VENICE >> Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson, best known for his high-octane action roles, has stepped away from his Hollywood comfort zone to take on a bruising dramatic turn in \u201cThe Smashing Machine,\u201d which premieres at the Venice Film Festival today.<\/p>\n
The former wrestling star and box-office powerhouse plays the real-life, mixed martial arts pioneer Mark Kerr, whose towering physique and prowess in the ring belied a soft-spoken nature and private struggles.<\/p>\n
The role marks a sharp turn for Johnson, who has spent the past two decades headlining family franchises such as \u201cJumanji\u201d and the \u201cFast & Furious\u201d series.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it\u2019s harder to know what you\u2019re capable of when you\u2019ve been pigeonholed into something,\u201d Johnson told reporters in Venice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could push you into a category and into a corner, and this is your lane, this is what people want you to be, this is what Hollywood wants you to be. I just had this burning desire, this voice that was saying, \u2018Well, what if there is more\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n
Directed by Benny Safdie, \u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d traces Kerr\u2019s rise in the early days of mixed martial arts (MMA) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), when brutal combats in Japan helped define the nascent sport.<\/p>\n
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The story also shows the toll it took on Kerr \u2013 a dependence on painkillers, a turbulent romance with his girlfriend Dawn, played by Emily Blunt, and the crushing pressure to deliver victory after victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about the pressure to win, the pressure to deliver, and what happens when winning becomes the enemy,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a love story about Mark and Dawn, but also about Mark\u2019s love for the thing he did, and his struggle to deliver and overcome his challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n
TRANSFORMATION<\/p>\n
Johnson is almost unrecognisable in the role, sporting curly brown hair and appearing even more muscular than usual to reflect the physical stature of Kerr himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot believe I even asked, but I said, \u2018Dwayne, I think you need to get a little\u2019 and I was like, how do I say this? \u2018bigger, puffier\u2019?\u201d said Safdie, making his debut as a solo director after previously sharing credits with his brother Josh.<\/p>\n
Blunt, who had co-starred with Johnson in Disney\u2019s 2021 adventure \u201cJungle Cruise,\u201d said she had been \u201cspooked\u201d by his transformation. \u201cI remember when he walked in as Mark for the first time. It changed the air in the room. It was like everyone parted, everyone went very quiet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Kerr himself was in the room for Monday\u2019s news conference and tears appeared in his eyes as he was introduced.<\/p>\n
Johnson said Kerr was \u201ca walking contradiction, at one time the greatest fighter on the planet, but also kind, gentle, tender, empathetic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s own father was a professional wrestler, but the actor said he had not been a model for this role.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think my dad was an inspiration in terms of his tenderness. It wasn\u2019t really my dad. He was homeless by the time he was 13, so his capacity for love was very limited,\u201d said Johnson, who acknowledged to feeling nerves at his first appearance at a major European film festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d is one of 21 films competing for the festival\u2019s prestigious Golden Lion prize, which will be awarded on September 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VENICE >> Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson, best known for his high-octane action roles, has stepped away from his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,134,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-112031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}