Dwayne Johnson Brings UFC Legend Mark Kerr’s Life to the Big Screen With The Smashing MachineStraddling the line of “lover” and “Fighter.”
On the Red Carpet of Monday’s Los Angeles Premiere, Johnson Explained to Deadline That He Thoughts “Something Unique” in the Story of Kerr’s Life, Which Writer/Director Benny Safdie and Co-Emily Blunt Also Saw before.
“Fighting just happy to be what he did, and he was awesome at it,” Said Johnson at the Samuel Goldwyn theater in Beverly Hills. “But it’s not a fight Movie, it’s a life movie.”
Set in the late ’90s, The Smashing Machine Follows Kerr (Johnson) During His Swift Rise As the undefeated mma rookie, who streak ended abruptly in 2000, sparking an addition to painkillers and two overdoses, before Mounting a comeback years late.
“Mark Kerr’s Life Represents So Much of Everyone Around the World, but not ‘Oh, He’s the Greatest Fighter on the Planet,’ But More so ‘Oh, he struggled with pressures and deal with pressure,’ Johnson explained. “And he struggled with pain, and he struggled with how to deal with Additionion. And he got hit hard. At one point, he was the great on the planet, and that lost.
Benny Safdie, Emily Blunt, Dwayne Johnson Attend A24’s ‘The Smashing Machine’ Premiere on Sept. 29, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California.
Jesse Grant/Variety
“And he overdossed twice; he lucky to be alive, and i’m so happy he is alive. Because as you know, films like this a bio film, a lot of Times, the Main Subject isn’t Alive, he’s not around. Added.
Blunt felt just as grateful, Having the real dawn staples-kerr to drain inspiration for her portrayal of the fighter’s then girlfriend, with what he was late Maried and Shared. The Actress Jokingly Notting She was “Obsessed with Watching” Staples-Kerr and Wold “Drive to Work, Watching Videos of Her Like a Stalker.”
“I had never had that opportunity to play someone who’s with us,” She Said. “You know, i’ve played People who are not with anymore, so to get to talk to her, absorb her, Hear the entity of her life story, from her childhood – she was so indulgent of my incredibly intrusives.”
Blunt added, “and i’ve never had that, so i haad Such a veracious appetitite for trying to absorb as postible of her. was just new for me, and i wish i could have it every time. ”
Safdie, who began development the script with Johnson in 2023, explained what AttraCted Him to the Mma Fighter’s Story, WHICH WAS ALSO TOLD IN THE 2002 HBO DOCUMARY OF THE SAME NAME.
“Mark is a unique person, in that he can go in the ring and beat the crap of someone, and in his words, ‘take their will away from,’ and explained. “But he can come out and say the Wax poetic about why he did. And he could talc about his feelings and emotions in a way that that is really almost a psychoanalyst, and i thought, this is a really unique, special individual.
Mark Kerr, Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt and Dawn Staples-Kerr Attend A24’s ‘The Smashing Machine’ Premiere on Sept. 29, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California.
Jesse Grant/Variety
“On top of that, i felt like it really connected to Him, and as got to know, it was true. if i did that for an audience, i felt like that would be really awesome for an audience to the feel his and experience this, ‘hey, if he can, i could be ok,’ ”Added safdie.
The film as also a fulfilling experience for KERR, WHO SAFDIE IS “JUST brilliant in a way where, i said his superpower is childlik imagination. What Makes it a Superpower, is it is infectious.”
“With dj, he was just a sponge, he would just soak in Everything AROUND HIM, OUR CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ALL THIS DIFFERENT OF WHAT WAS GOING ON THAT TIME,” Added Kerr. “And my conversations with emily, i call her an ’emotional detective,’ cause she just digs for these nuggets and pulls say out. It just an incredible Experience.”
Kerr and His Ex-Wiffe Reunited on the Red Carpet, Along With Their Onscreen Counterparts, Celebrating the Los Angeles Premiere of the A24 Film, which is Now in Theaters.