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At the press conference for The Smashing Machine, Dwayne Johnson explained why he's finished letting Hollywood put him in one box. The actor opened up on how chasing the biggest possible four-quadrant hit can turn into a trap, and lead him into a corner that might not necessarily be that great.
Johnson stated,
“The box office can be very loud and it can become very resounding and it can push you into a category and into a corner. This is your lane and this is what you do and this is what Hollywood wants you to do.”
He admitted he had been pigeonholed for years, partly out of fear. He talked about ignoring the little voice that kept asking if he could do more, then finally listening, which is how he ended up here, emotional on stage and clearly relieved to be seen as an actor with range.
“I started to think, am I living my dream or am I living other people’s dreams? You come to that recognition and you can either fall in line — ‘Well, it’s status quo, things are good, I don’t want to rock the boat’ — or go, I want to live my dreams now and do what I want to do and have a place finally to put all this stuff that I’ve experienced in the past that I’ve shied away from.”
The commitment shows up on screen and off. For The Smashing Machine, he slimmed down, disappeared under hours of prosthetics, and chased a different kind of transformation, the kind that risks vulnerability instead of bigger explosions. In another interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he called the movie a love story at its core, which fits the film’s competition slot at Venice and the early award-season buzz that followed the premiere.
More details about The Smashing Machine
In The Smashing Machine, Benny Safdie trades the neon chaos of Uncut Gems for the blood, sweat, and ruin of the MMA cage. Dwayne Johnson, nearly unrecognizable under prosthetics and stripped of his blockbuster sheen, plays Mark Kerr in what critics are already calling a career pivot. Emily Blunt joins him as Dawn Staples, the fighter’s then-wife, grounding the story in volatile intimacy. The cast spills over with real fighters, Ryan Bader steps into Mark Coleman’s shoes, Bas Rutten plays himself, and heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk transforms into Igor Vovchanchyn.
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Production stretched from May to August 2024, moving from New Mexico to Tokyo to Vancouver. Cinematographer Maceo Bishop shot on 16mm and 70mm IMAX, making this the first A24 project to embrace the epic format. The mood is heightened further by Belgian musician Nala Sinephro’s score, a jagged, haunting counterpoint to the violence onscreen.
After bowing in competition at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on September 1, The Smashing Machine heads stateside for its October 3 release via A24.
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