man, a recurring character in Pinkwater's novels, and later a lizard island.

The Rock recently noted that he felt boxed in as an action star, and this is a further sign of Johnson looking to branch out into other roles, which began with The Smashing Machine.

H/T Variety