Dwayne Johnson Says Weight Loss Is for New Acting Role; He’s Playing a 70-Year-Old Man Whose Best Friend Is a Chicken: ‘I Still Have a Long Way to Go’

Having earned raves for bulking up to play the wrestler Mark Kerr in his Mma fighting prime for “The Smashing Machine,” Dwayne Johnson is about to undertake another radical transformation. He’s shedding pounds to portray a ” whimsical, eccentric 70-something year-old” called Chicken Man in “Lizard Music.”

The film, which will reunite Johnson with “The Smashing Machine” director Benny Safdie, is an acting challenge that the Rock jumped at the chance to pull off.

“Benny pitched me this after,” Johnson said during a career retrospective talk at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday where “The Smashing Machine” will screen. “And after about 45 minutes, this pitch ended and I said, ‘I am your Chicken Man.‘”

Johnson, who had shed much of the 30 pounds of muscle he packed on as Kerr, still looked like he could benchpress a Humvee.

“I still have a long ways to go,” he acknowledged.

“I’m…