Dwayne Johnson says 'The Smashing Machine' changed his life

In a career pivot that could reset how audiences see him, Dwayne Johnson says playing MMA great Mark Kerr in The Smashing MachineBenny SafdieDwayne Johnson is the most personal and transformative role of his life. The film premiered in September 2025 at the Venice Film Festival in Venice, where Johnson described the project as his most ambitious yet. Directed by Benny Safdie, the movie pushes Johnson into raw dramatic territory—emotionally and physically.

Johnson’s turn as Kerr—a two-time world champion who battled addiction and depression—required three hours of daily prosthetics, a bulked-up frame, and a hidden-camera visual style that keeps the actors off-guard and honest. It’s a big swing for a box-office giant who built his brand on outsize charisma and indestructible heroes. The gamble: awards-caliber credibility and a new chapter in a 25-year screen career.

This is a concise summary: Johnson calls his portrayal of Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine the most personal role of his career, debuting at Venice in September 2025. Guided by director Benny Safdie, he endured three hours of makeup daily, added size to match Kerr, and tapped childhood trauma to portray addiction and despair. The film’s VHS-to-16mm aesthetic and hidden cameras aim for lived-in realism, signaling a serious dramatic turn that could reshape Johnson’s on-screen identity.

Key Facts

• Premiere: September 2025 at the Venice Film Festival in Venice
• Role: Johnson portrays Mark Kerr, a two-time world champion who struggled with addiction and depression
• Director: Benny Safdie (co-creator of Uncut Gems)
• Physical transformation: ~3 hours of makeup/prosthetics daily; told to get “bigger, puffier”
• Visual approach: starts on VHS, transitions to 16mm; cameras hidden to keep performances unguarded

Why this performance hits differently

Here’s the thing: Johnson isn’t just playing tough here—he’s exposing nerves. He says this is the role he’d been “dreaming and hoping” to do for years, the chance to “really sink my teeth into and rip myself open.” He drew on a painful memory—coming home at 15 to find he and his mother were being evicted—to map Kerr’s despair after a brutal early defeat.

“I went back to what it’s like being a 15-year-old kid and coming home and being evicted,” Johnson said, describing how he accessed Kerr’s lowest points. Then came a revelation: “The thing that I was running from, which was ripping myself open, is actually the thing that I needed the most.”

The contrast with his franchise work is stark. Compare it to Fast & Furious or even the buoyant Moana (2016). This time, the highs aren’t superhuman; they’re the adrenaline of a fighter in a ring with tens of thousands roaring. And the lows? They’re chemical dependency, isolation, and a body breaking down.

Inside Safdie’s method: body, makeup, and hidden cameras

Director Benny Safdie pushed for precision. He told Johnson to physically resemble Kerr’s late-1990s build—“bigger, puffier.” Johnson asked for 24 hours and then signed on, acknowledging, “Mark is a big guy.” The daily grind: roughly three hours of prosthetics and makeup to widen his face and alter his features.

Visually, Safdie leans into texture. The film opens with rough-edged VHS before sliding into 16mm, designed to put viewers “really there.” Cameras were hidden during many setups so actors wouldn’t see them, creating a fly-on-the-wall energy. Johnson said the approach was especially potent in the fights: “We’re really in a ring and we’re really having these fights. There’s like a DNA to the film that you can feel.”

The production is aligned with A24, the studio behind character-first dramas such as The Whale (2022). The Venice showcase was hosted by the festival’s parent, La Biennale di Venezia, underscoring awards-season ambitions.

The human core: addiction, triumph, and a life in freefall

Kerr’s story isn’t tidy. He was a dominant force in the late 1990s, a world-beater who still woke up to pain. As Johnson put it, for Kerr, “a day without pain is like a day without sunshine.” The film tracks a champion whose body and psyche are constantly negotiating with damage—fame ringside, darkness back home.

Johnson’s own past threads through the role. Growing up amid instability, with a father on the road wrestling and frequent moves—including a stint in a dilapidated trailer he later showed on camera in 2022—he recognizes what it feels like when “your whole world [is] coming apart.” The empathy shows on screen.

How the project came together: Emily Blunt’s decisive text

The twist is, the project hinged on a friend’s nudge. Johnson says Emily Blunt was “the glue” who connected him to Safdie. After he sent her the Kerr documentary, Blunt didn’t hesitate: “You must make this movie and I’m going to text you and Benny together. You have to do it together.”

That message yanked the film out of development limbo. Safdie—best known for Uncut Gems (2019), co-directed with his brother Josh—brings a relentless, nerve-jangling style that fits Kerr’s world: fluorescent gyms, locker-room whispers, the thud of tape on wrists before a fight.

Context and comparisons: what this could mean for Johnson’s career

Johnson has flirted with serious drama before—think Pain & Gain (2013) or the HBO series Ballers (2015–2019)—but this is a step further, a full immersion in vulnerability. If the Venice premiere is any guide, it’s the kind of awards-facing unveiling that has worked for other A24-led dramas. The Whale launched at Venice in 2022 before Brendan Fraser’s Oscar run, and The Wrestler (which premiered in Venice in 2008) showed how combat-sports stories can resonate with voters.

Industry analysts often note that Venice debuts can set the tone for fall campaigns. A raw, physically exacting performance anchored in a real person’s pain tends to travel: festival juries, critics’ groups, then audiences seeking something true. That’s the lane this film is aiming for.

What we know—and what we don’t—about release plans

The Venice bow in September 2025 positions the film squarely in the heart of awards season. U.S. release specifics weren’t announced at the premiere, and international rollouts remain to be detailed. Expect more clarity as fall festivals lock in their lineups and distributors coordinate screens.

Background: the real Mark Kerr and the documentary roots

For readers connecting the dots, the title nods to the 2002 documentary The Smashing Machine, which followed Kerr at a peak-and-plummet moment in his career. The biographical drama builds on that foundation, dramatizing the late-1990s highs and the private crash that followed. It’s not just a sports film; it’s a portrait of a man negotiating survival.

Johnson’s journey runs parallel. From “the trailer park kid” to WWE fame as The Rock in the late 1990s and early 2000s, then to global movie star, he’s long mastered invincibility. Here, he leans into fragility instead—and says it changed how he sees acting “in a different world.”

Reactions from Venice

Audience chatter on the Lido centered on the immersive camerawork and the authenticity of the fights—sweat, breath, and the ambient roar, even without seeing the rigs. Several early viewers singled out the decision to hide cameras as a key reason the performances feel unguarded. The sensory detail is hard to miss: the sting of alcohol swabs, the dull thump of gloves on ribs, the hush before a bell.

Where Johnson went to find the emotion

Johnson says he cracked the role by returning to a formative trauma: being evicted at 15. That memory—and the instability of moving across states as a kid—became his portal into Kerr’s mind after a punishing loss. He’s open about it: the work hurt, but in a way that felt necessary.

He also acknowledged direction that stripped away vanity. Safdie’s note to get “bigger, puffier” wasn’t flattering; it was right. Johnson agreed after a day’s thought because matching Kerr’s body was part of telling the truth.

The Venice connection

The festival setting matters. The Venice Film Festival, run by La Biennale di Venezia, has become a launchpad for actor-driven dramas. It’s also a stage where stars take risks. Johnson’s first trip there is a statement—he’s not just visiting; he’s competing for a different kind of respect.

Where he came from

Johnson’s early TV wrestling stint in Memphis and time living in a run-down trailer in Mississippi (which he revisited in 2022 interviews) add a real-world texture to this performance. He knows about starting over. He’s done it before.