Dwayne Johnson Explains ‘The Smashing Machine’s UnHollywood Ending

Dwayne Johnson attends ‘The Smashing Machine’ special screening at BAFTA in London, England.

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Although biographical sports drama The Smashing Machine is based on the true story of MMA fighter Mark Kerr, there was pressure to alter the narrative and provide a happy ending. It’s something Dwayne Johnson, who plays the iconic athlete, and the film’s writer, producer, editor, and director, Benny Safdie, discussed at great length.

“There was pressure from everybody who has a hand in this, because it’s not your typical ending,” Johnson admits over Zoom to a select group of journalists. “The intuition is, ‘Well, we know he doesn’t win, but how can we make it seem like he still wins big at life and it’s triumphant and there’s a different kind of triumphant score that we can apply, and audiences are kind of high-fiving as they’re leaving the theater.’ Benny said very early on, ‘Let’s make a movie that’s as real as it gets.’ If we did that, we weren’t protecting the integrity of a man and his girlfriend who lived their lives, and who are still alive today, because that’s not how it was, and that’s not how it ended.”

“The truth is, Mark was lying on that table getting stitched up as his best friend won everything. We realized the shower scene was so important, and I now get chills thinking about it, because that’s his moment of grace. He’s smiling, he begins to laugh, and the laugh isn’t, ‘Oh, I don’t care about this anymore.’ It’s, ‘After all these years, I have no more pressure to win.’ We felt the pressure, but then thought it was more important to maintain the integrity of real life and what really happened.”

Johnson, who is also a producer on the awards hopeful feature, was all ears but still had his reservations.

“Finally, Benny had an idea. He said, ‘What if at the end of the movie, we’re in the supermarket and Mark Kerr is buying groceries?’” the actor and filmmaker recalls. “I remember, as he was telling me, I said, ‘Okay, I got it. I’ll be buying groceries, and it’s going to be five, ten, or twenty years later, so I’ll look older. Do you want more prosthetics? He goes, ‘No. Mark Kerr, the real Mark Kerr, is buying groceries. I think there’s something special important about that.’ And truth is, at first, I said, ‘No. Do you think that will confuse the audience? I’ve just spent two hours as Mark Kerr, and they’re used to looking at me.’ Benny said, ‘There are two things I think will happen. If I show the real Mark and the audience has been with you for the past two hours, I think the audience will appreciate your performance even more when they hear Mark Kerr speak. They see him walk his certain way, his demeanor, his kindness, and his soft-spokenness,’ so I said, okay, and hoped that would be great.”

“Then he said, ‘I feel if we show the real Mark at the end how he is in real life today, and he is happy, has found his grace, he’s sober and grateful for life, that’s letting the audience know that you could get knocked down in life, bad things can happen, you can fight your demons, but in the end, if you have hope and a little bit of courage, everything will be okay.’ I threw my hands up in the air and said, ‘You have to go for it,’ and you know what? It was the best thing to happen.”

How ‘The Smashing Machine’ Has Changed Dwayne Johnson’s Life

The Smashing Machine, which is now available to rent and buy on Digital, stars Johnson as Kerr. Emily Blunt plays Kerr’s real-life girlfriend Dawn Staples. It also stars mixed martial artist Ryan Bader as Kerr’s best friend, Mark Coleman, and a bunch of other figures from the fighting world, including Bas Rutten as himself.

“At one time, Mark Kerr was arguably the greatest fighter on the planet, when MMA was the wild west, and he strives for everything. He doesn’t win at the end, and not only does he fail to win, but he loses everything. Not only does he lose everything, but he’s in this volcanic, explosive relationship with his girlfriend, Dawn, and now he’s a man who’s just in search of grace,” the Moana and The Jungle Cruise actor muses. “He battled his demons and his addictions. In The Smashing Machine, he overdoses. In real life, he overdosed twice. He’s lucky to be alive. It felt like there were a lot of elements about this that were different and not what you would typically think, ‘Well, let’s go and make a Hollywood movie about this.’ This man today, who, at the end of the film, doesn’t get his arm raised and didn’t win everything, is looking for grace and peace in his recovery and sobriety.”

“Benny Safdie said to me very early on, ‘What if we made a film where winning became the enemy and losing could wind up becoming one of life’s greatest blessings?’ It takes a special kind of human being to look at the world in that way, like Benny does, but also a truly unique filmmaker. He feels like, ‘I think that we can create something that audiences will be moved by. They may not feel, ‘I’m so inspired to go out and tackle the world,’ but go, ‘I don’t know what it’s like to be the greatest fighter on the planet, but I do know what it’s like to feel pressure, to struggle, have some demons, and be in a tough relationship.’ How I envisioned it in the beginning, to what Benny delivered as a filmmaker, I couldn’t be happier. This film changed my life in ways that I didn’t anticipate.”

Something else that Johnson, who, while on the awards season campaign trail for The Smashing Machine, is about to commence work on the third Jumanji movie, didn’t expect was the emotion he felt when legendary Japanese-American prosthetic makeup artist Kazu Hiro transformed him into Mark Kerr.

“Day one, I’m in the makeup trailer and it’s a three and a half to four-hour process. I’m nervous. This is new for me. I have been so hungry for this challenge, and it’s finally here. The train has left the station, and there’s no turning back,” Johnson recalls. “Benny had said to me early on, ‘You’re going to have to inhabit someone else’s skin and really commit,’ and I said, ‘I am 1,000 percent committed to this and becoming Mark Kerr,’ but it was all new for me. I’m doing my work in the makeup trailer. I look up and notice something is different, because Kazu is applying the 23 prosthetics, and that takes time. First, my eyebrows are gone, then 30 minutes later, I look up and there are more applications. I look up again, and there’s something different about my nose and my cheeks. Thirty minutes would pass, and every time I looked back up, an hour, two hours, or three hours would have passed, and things would change. Cauliflower ears, scars everywhere, tattoos removed, and when it was done, I looked up, and I just stared for ten minutes.”

“I couldn’t believe what I was looking at,” Dwayne Johnson, who also gained approximately 30 pounds of muscle for his role, concludes, getting emotional. “I take a breath, and Kazu asks, ‘Are you okay?’ I said, ‘I am. I am okay. I just need a moment.’ I got up out of the chair, and I immediately went to the set, and the moment I walked on set was when I knew. I am Mark Kerr. I didn’t know that was going to happen, and when I experienced that, it was very moving and compelling for me. It gave me an exhale, just for the moment, that I was ready to do this, and this is what it’s like to become another person.”