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In a scathing new report, insiders accuse Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson of “chronic lateness and lack of professionalism” in the workplace.
According to the article, published by The Wrap, The Rock’s behavior has caused numerous production issues and resulted in costs on projects to “spiral upwards.”
The story specifically focuses on the Amazon MGM Studios film Red One, an upcoming Christmas movie also starring Chris Evans and JK Simmons.
The Wrap’s Umberto Gonzalez writes that the film was pushed back from its original release date of the 2023 Christmas season “supposedly due to last year’s labor strikes.”
However, there were other reasons for the delayed release, according to “more than a dozen insiders directly involved in the project.”
Insiders told The Wrap that Johnson showed up as much as eight hours late to set on the movie — forcing the crew to shoot around him on some days. On previous films, Johnson has made a habit of peeing in a water bottle to save time, upsetting crew members.
“On set, away from his trailer, if he needs to pee, he doesn’t go to the public bathroom,” one insider claimed. “He pees in a Voss water bottle and his team or a PA has to dispose of it.”
Gonzalez’s article claims The Rock “has developed a reputation in the industry for his lateness and lack of professionalism on set.”
It claims that The Rock was was “late an average of seven to eight hours per day and missed several entire days of production,” which resulted in production costs on the film to go up by at least $50 million.
“Dwayne truly doesn’t give a f—,” one insider claimed.
The examples of Johnson’s tardiness are numerous and well-documented, from showing up late to fan events to leaving entire sets idle while he was off doing three-hour workouts.
Earlier this month, he was three hours late arriving ahead of his main event match at WrestleMania 40, two insiders told TheWrap. For WWE World, a WWE fan event in Philadelphia leading up to WrestleMania 40, Johnson showed up two hours behind schedule, drawing boos from the crowd and criticism from the local Philadelphia press.
Sources associated with other Dwayne Johnson projects like the show Ballers and movies like Rampage, Fast & Furious and Red Notice also voiced complaints about The Rock’s tardiness.
Interestingly, both Amazon MGM Studios and the WWE disputed claims that The Rock has been anything but professional.
“Dwayne Johnson and Seven Bucks have been incredible partners on Red One—a film that audiences of all ages are going to love this holiday season,” said a Amazon MGM Studios spokesperson. “Our testing has been very strong — the reaction from CinemaCon speaks for itself — and we couldn’t have made it without Dwayne’s constant work and support. Any reporting that implies that we got to this point with him showing up seven-eight hours late to set is both ridiculous and false.”
Another Amazon source claimed The Rock didn’t cause the film’s costs to go that much over budget, saying, “It is completely normal for there to be budget fluctuations within 15% of the target, which is exactly what we experienced,” they stated.
“Dwayne was not only on time for WrestleMania, he was hours early to help with rehearsal — and a pleasure to work with throughout the entire run,” said Chris Legentil, WWE’s executive vice president for talent relations and head of communications.
The story goes on and on with complaints about The Rock mixed with studio higher-ups claiming Johnson has caused no issues at all. It’s quite a confusing narrative that makes it hard to figure out who is actually telling the truth – which as is almost always the case, is probably somewhere in between.