Last week, photos leaked online that featuredDwayne Johnsonon the set of the live-action version of Disney’sMoanawearing what appeared to be a muscle suit, and fans had a field dayripping into the 52-year-old star, who brings his animated character of Maui to life in the new production. As large as Johnson is in person, the suit is necessary to help him resemble his animated doppelgänger, who’s covered in tattoos that are vastly different from the ones he already sports,and who has even larger muscles than the former WWE champion.
In a new interview withExtra(seen below),Johnson confirmed that yes, it was a suit, and said they went to great lengths to keep it a secret, even going so far as to put up walls around the beach they were shooting on to stave off the prying lenses of photographers. That being said, thanks to movies like 2004’sPaparazziand real-life tragedies like Princess Diana’s untimely death, we know there’s nothing photojournalists won’t do to get the perfect shot.
“We shot outside and when those pictures surfaced, I was like, ‘Sh*t, we got caught,’ ‘cause we were putting up, like, walls so there was no paparazzi. But they got into boats and started shooting pictures.”
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Johnson would go on to add that the bodysuit “took a long time to put on,” and by “long time” he means"a couple of hours every day of transforming.“While some might question the need for the suit in this day and age of CGI that could probably just swap out Johnson’s tattoos with new ones and bulk him up a little bit, in this case it’s actually cheaper to put him in the thing rather than go frame by frame digitally enhancing every scene. Considering Disney is trying to cut costs, it makes sense, and really, is no big deal in the grand scheme of things.
Johnson Calls the Experience of Playing a Live-Action Maui “Eye-Opening”
First embodying the demigod Maui in the 2016 animated original, Johnson is back at it again inMoana 2, which is on track to be one of the biggest openings for a film in historyover the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. The live-action version ofMoanawas announced in 2023, and when it comes to playing Maui,Johnson called the experience “eye-opening,“because even though he knows the character inside and out, it’s a whole other thing to bring his mannerisms to life for all the world to see.
“The moment I stepped on set as live-action Maui, I realized right away, ‘Oh, wow, this is different,’ in terms of this is real flesh-and-blood and skin-and-bones. It becomes real all of the sudden. It was almost like getting in my grandfather’s skin and what that was like.”
You can see the results of everyone’s hard work when Disney’sMoanahits theaters in 2026, which is sure to be another cash cow for the company. In the meantime,check outMoana 2now playing in theaters everywhere.
Moana 2 is the sequel to the 2016 animated film Moana. Directed by David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller, the film continues the journey of Moana as she embarks on new adventures, exploring the vast Pacific Ocean while encountering new characters and challenges along the way.
