There has been a ton of buzz surrounding Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, in the lead-up to its debut on the 2025 movie schedule. The vast majority of that concerns Dwayne Johnson, who had to go to great lengths to pull off his “jaw-dropping” transformation to play the trailblazing UFC and PRIDE fighter Mark Kerr.
Ahead of The Smashing Machine’s October release, the wrestler-turned-actor sat down for a chat with CinemaBlend, where he discussed several aspects of the upcoming A24 movie, including his those tree trunk legs that have been taking the world by storm. When asked about bulking up to new levels for the “scarily unstable” performance, Johnson recalled an early conversation with his director about putting on weight and muscle:
I just felt like the most important thing that I could do was to put on the weight that was required. And also, I understood very quickly that it's not just putting on muscle or size, it's putting on a certain quality of muscle. That kind of muscle is very fast-twitch, and there's separation. And it's just a lot happening because Mark's body was insane. And so I talked to Benny early, and he said, ‘You know, I don't know if you've ever been asked this before, but I think you need to gain more weight.’
The idea of Dwayne Johnson, also known as The Rock in the wrestling world, being told he needed to gain more weight is straight up wild to hear. Whether it’s showing up as the “Final Boss” in WWE, building a statuesque physique for his Black Adam role, or gearing up for the Fast & Furious movies, Johnson has been and incredibly fit actor for a very long time. No one would use the word "small" to describe him (though he has more recently slimmed down after the making of the movie).
However, as the surprising Oscar hopeful went on to say in the conversation, he felt it was important to transform himself to best portray Kerr in this gritty and emotional chronicle of the MMA fighter’s career, addictions, and personal relationships:
So that was the only thing for me that I really wanted to make sure that I looked the part that I was able to transform physically, vocally, too as well. And I felt confident that I could move around in a ring because I felt like I had that generalship already of it.
Based on everything we have seen and heard from the movie in the months and weeks leading to its release, Johnson definitely looks the part in The Smashing Machine, and looking him side-by-side with the real Mark Kerr is quite a trip. However, it will be interesting to see how Johnson looks in the world of MMA, considering his in-ring wrestling style was far different from what was going down in PRIDE and UFC matches in the ‘90s and early 2000s.
The Smashing Machine opens nationwide (including showings in IMAX) on October 3. However, the highly-anticipated sports biopic is just one of The Rock’s upcoming movies, as the megastar has several high-profile projects in the works, including another collaboration with Benny Safdie called Lizard Music.
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