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Over two decades, Tanoai Reed has broken multiple bones, severed tendons, and torn ligaments fulfilling his duties as Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s stunt double, arguably the greatest job on the planet BESIDES BEING A MOTHER OF COURSE.
The 45-year-old, who stands 6’3” tall and weighs 260 pounds, first began working with Johnson in the 2002 film The Scorpion King and has been with the beloved actor as he ascended to the highest paid person in his profession.
GQ recently profiled Reed about his time with Johnson and was first asked whether he is as kind as his public persona leads us to believe.
“People ask me, ‘Is he as kind as he seems?’” Reed says. “Everything he does is from the heart, and I couldn’t have asked for a better boss and partner. It’s rare that an actor appreciates or even acknowledges their stunt double. It’s all about their ego, but with Dwayne, he doesn’t really have one.”
The Rock’s kindness was evidenced last year when he gifted Reed, who was still recovering from a stunt injury, with a brand new custom Ford truck.
While there are certainly perks to working for one of the most beloved men on the planet, Reed has suffered some brutal injuries in his 20 years of being a stuntman.
In 2003, I broke my shin. I’ve broken my ankle, I’ve sprained stuff, and I fractured my rib on Hobbs & Shaw recently. That one was tough because I couldn’t run or train for a bit. I could hardly laugh. I had to really watch what I ate and put on a little bit of weight since I couldn’t do cardio. On Jungle Cruise, I tore my MCL, and I couldn’t run for two months. I couldn’t do any jumping. That set me back too. I’ve also broken my wrist, and I tore my arm open in Fast and the Furious 7 when it went through a big piece of glass while I was doing a fight with Jason Statham’s stunt double. I had to have emergency surgery for that one because there was shrapnel in my arm. I’ve definitely beaten myself up over the years.
That last injury nearly resulted in doctor’s amputating Reed’s arm. Gulp.
When Reed isn’t recovering from an injury, he’s working out five days a week to mirror Johnson’s routine, as they must look as close to identical as possible for movie roles.
I’m on the same training program as DJ [Dwayne Johnson]. He sends me the workout that he does. He changes it up every couple of months—we basically do one body part a day. It varies role to role what our training style will be like, as well as our diet, depending on the look of the character. Like, when we did Hercules, we had our shirt off a bunch, and needed our abs to be in ripped shape.
Reed also revealed how structured Johnson is with his day, while also revealing how he keeps up.
Dwayne is very, very on point with his diet. He has a cook make all his meals, everything is weighed out to the ounce, all his macros are counted for, and every two hours, whatever he’s doing, he’ll stop and eat his food. He does his workouts in the morning and then comes to work. For me, I’m usually coming in earlier to start the day. It’s harder for me to get in the gym sometimes because of the longer hours. I also started with intermittent fasting. I found that helps me a lot when I don’t have access to 6-8 meals of good, clean food. So I do 16 hours fasting, and then eat in an eight-hour window. It’s kept me lean—kept my calories down, kept me in shape. In the morning when I wake up, I’ll have either a black coffee and water. Ultimately, I’ll work out on an empty stomach before my first meal. That first meal won’t be until like one p.m., after my noon workout.
Sounds like one hell of a partnership.
[h/t GQ]