Dwayne Johnson Admits He’s Late to Set, Pees in Bottles — But Explains There’s More To It

So, the whole being late to set and peeing in bottles thing?

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson says a report about his disrespectful behavior on the Red One set was partly true, but he and his collaborators are denying certain aspects and insisting it wasn’t nearly as bad as it all sounds.

In a new GQ profile, Johnson was asked about being frequently late to set (a story in The Wrap said he was late an average of seven-to-eight hours per day, and missed several days of shooting, which inflated the cost of the $250 million production by $50 million).

“Yeah, that happens,” Johnson replied. “But not that amount, by the way. That was a bananas amount. That’s crazy. Ridiculous.” He added that the controversy overall was “bullshit.”

Jake Kasdan, who directed the film, was quoted as saying that Johnson “never missed a day of work ever. He has a lot going on. He can be late sometimes, but such is Hollywood—that’s the case with everybody. Honestly, I’ve made three big movies with him. I’ve never seen him be anything but great to every single person on the set.”

Added his co-star Chris Evans: Yes, Johnson can be late due to his morning workouts.

“But this is something that the producers, the director, and it’s all his team, so they all know this. It’s not like he’s late unexpectedly, and I wouldn’t even call it late. He comes in slightly later on certain mornings, but it’s part of the plan. It’s worked into the schedules and everyone knows it, so he shows up when he’s scheduled to show up,” Evans said. “In terms of the guy that I saw, compared to some of the things I’ve seen on other movies with other actors who are not only not conscious of other people’s time and efforts, but they’re unpredictable? I found Dwayne to be—we all know exactly what he’s going to do when he’s going to do it.”

So basically: Sure, The Rock is late, but that’s okay because everybody knows he’s going to be late. Others might point out, however, that being late to a film set can result in hundreds of other people waiting around, so it’s kinda not cool even if people expect you to do it, and even if other actors are worse about it, and even if you make a point of saying hello to the script supervisor.

Still, the overall pushback to the accusation was: Johnson is otherwise very polite, generous and professional towards the crew.

As for peeing in bottles on the set to save time during filming, Johnson replied, “Yeah. That happens.” Unfortunately, the actor wasn’t asked to elaborate.

Johnson certainly is keeping busy. This fall, he has two movies coming: Red One and Moana 2. He’s also currently filming a live-action version of Moana. He’s also recently finished shooting a new drama, The Smashing Machine, and Disney announced he’s going to star in a film called Monster Jam.