Standing ovations, Best Director awards, and critical acclaim from all over the world have already been given to the makers of the film The Smashing Machine. Director Ben Safdie and actor Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson have been making the press rounds promoting the film while giving stories from behind the scenes that make the project that much more interesting.
Starting with the actor, The Rock recently went on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to talk about the film and how he pitched the idea to Safdie six years prior to its release. He told Jimmy, “I love his work, and it was 2019, and I had just watched Uncut Gems. I went to Benny, and I said, ‘Hey, I got this idea called The Smashing Machine, and it’s based off a documentary. Based on your auteur style of being a director and how bold I think you are, I think you’d be great at writing and directing it.’ We agreed to do it, and then COVID hit. If you see the movie, there is this iconic yellow sweater that Matt Kerr wears. Ben tracked it down in my size and then sent it to me with a letter saying, ‘I am going to be so honoured to be working with you.’ I actually never got the sweater or the letter. He thought that I ghosted him, and he’s like, ‘God, he is such an as*****.’ But lo and behold, Emily Blunt actually connected us again, and then we started working on the project.”
Safdie too talked about working with Dwayne while making an appearance on the Impaulsive podcast. He said, “I always knew he could do the role, and I appreciated the fact that he wanted to do this and put in the work for it. He gained 40 pounds of muscle for the role, and he knew exactly what I was talking about when I told him to get bigger. He’s just so internal, and he’s so emotional. You just love him, and you want to give him a hug, but then at times he is really frustrating. That is who I wanted to show, someone who is not easy to live with.”
Safdie extensively talked about the prosthetics used on Dwayne as well, in order to make him look like Matt Kerr. The man responsible for Dwayne’s incredible transformation into Kerr is Oscar-winning prosthetics artist Kazu Hiro. He too recently gave an interview to Variety and talked about the challenges he faced while working with Dwayne.
“It’s very important and very easy to make someone unrecognisable, but the very important part is to really reflect the meaning of the makeup and the purpose of the makeup, and also the subject we are trying to portray. I knew that there would be a lot of physical activity, sweating and fighting, like a punch in the face,” said Hiro.
Starring Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Bas Rutten, Dwan Staples, and Oleksandr Usyk, The Smashing Machine will release in the theatres on October 3.
