{"id":541487,"date":"2026-03-24T02:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T02:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/541487\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T02:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T02:29:09","slug":"moanas-dwayne-johnson-on-wig-prosthetics-to-bring-maui-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/541487\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Moana’s Dwayne Johnson On Wig & Prosthetics To Bring Maui To Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDisney released the trailer<\/a> for their live-action remake of Moana<\/a>, and viewers got to see Dwayne Johnson<\/a> reprise his role of Maui.<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson\u2019s look as the demigod has divided fans of the animated film, and in a new interview, the actor and film director Thomas Kail explained the design behind Maui.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe knew that it had to be something that could have real lift to it,\u201d Kail told Entertainment Weekly<\/a> about Johnson\u2019s wig for the film. \u201cBecause you\u2019re doing this on the water, \u2018what does it look like wet?\u2019 is a real conversation when you\u2019re making Moana. That one weighs seven pounds more with all the water in it for all those hours a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson said that the \u201cchallenge\u201d he didn\u2019t anticipate in bringing Maui to life was \u201cthe prosthetics and the hair and then the body,\u201d adding, \u201cThat is an additional 40 pounds on you.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s a freedom when you perform, whether it\u2019s as an actor or singing,\u201d he continued. \u201cSo that was an adjustment on how to actually work my emotions through the 40 pounds of prosthetics and hair and body that I had on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson noted that he shot Moana after starring in Benny Safdie\u2019s The Smashing Machine, for which he had to gain weight, but then had to lose weight for Safdie\u2019s Lizard Music.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMaui was a big guy, and I couldn\u2019t lose the weight because when you lose weight, you lose it here,\u201d he says, pointing to his neck. \u201cI couldn\u2019t have a big bodysuit and then a small little skinny neck. Forty, 50 pounds is a lot to put on. Then it\u2019s a lot to maintain for months\u2026 It was grueling because of the suit and how hot it was. Wait till you see pictures. In between takes, there\u2019s literally five, six people, all [with] fans, opening me up, pulling my hair back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe former wrestler also made mention on what making this film represents for the Polynesian culture and people, saying, \u201cYou realize that you\u2019re representing cultures and people who came before you who were voyagers, they were warriors, they were slaves, in many cases they had the language taken away, in many cases had their land stolen but got it back, persevered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s still this pride and joy and this idea of community and culture and sharing, as opposed to gatekeeping. We all share in this. We all share it together. So you feel that responsibility, and it does hit differently.<\/p>\n

\n\tMoana will open in theaters on July 10.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disney released the trailer for their live-action remake of Moana, and viewers got to see Dwayne Johnson reprise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[4224,88,44069],"class_list":["post-541487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-dwayne-johnson","tag-entertainment","tag-moana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}