Dwayne Johnson takes on his most dramatic role yet in Benny Safdie’s wrestling biopic “The Smashing Machine,” playing UFC champion Mark Kerr. At the film’s Venice Film Festival press conference, the action star revealed that he’s been wanting to expand his repertoire for a while now. “Machine” screens in competition at the fest.
“I have, for a long time, wanted this,” Johnson said, sitting alongside director Safdie and co-star Emily Blunt, who plays Kerr’s girlfriend and then wife, Dawn Staples (they divorced in 2015). “The three of us have talked for a very long time about, when you’re in Hollywood — as we all know, it had become about box office. And you chase the box office, and the box office can be very loud and it can become very resounding and it can push you into a category and into a corner. This is your lane and this is what you do and this is what Hollywood wants you to do.”
Johnson, who is best known for franchises like “Jumanji” and “Fast and Furious” as well as action films “Black Adam” and “Red One,” said he’s loved making those movies and “some were really good and did well, and some not so good.” But inside, he was longing for something more.
“I just had this burning desire and voice that was saying, ‘What if there is more and what if I can?’ A lot of times, it’s harder for us — or at least for me — to know what you’re capable of when you’ve been pigeonholed into something,” he said. “Sometimes it takes people that who you love and respect, like Emily and Benny, to say that you can.”
Johnson continued: “I looked around a few years ago and I started to think, you know, am I living my dream or am I living other people’s dreams? You come to that recognition and I think you can either fall in line — ‘Well, it’s status quo, things are good, I don’t want to rock the boat’ — or go, I want to live my dreams now and do what I wanna do and tap into the stuff that I want to tap into, and have a place finally to put all this stuff that I’ve experienced in the past that I’ve shied away from. I’ve been scared to go deep and intense and raw until now, until I had this opportunity.”
“The Smashing Machine” chronicles Kerr’s triumphs in the ring, as well as his addiction to painkillers and tumultuous relationship with Staples. Johnson, a professional wrestler himself, underwent pounds of prosthetics to portray the hulking two-time UFC Heavyweight champ. Kerr was in the audience at the press conference, and Johnson paid tribute to him as the panel began, asking him to stand up and be recognized.
“Mark’s life has changed our lives and certainly changed my life as well,” he said. “As we found with the film, it’s not about the wins or the losses … it’s also a film about what happens when winning becomes the enemy. And I think we can all relate to that pressure.”
Johnson said he “became very close” with Kerr during the filming process, and Blunt also consulted the real-life Staples. “I got to know Dawn well and she was very generous with her story with me,” Blunt said, praising the couple’s “deep profound love and devotion they had to each other amidst an impossible environment.”
Blunt, who also starred with Johnson in “Jungle Cruise,” said it was “spooky” watching Johnson transform into Kerr in front of her eyes. “It was one of the most extraordinary things watching him disappear completely,” she said. Johnson called Blunt his “best friend” and said he couldn’t have played Kerr without her support and encouragement.
“From the time we worked on ‘Jungle Cruise’ together, she really encouraged me and said there’s a place you can put all the stuff you’ve gone through as a kid … and that place is what you love to do, which is acting,” Johnson said.
“The Smashing Machine” marks the solo feature directorial debut of Safdie, who worked with his older brother Josh on indie favorites like “Uncut Gems” and “Good Time.” The director said he’s long been fascinated by the world of professional fighting, but was actually more interested in the emotional side of the sport over the physical when making the movie.
“It’s a very emotional moment that he’s going through,” Safdie said of the part of Kerr’s life the film follows. “There’s a relief; that pressure is gone. And I love that. You know, these things are OK — it’s OK to talk about your pain and it’s OK to feel somebody else’s feelings.”
“The Smashing Machine” opens in theaters from A24 on Oct. 3.
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