Dwayne Johnson’s Friends Worried He’s ‘Taking a Huge Risk’ With Massive Weight Loss for New Role

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has shed a ton of weight for his latest project, but friends are warning him to rein it in now, as it could jeopardize his macho man reputation — and his career.

Johnson’s new movie, The Smashing Machine “ is his big chance to stand up with the other A-listers like Brad Pitt and George Clooney, but the fear is he’s going to dangerous extremes,” an insider tells National Enquirer. “He’s known to go through torturous physical transformations to get a certain look for a role, but he’s really run the gamut here.”

The insider says that people are worried that the Jumanji star, 53, is “taking a huge risk with his health and could lose it all if he’s not careful.”

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“People around him worry he’s gone too far this time and are trying to remind him that he’s a comic book star and there’s nothing wrong with that,” the insider continues. “Everyone remembers Dave Bautista – he admittedly went too far with his physical transformation for a role, gaining too much weight and struggling to shed it – and pals fear Dwayne’s doing the same.”

Bautista, 56, previously admitted that he had “put on an uncomfortable amount of weight” for his role in M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin.

“I started trimming down because I just got fat. I got really big for a role and it was uncomfortably big,” the Guardians of the Galaxy star told TikTok personality Chris Van Vliet in September 2024. ”I got really big. I was around 315 pounds and I put the weight on really fast.”

He then added that he “probably over did it” and confessed that it “took forever to shed it off.”

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Still, the insider says Johnson is “excited and enjoying this new journey,” before adding: “Nothing will sway him to change his ways.”

The  WWE legend previously said that he was excited to tackle the task of transforming his body for his role in The Smashing Machine.

“This transformation was something I was really hungry to do,” Johnson explained during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on September 1. “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?’”