Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has admitted that despite accepting the role to play UFC legend Mark Kerr in the upcoming film ‘The Smashing Machine’, he was ‘really scared’ at the thought of it.
At the end of last year, it was announced that a biographical film about UFC legend Mark Kerr, ‘The Smashing Machine’ was set to be created by A24, with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson cast to play the former fighter.
And with the film set to air on October 3, Kerr was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame earlier this year, with Johnson presenting the award.
Kerr got his nickname ‘The Smashing Machine’ for his dominant ground-and-pound and ridiculous power, which saw him beat a fighter so badly that he crawled out of the ring to find his teeth.
Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images‘The Rock’ was ‘really scared’ to transform into Mark Kerr
Despite having grown his portfolio as a huge actor over the past 10 years, Johnson’s role of playing Kerr in the upcoming A24 film is one of the more serious roles he’s played.
And because of that, the former WWE star has admitted he was ‘really scared’ to transform into Kerr, and even wondered if he could go ahead with it.
“It was very real. I had not experienced that in a very, very, very long time, where I was really scared and thinking, ‘I don’t know if I can do this. Can I do this?’” Johnson revealed in a recent interview with Vanity Fair.
“I realized that maybe these opportunities weren’t coming my way because I was too scared to explore this stuff… I was so hungry for an opportunity to do something raw and gritty and rip myself open,” he continued.
During the filming of the movie, ‘The Rock’ had to go through a huge transformation that took over three hours.
“I just sat in front of the mirror for three or four hours and watched it all change. There were about 13 or 14 different prosthetics. Subtle, yet I think very impactful. By the time I got set, I was Mark Kerr and I felt it, from how he walked and how he talked and how he looked at life,” Johnson continued.
Dwayne Johnson has always been a big UFC fan
Throughout his career as a professional wrestler, Johnson has always been a big fan of MMA and even more so of the UFC.
Over the years he has gotten more closely involved in the sport and he even wrapped the title around Jorge Masvidal following the inaugural BMF title fight.