\n<\/p>\n
F<\/span>or much of his career, Dwayne Johnson has been stuck between the Rock and a hard place. In the early years of his transition from body-slamming World Wrestling Entertainment heavy to marquee movie star, he was still being billed under his nom de ring<\/em>. Even once he retired that moniker, he seemed to be lugging behind him a persona from which he might never be free. There are people-pleasers and then there is this affable brawler-turned-actor, who appears to regard the contentment of the world\u2019s multiplex-goers as his personal responsibility. Whether in vehicles comic (Central Intelligence, Baywatch), family-oriented (Jumanji, Jungle Cruise), four-wheeled (the Fast & Furious series) or disaster-based (San Andreas, Skyscraper), he is a rip-roaring razzle-dazzler, shiny of scalp and tooth, and so colossal that he isn\u2019t merely the circus showman but the whole damn big top too.<\/p>\n Not that he hasn\u2019t been lavishly remunerated for all that heavy lifting. He can out-grin and<\/em> out-gross Tom Cruise: Johnson has 392 million Instagram followers to Cruise\u2019s 15 million, and was Forbes magazine\u2019s highest-paid actor for five of the last nine years. That includes 2024, when he pocketed $88m. (Cruise didn\u2019t make the top 20 that year.)<\/p>\n But Johnson is the first to admit there has been trouble in paradise for some time. \u201cI\u2019ve been in this space for years where I wanted to do more,\u201d the 53-year-old actor tells me over video call from Los Angeles.<\/p>\n Things came to a pretty pass last year when his much-despised Christmas comedy-adventure Red One, for which he reportedly earned around $50m for playing Santa\u2019s head of security, not only flopped spectacularly (it grossed $186m worldwide on a $250m budget) but was accompanied by stories of Johnson\u2019s poor on-set behaviour: rumours of persistent tardiness (which he has denied), or his habit of peeing in bottles and leaving assistants to dispose of them (which he accepted). It\u2019s one reason to feel disconcerted when he arrives 25 minutes late to our interview. On the plus side, the liquid in his water bottle isn\u2019t yellow.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018I wanted to challenge myself\u2019 \u2026 Dwayne Johnson in The Smashing Machine. <\/span> Photograph: Ent-movie\/Alamy<\/p>\n He clearly wasn\u2019t happy. \u201cI wanted to not only challenge myself but to listen to my gut,\u201d he says. \u201cTo really rip myself open. And, quite honestly, I was scared. I\u2019m not a big therapy guy. I\u2019ve had some great conversations with therapists but it\u2019s not the thing I run to. I bottle shit up inside me, like a lot of guys, which I recognise is not the healthiest thing to do.\u201d He shrugs. His tight white shirt, unbuttoned to the chest, seems to stretch and creak. \u201cThen I said: Wait, I can still do the thing I love, which is acting. But what if there\u2019s something deeper and more meaningful in it for me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Piping up beside him, in a voice as chipper as Johnson\u2019s is ruminative and rumbling, is the actor\u2019s own personal hype-man: Benny Safdie, the feted 39-year-old film-maker who has helped facilitate Johnson\u2019s swerve away from disposable entertainment to high-calibre cinema. Safdie made his name alongside his brother Josh co-directing full-blown cinematic panic-attacks such as Good Time and Uncut Gems. Now he has gone solo for The Smashing Machine, in which Johnson plays Mark Kerr, the real-life mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter who amassed a fortune pummelling opponents \u2013 and, as his might began to wane, getting<\/em> pummelled \u2013 in eye-gouging, head-kicking Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bouts.<\/p>\n <\/span>Chaotic \u2026 Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in The Smashing Machine.<\/span> Photograph: Everett\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Johnson has known Kerr since the late 1990s, when they would bump into one another on the circuit. \u201cThere was a lot of connective tissue between MMA in the late 1990s and what I was doing. Same arenas, same gyms. Same demons, too.\u201d Around 2008, he became obsessed with the documentary The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr, which showed Kerr at his euphoric highs and pitiful lows. The actor sensed that a dramatised film of that story would not only be compelling but could provide a solution to his brewing dissatisfaction at having acted himself into a corner. Playing Kerr, he might just be able to cage-fight his way out of his own gilded cage.<\/p>\n And so it has proved. For The Smashing Machine, Johnson spent several hours each day having the prosthetics applied which would turn him into Kerr, but that isn\u2019t the only reason he is unrecognisable in the film. With Safdie\u2019s encouragement, he also located within himself an actor no one knew existed. He had previously departed from form only twice: he was used for novelty value in Southland Tales, Richard Kelly\u2019s maligned follow-up to Donnie Darko, and was entertaining as a dumb-lug bodybuilder turned kidnapper in Michael Bay\u2019s Pain & Gain. The Smashing Machine, though, feels fully driven by his hunger as an actor.<\/p>\n Near the start of the film, Kerr finds it impossible to imagine what it might feel like to lose. The remainder of the movie shows what happens when this born champion is confronted by his own fallibility. Banjaxed by injuries and an addiction to painkillers, his chaotic relationship with his girlfriend Dawn (played by Johnson\u2019s Jungle Cruise co-star Emily Blunt) starts to unravel. In the process, The Smashing Machine becomes an unusual proposition: a film about a winner who must learn how to lose, and a loving couple who probably shouldn\u2019t be together.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018I love making the big films. But there\u2019s something freeing about this process\u2019 \u2026 Johnson with Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan and Jack Black in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungl\u202ae.<\/span> Photograph: Frank Masi\/Sony Pictures<\/p>\n Safdie doesn\u2019t quibble with that description, but nor does he exactly embrace it. \u201cI still want the audience to feel good at the end,\u201d he says. That they do is largely down to Johnson\u2019s charisma, which is less ingratiating now that it is complicated by his character\u2019s pain and self-doubt. One scene in particular is a revelation. As Dawn goads and taunts him during an argument at home, Kerr \u2013 who, despite being the size of a bookcase, is as gentle and softly spoken as a librarian \u2013 lets rip, tearing the kitchen door apart as if he were ripping a tissue in two. The truly impressive moment, though, occurs seconds earlier, when his eyes drain of life and he becomes chillingly still.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never played a scene like that before,\u201d says Johnson, hushed by the memory of it. How did it feel? \u201cLike not acting but living in the moment. You go elsewhere. You don\u2019t know where you\u2019re going and you don\u2019t know how you come back.\u201d Safdie remembers it well: \u201cAfterwards, we were all very emotional,\u201d he says. \u201cCrying and going: \u2018Oh my God.\u2019 Because you can\u2019t express those sorts of feelings unless you\u2019ve felt them before.\u201d<\/p>\n This is the first of several times that Safdie hints at the personal struggles and frustrations that his lead actor brought to the picture. \u201cWhen we met,\u201d he tells Johnson, \u201cI saw behind your eyes this desire to really explore something about yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n I ask whether there were indeed autobiographical elements to playing Kerr. \u201cIn what way?\u201d Johnson asks, stiffening slightly. Safdie leaps in to answer for him. \u201cWell, yeah, right, because there\u2019s that thing of having to put on a certain face for the crowd, which I knew Dwayne felt too.\u201d He turns to Johnson again. \u201cI knew you were telling and discovering a part of yourself also.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018I\u2019ve never played a scene like that before\u2019 \u2026 (from left) director Benny Safdie, Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson on set of The Smashing Machine. <\/span> Photograph: Everett\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n The actor takes up the idea. \u201cIt\u2019s the challenge of having to live up to an image. I can empathise with Mark in that. There\u2019s this image of you and, as it forms, people keep piling shit on: \u2018You can do it. Now do it like this. And here\u2019s more, and more. Now come over here and do this thing, and that thing.\u2019\u201d I start to see the sisyphean side to this Rock.<\/p>\n Like Kerr, Johnson has come to accept his own vulnerability. In a time of political tyrants and would-be strongmen, when the US president\u2019s go-to insults are \u201closer\u201d and \u201cfailing\u201d, that puts The Smashing Machine out of step with the prevailing culture. And not only the political one. Safdie and Johnson both work in an industry that does not brook failure: flop on your opening weekend, fall short of your expected box office gross, and you can become a pariah. Colleagues will cold shoulder you at Los Angeles lunch spots. People will lose your number.<\/p>\n Competition is endemic in Hollywood. Like it or not, Safdie himself is squaring up for a battle with his own brother: Josh Safdie has also directed a new sport drama \u2013 Marty Supreme, starring Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet as a fictional 1950s table-tennis champion loosely based on Marty Mauser \u2013 which is out soon through the same distributor (A24). The trade paper Variety predicts that Marty Supreme will dominate most of next year\u2019s Oscar categories, including best picture and best director, while it places The Smashing Machine\u2019s chances mainly in the acting slots.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cLook, Josh is my brother, you know?\u201d he laughs, wriggling in his seat. \u201cI love my brother. I think it\u2019s cool that we both have movies out. I was joking with a friend of mine about how there are always these boxing brothers like the Klitschko and Charlo brothers. And he admitted to me: \u2018I know this is wrong, but when they fight, I always wanna see them beat each other up\u2019. And I can kinda see a little bit of that happening!\u201d Should things turn ugly on the red carpet, at least Benny Safdie can count on Johnson to back him up, whereas all his brother has is little Timmy Chalamet.<\/p>\n For once, the pressure is off Johnson himself. \u201cYou know, I\u2019ll share this with you,\u201d he says, making me lean closer to the screen. \u201cThis is the first time in my career that I\u2019ve not thought about box office once. And I like that. I appreciate it. With the other films, the big ones, the four-quadrant movies, it\u2019s pressurised. Sure, I love making the Jumanjis and Moanas. But there\u2019s something so freeing about this process. We want this movie to open well and hope a lot of people like it. But for that not to be the thing<\/em> \u2026 What a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Johnson in The Smashing Machine.<\/span> Photograph: Ent-movie\/Alamy<\/p>\n Ordinarily, he would be quaking on the eve of a new picture coming out. \u201cIt\u2019s a scary time because so much effort and money goes into the opening weekend here in the States. Then it\u2019s: \u2018How will it hold up? What will it do internationally? Maybe we should change that scene because it\u2019d play better in Asia \u2026\u2019 I make all these big movies, and some have been really good and some not so good at all. But this was one for me.\u201d Gesturing to Safdie, he amends his remark: \u201cFor us<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Having tasted freedom, how can he ever go back to his old way of working? \u201cWell, that\u2019s a smart question. I feel like I need to have a conversation about that with my therapist Benny here.\u201d They laugh together. But the point stands. With The Smashing Machine, it may be Johnson\u2019s persona which has finally been smashed for good.<\/p>\n The Smashing Machine is in Australian cinemas from 2 October and US and UK cinemas from 3 October<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For much of his career, Dwayne Johnson has been stuck between the Rock and a hard place. In the early years of his transition from body-slamming World Wrestling Entertainment heavy to marquee movie star, he was still being billed under his nom de ring. Even once he retired that moniker, he seemed to be lugging<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[1922,11371,859,4302,1394,1008,2216,14525,2272,445,286,5744],"class_list":{"0":"post-24370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-box","9":"tag-dwayne","10":"tag-ive","11":"tag-johnson","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-office","14":"tag-redefine","15":"tag-reinvention","16":"tag-role","17":"tag-thought","18":"tag-time","19":"tag-wrestling"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}