A new tell-all exposé on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson finds dozens of his colleagues accusing him of chronic tardiness and unprofessional behavior on set. The full story from The Wrap explores Johnson’s upcoming movie Red One, and how its release was delayed while its budget expanded to a quarter-billion dollars. Many people familiar with the production said that it was Johnson’s fault, though spokespeople in official channels defended him.
Three sources from Red One spoke to The Wrap on the condition of anonymity, fearing that they would be fired for criticizing Johnson. They said that Johnson was late to set by an average of seven or eight hours per day, and that he missed several entire days of filming altogether. They estimated that this alone increased the budget of the movie by $50 million. One insider said: “It was a f-ing disaster,” while another added: “Dwayne truly doesn’t give a f-.”
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Amazon MGM gave a statement denying that Johnson caused any issues with this film. They said: “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. 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.”
Still, there is a growing paper trail to support the accusations that Johnson ignores scheduled commitments. Earlier this month, fans and local press in Philiadelphia criticized Johnson for showing up two hours late to Wrestlemania. Johnson worked this into his banter in the ring where he was playing up his “heel” persona, but that may have done more harm than good. However, WWE executive Chris Legentil refuted this version of events, saying: “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.”
Of course, stories about Johnson’s lateness clash with his reputation as a self-made hard worker. Sources apparently said that Johnson’s infamous three-hour workouts were one of the reasons he was late to work, and a source on Red One said: “The only thing Dwayne was consistent at was being chronically late.” The report also claimed that latness led to rifts between Johnson and other stars, including Vin Diesel and Ryan Reynolds, who did not comment on this report.
There were other kinds of unprofessional behavior in the report as well – most notably, an unsanitary habit of urinating in empty water bottles instead of toilets. Johnson has admitted to this habit himself in interviews before, but back in 2021 a crew member on Instagram accused Johnson of leaving those bottles lying around and expecting production assistants to clean them up. However, the sources who spoke to The Wrap about Red One said that they did not see anything like this on their set.
The full report includes other details, including some issues for Red One that were not related to Johnson. The movie was due out at Christmastime last year but was delayed until November of 2024 – ostensibly because of the Hollywood labor strikes. As for Johnson, he is facing an unusual surge in criticism on social media.
