The Rock Finally Breaks Silence on His Much Smaller Body and It’s Not What You Think

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has seen all the chatter about his significantly smaller size. And now, he’s finally giving an explanation for it.

As you may recall, over the last couple of weeks, the “Jumanji” star has been in the headlines after popping out at this year’s Venice Film Festival at the top of September. There, he debuted a brand new look with his usually supremely chiseled and heavily muscular physique nearly absent.

The shock to folks there and others who later saw pictures of him floating around on social media was swift with many expressing concern, jokes and all around curiosity as to exactly how and why “The Rock” turned into “a pebble.”

Thankfully, people’s curiosity finally got satisfied in a new interview he gave on Monday. Per PEOPLE, while at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), The Rock explained how he had to bulk up for the current film he’s starring in, “The Smashing Machine,” directed by Benny Safdie. The film is a sports drama biopic centered around former MMA fighter and UFC heavyweight champion Mark Kerr. For the role, he packed on significant pounds and over a dozen prosthetics to accurately portray Kerr.

But now that that film is over and done, he’s in the middle of shedding all that weight and more for his next film, entitled “Lizard Music.”

“We’re gonna make a film called “Lizard Music,” which is based off of a novel written by Daniel Pinkwater,” Johnson explained.

Describing his character, he said: “[He] 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. I’m so excited because I get a chance to hopefully transform again like I was able to do in ‘Smashing Machine.’ Can’t wait.”

Johnson later shared that in order to get his new physique for his upcoming role, that means he’s eating “less chicken” and alluded to the fact that he might be getting even smaller as he gets closer to filming. And while he didn’t specify how many pounds he’s dropped, some reports say he’s already down 30 pounds.

“This is me slimmed down. In the process of slimming down. I still have a long ways to go,” he said.

Check out the shocking before and after below. Will you be tuned in for “Smashing Machine” and “Lizard Music?”