Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is turning heads after debuting his recent weight loss transformation
“This transformation was something I was really hungry to do,” Johnson, 53, told The Hollywood Reporter of his role in the new film The Smashing Machine while attending the 2025 Venice Film Festival on Monday, September 1.
The WWE star plays legendary two-time UFC heavyweight champion and MMA icon Mark Kerr — a role that required Johnson to slim down considerably.
“I had been very fortunate to have the career that I’ve had over the years and to make the films that I’ve made, but there was just a voice inside of me, a little voice that said, ‘Well, what if I could do more — I want to do more and what does that look like?’” Johnson added on Monday.
The work the actor put into transforming his body for the role — the first dramatic role of his action-packed career — was on full display on Saturday, August 30, when he stepped out at the Miu Miu Women’s Tales event at the Venice Film Festival ahead of his new movie’s debut.
Johnson rocked a silk, short-sleeved blue button-down shirt featuring several colourful sketches that accentuated his slimmed-down figure. He paired the top with straight-leg black trousers.
Fans of the action star were quick to comment on his shocking physical transformation on social media.
“Yep had to do a double take,” one fan wrote on X.
“The Smashing Machine is really setting the bar high," another social media user said. "An unrecognizable Dwayne Johnson looks to give the best performance of his career.”
While Johnson’s physical transformation was shocking to many, he is far from the first actor to take drastic measures to shrink themselves for the sake of a role.
In 2020, Joaquin Phoenix made headlines after he revealed he lost 52 pounds in preparation for his role as Arthur Fleck in the movie, Joker. Years later, in 2024, Phoenix, 50, declined to discuss his diet in preparation for his role in the sequel, Folie à Deux.
“I’m not going to talk through specifics of the diet, because I just think nobody wants to hear that. But this time, it felt a bit more complicated just because there was so much dance rehearsal that we were doing, which I didn’t have last time,” Phoenix said at the time. “So it felt a bit more difficult, but it is safe. But you’re right, I’m now 49, I probably shouldn’t do this again. This is probably it for me.”
Recently, actor Orlando Bloom opened up about how losing a third of his body weight — a reported 52 pounds — for his role as a boxer in The Cut impacted him mentally.
“I was exhausted mentally, physically. I was hangry," Bloom recalled while appearing on the Wednesday, August 27, episode of the British talk show This Morning. "I was a horrible person to be around. The paranoia, the intrusive thoughts."
Christian Bale, Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey have all also famously lost weight for roles. (As well as every actress who has been held to Hollywood’s unrealistic beauty standards.)
Like many of his acting peers who have shed weight for roles, Johnson’s performance in The Smashing Machine is rumored to be Oscar-worthy. The wrestler portrays the fighter’s 1990s rise to fame in the MMA world, as well as his painkiller addiction, while costarring alongside Emily Blunt as Kerr’s wife, Dawn Staples.
“Mark was the greatest fighter in the world at one point, but this film is not even really about fighting — it’s a love story,” Johnson said on Monday, growing emotional. “It’s a love story about Mark and Dawn in this relationship, and it’s a love story about Mark and the love that he had for the thing that he did — his struggle with trying to deliver [in the ring], his challenges and his overcoming. As you know, Mark OD’d twice, and he’s lucky to be alive — and that’s part of why this story is so special.”
