Dwayne Johnson’s ‘Red One’ Reportedly Delayed By His “Chronically Late” Arrivals And Unprofessional Behavior: “It Was A F****** Disaster”

Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans‘ Christmas-action flick Red One has suffered major delays. While many chalked this up to last year’s strikes, a new report alleges that some of the blame could be placed on its lead movie star.

Several insiders involved with production spoke to TheWrap, detailing Johnson’s unprofessionalism on set that allegedly caused the film’s budget to balloon to over $250 million.

“The only thing Dwayne was consistent at was being chronically late,” one Red One insider said.

The report claims Johnson was regularly late to set, allegedly reaching an average of seven to eight hours late per day, while sometimes even missing “several entire days of production.”

“It was a fucking disaster,” another source told the outlet. Others agreed, with one noting, “Dwayne truly doesn’t give a fuck.”

Johnson’s other commitments forced them to postpone production on the Christmas feature twice, with production not resuming until November 2022.

Sources who worked with Johnson on previous projects, including HBO’s Ballers, also corroborated some of the claims made in the report. “They rent a location they can shoot as much as they can of other actors while they wait for him to decide if he’s coming to set,” a producer who visited the set of Ballers claimed.

A former production assistant on the show noted that Johnson was “regularly three to four hours late to set. Keeping 100+ crew members waiting for no reason.”

A spokesperson for Amazon shut down the claims made in the report, defending Johnson and his production company Seven Bucks.

“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… 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.”

Decider has reached out to Johnson’s rep for comment.

People previously reported that Johnson’s “chronic” lateness was what sparked his feuds with Vin Diesel and Ryan Reynolds.

“Vin has been having problems with The Rock because The Rock keeps showing up late for production,” an insider told People in 2023. “Sometimes he doesn’t show up at all, and he’s delaying the production.”

Reynolds and Johnson reportedly didn’t speak for years after they had a “huge fight” on set of Red Notice, which later went on to become the most-watched film on Netflix.

The report also detailed one particularly bizarre behavior of Johnson’s that he has boasted about before: Peeing in water bottles to save time.

Red One insiders also claimed that the problems on set were exacerbated by inexperienced lead producer Hiram Garcia — the brother of Johnson’s ex-wife, whom he made president of his production company — as well as the Amazon execs working on the film.

One insider said they “weren’t prepared” to take on such a big-budget film.

Red One is now set to premiere November 2024.