6 months ago
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A new report claims that The Rock was late to set on ‘Red Notice’ and other projects.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has become one of the top stars in Hollywood. He has starred in many movies, including Black Adam and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, among many others. He has been attached to Amazon MGM Studios’ Red One film for some time, but it has reportedly been a difficult process.
Umberto Gonzalez of TheWrap reports that the movie, which was initially set for a 2023 release but delayed to November 2024, has been dealing with a variety of issues. Gonzalez writes that insides say that Johnson often showed up late, and this led to a number of other problems, including a ballooning budget. It was also noted that the inexperience of the executives overseeing the movie was a problem as well.
Gonzalez cites insiders who said that Johnson would show up “as much as eight hours late” some days, so the crew would sometimes have to shoot around him. It was also noted that Johnson often peed in a bottle to save time while filming.
In the report, Gonzalez included a statement from a spokesperson for Amazon MGM, who denied that there were issues caused by Johnson’s lateness.
“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,” the spokesperson said. “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.”
More On The Rock’s Reported Lateness
Citing insiders, Gonzalez noted that Johnson now has a reputation for being late, as there are a number of examples. Gonzalez writes that The Rock was three hours late to arrive ahead of his match at WWE WrestleMania 40, and he was also late for an appearance at WWE World.
Per a WWE insider, Johnson’s lateness was due to other commitments with WWE, on top of traffic-caused tardiness.
Gonzalez also cites WWE’s executive vice president for Talent Relations and Head of Communications Chris Legentil, who said, “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.”
The report reiterates that Johnson’s lateness while filming for Red One led to the budget ballooning, as insiders detailed the problematic situation.
However, sources close to the production and other close to Johnson’s Seven Bucks company said that he “averaged no more than one hour late to the “Red One” set. Another source close to Amazon MGM noted that the budget did not deviate much from the agreed-upon figure, and they expected it to fluctuate.
The report goes on to cite past examples of Johnson’s tardiness with other projects, including Rampage in 2018 and Red Notice in 2020.
Yet another source, this one a Netflix spokesperson, spoke highly of Johnson, called him a consummate professional.
What’s Next For The Rock?
The Rock’s filming obligations have taken him away from WWE. He is slated to film for A24’s The Smashing Machine over the next few months. He has also been working on Moana 2.
