The Smashing Machine: How Dwayne Johnson's most intense transformation into Mark Kerr went beyond the gym

Becoming Mark Kerr for The Smashing Machine was a hard nut to crack, even with his boulder-like build for Dwayne Johnson, whom many know as his WWE alias, The Rock. He is one of the rare WWE wrestlers who have become successful actors. A couple of them are John Cena and Dave Bautista.

But after this performance, which has been lauded by the critics, it is likely that Dwayne Johnson might take the top spot on the list of best wrestlers turned actors. Fans and critics have enjoyed the story alike, as the Popcornmeter and Tomatometer at the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes show. Critics have given it a 71% score, and fans 76%.

Recently, he was talking to ESPN about his transformation for his role as the veteran MMA champion Mark Kerr, and it wasn't simply about losing or gaining weight. It has an emotional aspect to it, too. Because muscles alone wouldn't have given the necessary juice for his role in The Smashing Machine.

How did Dwayne Johnson train for The Smashing Machine?

Dwayne Johnson described Kerr's body as a "rare one-of-one body." For that, and for transformation, The Rock says:

"Fast-twitch fibers, that different quality of muscle of a wrestler with a nonstop motor that's always going in, shooting, lifting up. Just that work, the deltoid and then the traps, the neck, his quads ... to put on that kind of muscle is just different. So that's why I went into an MMA camp, trained with real coaches, real MMA fighters, just to keep my movement."

Johnson joined the training a month before the film's production began, and he also shared a bit from there on his Instagram channel, which you can see below.

In the movie, Mark Kerr goes on to discuss his success as it begins, and then shows the struggles in the story. Despite that, Dwayne Johnson's portrayal of Kerr in The Smashing Machine goes on to overcome them and trains hard to stay in the game. There is a lot of realism in it, too, where Johnson took a real punch, as ESPN notes, in the movie.

During this scene, his partner refused to do that because he had much respect for the former wrestler turned actor. After a lot of convincing, the scene was shot eventually. Johnson had given precise instructions to his partner as to how to hit him so he could live to see another day, as he was a real fighter.

There was a lot of emotionality in it, too, to conquer

A"puffier" body, as Johnson addresses his body in the film, and fights weren't the only things that made The Smashing Machine possible. It was also the emotional aspect. The director and the actors had to discuss a lot about this aspect of the film.

Benny Safdie told ESPN about this, saying:

"I wanted us to be close because I knew we were going to be going to places that may have been a little bit uncomfortable. And I thought, we need to do that in a place of trust, you know? So that was kind of where it was just building that foundation and then moving from there."

The Smashing Machine has lots of ups and downs between Kerr and his girlfriend, Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt), which adds more realism and energy to it.

Even though the film is a critical success, it has failed to become a commercial phenomenon. As of this writing, it has garnered $17.2 million against a $50 million budget.