Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson admits to peeing in water bottles on set: ‘Yeah, that happens’

Dwayne Johnson, AKA The Rock, has admitted he does sometimes urinate in water bottles during filming – and is occasionally slightly late to set.

In an interview with GQ magazine, the actor and producer responded to claims made by industry news site the Wrap about his on-set behaviour during the filming of his latest movie, Christmas comedy Red One: “I’ve said a thousand times: ‘Hey, I’m here. Come and ask me. And I’ll tell you the truth.’ ”

In the viral article from April, Johnson’s alleged chronic lateness was partly blamed for driving up the budget of the $250m action-comedy, with insiders saying he showed up as much as eight hours’ late during filming, forcing the film-makers to shoot scenes around him.

The Wrap also reported the star regularly peed in water bottles while making his movies. Johnson, who has previously admitted to using bottles to save time during workouts, admitted to GQ the habit extends to his movie work: “Yeah, that happens.”

Responding to reports of lateness, he said: “Yeah, that happens too. But not that amount, by the way. That was a bananas amount. That’s crazy. Ridiculous.”

Red One director Jake Kasdan backed up his star, telling GQ that Johnson, who plays Santa’s bodyguard in the film, “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.”

Chris Evans, who co-stars in Red One, was also supportive: “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.”

Evans told GQ that Johnson was sometimes late to set on mornings where he was working out. “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.”

Red One has received overwhelmingly negative reviews, with the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw giving it one star and describing it as “profoundly depressing and blandly sentimental”.

• Red One is in cinemas now