Meet 70-year-old Dwayne Johnson in Benny Safdie's 'Lizard Music'
Dwayne Johnson’s drastic new look for Lizard Music is already stirring buzz — the real surprise is what, exactly, he’s transforming into.
New on-set photos show Dwayne Johnson nearly unrecognizable as the 70-year-old “Chicken Man” in Benny Safdie ’s film Lizard Music. The 54-year-old star was spotted in a tan bucket hat and white coat, sporting a snowy beard and heavy facial prosthetics, munching a slice of pizza while walking alongside young co-star Theo Clark Leber.
Johnson said he dropped 30 pounds to disappear into the role, revealing the cut during a talk at the 2025 Toronto Film Festival. He added that signing on with Safdie took almost no convincing.
“I’m so excited to get a chance to hopefully transform again like I was able to do in ‘Smashing Machine,’ [It means] eating less chicken.”
The transformation teams him again with legendary makeup artist Kazu Hiro, who worked with Safdie and Johnson on The Smashing Machine. Hiro’s resume includes Tom Cruise ’s elderly look in Digger and Jim Carrey ’s iconic turn in How the Grinch Stole Christmas . For Lizard Music, the duo is taking Johnson in the opposite direction from his bulked-up Mark Kerr turn — aging him up with prosthetics and that striking white beard.
The story
Based on Daniel Pinkwater’s novel, the movie follows a kid who catches bizarre lizard musicians on late-night TV and winds up befriending the mysterious Chicken Man — plus his 85-year-old chicken, lovingly nicknamed Claudia. Their oddball meeting kicks off a magical adventure and an unlikely friendship.
The ensemble around Johnson includes:
- Colman Domingo
- Alicia Silverstone
- Tim Heidecker
- Arya Parvathi
- Jeff Goldblum
- Regina Hall
- Rachel McAdams
Amazon MGM Studios has set the film to open December 25, 2027 .