Hollywood star Dwayne Johnson has revealed that his costume for the “Moana” live-action film took a toll on his body. The actor plays Maui, who he originally voiced in the 2016 Disney animation and the 2024 sequel. He told E! News in an interview that he didn't have time to fully transform his body for Smashing Machine, his 2025 film with Emily Blunt, in which he played UFC fighter Mark Kerr, reports people.com.
"...I went from Smashing Machine and I was 50 lbs. heavier than I am now," he said. As he went straight from filming the sports drama to Moana with his costar Catherine Laga'aia, he had, he said, "no time to change my body." "We were considering me just stepping on set how I looked in the Smashing Machine, but the body was just intensely different," Johnson, who produces the adaptation, continued.
"We are the keepers of integrity, but also the fans are keepers of integrity, and if I stepped on set looking like how I looked, they would have had a complete organ rejection." So, he and the team worked with Oscar-winning makeup artist Joel Harlow on a bodysuit made entirely from prosthetics.
"It also worked out great because of visual effects, because the tattoos are alive," Johnson said of Maui's body art. "So it was easier for (the visual effects team) and a better treat for audiences to see it on the suit." Admiring the costume for its detailing was easy, actually wearing it, not so much.
Johnson described wearing the piece as "40 pounds of suit that was hot as s--t!" Johnson's appearance sparked buzz when fans noticed his visibly slimmer physique at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival. The former WWE star and football player has been historically vocal about the hard work required to build and maintain his large, chiseled frame. Especially when a role has required him to go bigger.
“My goal was to bring in the best physique of my career,” he told Men's Health in a November 2022 interview for his film “Black Adam”. “When you have that suit on, every detail shows. Man, it was constant work, constant tweaking, tweaking, tweaking for months.”