Hollywood star and former WWE legend Dwayne Johnson, popularly known as “The Rock,” featured in “The Smashing Machine”, a movie based on UFC legend Mark Kerr.
The Hollywood movie will premiere in the U.S. next month, but has already been released at international film festivals. Directed by Benny Safdie and featuring Hollywood star Emily Blunt, the film follows the life of Kerr and his epic UFC career. Dwayne Johnson plays the role of Mark Kerr. To perfect his role, Johnson underwent a physical transformation to mimic Kerr’s appearance. After filming, “The Rock” appeared on screen looking slimmer, sparking conversations, but the actor came out to clear the air.
In a conversation with Cameron Bailey at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Johnson explained the work that went into his transformation, including his physique and voice.
“And then there was the voice transformation because Mark Kerr, he’s this walking contradiction of… a beast of a man, beautiful human being,” Johnson said. “He’s so soft-spoken and so kind and gentle and tender, and I worked with Liz Himelstein, who was Emily’s voice coach on Oppenheimer and a few others. Emily connected me with Liz. It’s fascinating, because I had not gone through that process before of modulating and creating a different voice. Liz told me something that stuck: ‘You speak from the ground up, here up and out. Mark speaks from here [points to throat], very soft. So think about that as you’re talking like Mark, very soft.’ So there’s that transformation, too.”
Johnson also had to endure an extensive prosthetic routine each day, estimating that the process took “three to four hours” to shape his face like Kerr’s. Two-time Academy Award winner Kazu Hiro oversaw the transformation.
“His build was something that you just don’t see,” Johnson said. “It’s like a combination of a sprinter and a wrestler, and he’s just this incredible athlete. Benny said early, ‘I don’t know if you’ve ever been told this before, but I think you’re going to need to gain weight.’”
“I think I said, ‘How do I say this? Puffy. Like, bigger,’” Safdie added. “He said instantly, ‘I totally get what you mean and give me this amount of time.’”
“The internal part was the biggest challenge because I knew where I and we had to go internally,” Johnson said. “You realize very fast that in order to go to those places, you have to have love and trust. That allowed for vulnerability, and we could not have done that without this love, trust, and vulnerability that we shared.”
As for his new slim physique, Johnson revealed it’s for another movie role pitched to him by Safdie right after The Smashing Machine was completed.
“A little bit of the backstory is Benny pitched me the movie after The Smashing Machine, and after about 45 minutes, I said, ‘I am your chicken guy,’” Johnson said. “What that means is, without giving too much away, the role I will play is a very whimsical and eccentric 70-something-year-old man called ‘The Chicken Man,’ and his best friend is a 70-something-year-old chicken. I’m so excited to hopefully get a chance to transform again like I was able to do in The Smashing Machine.
“That’s why I’ve been slimming down, to play ‘The Chicken Man.’ I’ve been eating less chicken. This is me slimmed down. In the process of slimming down. I still have a long way to go.”
Mark Kerr, famously known as “The Smashing Machine,” carved out a name in the UFC and PRIDE during the late ’90s with his wrestling and brutal ground game. He stormed through opponents like Dan Bobish, Paul Varelans, and Igor Borisov in UFC tournaments before heading to Japan, where he clashed with legends such as Igor Vovchanchyn, Heath Herring, and Enson Inoue. Kerr’s dominance made him one of the most feared heavyweights of his time,
