{"id":112388,"date":"2025-09-02T04:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T04:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/112388\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T04:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T04:49:09","slug":"dwayne-the-rock-johnson-shocks-fans-with-slimmed-down-physique-for-serious-mma-fighter-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/112388\/","title":{"rendered":"Dwayne \u2018The Rock\u2019 Johnson shocks fans with slimmed-down physique for serious MMA fighter role"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Fans of Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson<\/a> have joked the actor now resembles \u201cThe Pebble\u201d after losing weight for his latest role.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 53-year-old plays MMA fighter and UFC pioneer Mark Kerr in A24\u2019s new biopic, The Smashing Machine.<\/p>\n

Johnson is currently promoting the film at the Venice Film Festival, and several photographs showing his noticeable weight loss have gone viral. According to reports, he has lost around 60 pounds to bring his weight closer to 240 lbs than his usual 300 lbs.<\/p>\n

The Independent has contacted Johnson\u2019s representative for comment.<\/p>\n

On X, formerly Twitter, one fan praised the transformation and wrote<\/a>: \u201cThe Rock is close to 60. Maintenance on that size wasn\u2019t [physically] possible. Dave Battista did the same. Shout out them. For living healthier life styles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dwayne<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Dwayne Johnson promoting ‘The Smashing Machine’ during the 82nd Venice International Film Festival (Victor Boyko\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Another also felt the slimmer look suited Johnson, writing<\/a>: \u201cHe still looks good for his age though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several more made the same joke as each other, with one writing<\/a>: \u201cHe will be known now as \u2018the pebble\u2019\u201d and another saying<\/a>: \u201cGonna have to start calling him Dwayne the pebble Johnson.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Smashing Machine has been billed by A24 as Johnson\u2019s \u201dmost dramatic project and role yet.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Johnson will play Kerr, a former wrestler who competed as a mixed martial artist between 1997 and 2009. During his MMA career, he was a two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion, World Vale Tudo Championship tournament winner, and a Pride FC competitor.<\/p>\n

He was previously the subject of a 2003 HBO documentary, also titled The Smashing Machine after Kerr\u2019s longtime nickname. The new film will reportedly take place around the turn of the millennium and will follow Kerr\u2019s struggles with love and addiction as well as his exploits in the ring.<\/p>\n

The film will be written and directed by Benny Safdie<\/a>, who previously co-wrote and co-directed Uncut Gems, one of A24\u2019s biggest commercial successes to date.<\/p>\n

\"Dwayne<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Dwayne Johnson speaking in Las Vegas on April 11, 2024 (Gabe Ginsberg\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Speaking about the film last year<\/a>, Johnson said: \u201cBenny wants to create, and continues to push the envelope when it comes to stories that are raw and real, characters that are authentic and at times uncomfortable and arresting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m at a point in my career where I want to push myself in ways that I\u2019ve not pushed myself in the past. I\u2019m at a point in my career where I want to make films that matter, that explore a humanity and explore struggle [and] pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Black Adam star added, however, that he will not be leaving blockbuster productions behind for good.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be clear not to say that this is an abandonment of big, four-quadrant movies. I love making them, and there is tremendous value and importance in [them]\u2026 but there\u2019s a time and a place for them,\u201d said Johnson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m at this point in my career where I want more. And I don\u2019t mean I want more box office. I mean I want more humanity. And that is why Benny Safdie<\/a> is the perfect, collaborative, hungry partner for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-112388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}