Dwayne The Rock Johnson took real punches to the…
When it got here to taking part in the brutal, battered and drug addled UFC fighter Mark Kerr in his new film, “The Smashing Machine,” Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson agreed to a exhausting discount.
It was clear that there can be scenes of excessive ring violence. After all, the film takes place in the Nineteen Nineties, when UFC bouts had been anything-goes bloodbaths. Wound gouging and head-butting made for such a spectacle that the late Senator John McCain disparaged the sport as “human cockfighting.”
In the spirit of sustaining authenticity, director Benny Safdie and The Rock made a pact that is just about unheard of for a Hollywood star vehicle. “At one point, I said to Dwayne, ‘I don’t want to cut away. I think it’s important that we see him get hit,’” Safdie told The Post. “We talked about this early on, the one moment when he was actually going to get punched in the face.”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson performs MMA fighter Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine.” To his left is the real Mark Kerr. They are at the Venice Film Festival, where the film obtained a standing ovation. Getty Images
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson taking part in Mark Kerr. In a bid to keep it real, Johnson took a legit punch to the face. AP
Benny Safdie directing his stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt on “The Smashing Machine” set. Courtesy Everett Collection
When that second of bonafide contact was nigh, for a scene in which Kerr will get savaged, The Rock said to Safdie, “OK this is it.”
Then, Safdie remembered, “Dwayne said to the [stuntman playing the opposing] fighter, ‘Yoko, you’ve got to hit me.’ Yoko was, like, ‘I’m sorry, sir. I’m not going to do that.’ Dwayne said, ‘You have to. You know [where to hit me] to not break my jaw or kill me. Give it to me!’” At that level explained Safdie, “He gets hit in the head for real. It doesn’t look the way a fake punch would look.”
And that was not the only troublesome request made by Safdie. Incredibly, he told The Rock – one of the most muscular and primed people in the world – he needed to by some means get even greater for the position.
“Dwayne is a big guy, and Mark is a bigger guy. So, I told Dwayne that he needs to get puffier. He said, ‘Okay, give me four months.’ Dwayne built himself up to have the body that Mark had – and he changed his body based on the fights he was having.”
“The Smashing Machine” opened in theaters on Friday. Courtesy Everett Collection
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, as Mark Kerr, makes his means to the ring. Courtesy Everett Collection
The star had to put on 30 kilos of muscle – which is no small feat, and it got here in addition to the 32 prosthetic items he frequently donned.
It reached a level, said Safdie, “that he was acting with his back.”
Such a quest for verisimilitude is constant with the whole film – also starring Emily Blunt as Kerr’s then girlfriend Dawn Staples – which opens with grainy footage that seems something but staged.
“My wife got me an early UFC shirt that reads ‘As real as it gets’ on the back,” said Safdie, who was approached by Johnson following the release of “Uncut Gems” (which he codirected with his brother Josh, whose own debut solo effort “Marty Supreme” is scheduled for release in December). “That was my main motto. This whole thing needs to look like it really happened.”
In fact, the scripted movie, which dropped in theaters on Friday, was impressed by a 2002 documentary “The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr.” That movie helped get Johnson and Safdie going on this concept.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt during the 15 minute standing ovation for “The Smashing Machine” at the Venice Film Festival. La Biennale di Venezia
Overcome by the accolades, The Rock sheds tears. X/RaminSetoodeh
“As I watched [the documentary], I instantly felt like I could understand Mark and I fell in love with him,” said Safdie, talking of a man with a Mr. Universe construct who intellectually broke down his need to bodily destroy opponents.
The documentary captures him saying, “I don’t go out to try and punch a guy’s face in; sometimes I have to.”
Continued Safdie, “I could understand his struggles, what he had been through, what he was trying to hide from the world, putting on a face for other people but struggling on the inside.”
Mark “The Smashing Machine” Kerr broke out, starting with his debut struggle in 1997, as an early celebrity of combined martial arts. At the same time, it’s been reported that he was so not sure of himself that he needed to back off of his first struggle and only relented after being told it will trigger a riot.
The real Mark Kerr, in the “The Smashing Machine” documentary. prepares to inject himself with opioids. John Robert Hyams
Mark Kerr administers the shot. John Robert Hyams
substances led to an overdose and an MMA downfall for Mark Kerr. John Robert Hyams
Nevertheless, he crushed opponents inside UFC’s signature octagon ring, as nicely as more conventional rings around the world — thus incomes his nickname. However, he also crushed himself. Loaded up with steroids and addicted to opiates, he overdosed at least once.
Safdie’s warts-and-all portrayal tells the story of somebody who might have been too philosophical for the world he put himself into. He had been an elite school wrestler at Syracuse University and, following a stint as a rock ‘n’ roll roadie (hauling tools for The Who and The Rolling Stones), a former teammate launched him to combined martial arts as a occupation. In need of money and wanting to do one thing that was at least parallel to the sport he cherished, Kerr determined to go for it.
“Mark was not the guy who got joy from pounding the hell out of another person,” John Hyams, who directed the documentary, told The Post. “But he occurred to be actually good at it.
Inside the UFC octagon, Mark Kerr squares off against Moti Horenstein, an Israeli-American martial arts knowledgeable. Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
“He was completely terrified by the idea of what he was doing. Then he went in and obliterated everyone in front of him. Suddenly he was on a roller coaster where he was the best guy at what he did and was making more money that he could have imagined.”
Johnson also noticed this while working with Kerr to make the film, noting to NPR that he’s a “physical anomaly,” because of his large brawn, coupled with the means to “move like a cheetah” and harness his viciousness to win.
And yet exterior of the ring, “he is sweet and he’s so gentle,” Johnson said.
In real life, Kerr’s best opponent was habit, introduced on by the vacancy he often felt.
“After a fight, it is the loneliest place in the world, even if you win,” Kerr told The Rock in an interview for Sports Illustrated. “You’ve got nothing in front of you.”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson holds up a championship belt in his portrayal of Mark Kerr. AP
Emily Blunt and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Dawn Staples and Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine.” AP
In both the characteristic and the doc, after a struggle in Japan he asks a medic for opiates and turns into aggravated to be supplied nothing stronger than Tylenol. Back home in Arizona, driving his car, he hits up his doctor for one thing that might be injected. In his home, the doc and the characteristic show him capturing medicine.
“Mark was addicted to opiates,” said Hyams. “He was dealing with pain all the time. But it wasn’t just physical pain. It was also psychological pain of knowing you are obligated to fight a person, on a certain day, several months away.”
Art Davie, who created UFC (at the moment owned by TKO Group Holdings), places into perspective the pre-bout dread that a fighter might really feel: “You’re going into an arena, dressed in your underwear, in front of a whole bunch of strangers and you will punch and kick a guy you don’t know very well. It’s a crazy business.”
As Kerr himself – who once hit an opponent so exhausting that the bruiser’s enamel went flying out of the ring – put it about the violent nature of his chosen sport, “There are methods to try to facilitate a will being forfeited. It’s a weird psychology.”
“The Smashing Machine” crew — from left: Mark Kerr, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Benny Safdie and Emily Blunt — rejoice their smash hit film in Venice. Maria Laura Antonelli/AGF/Shutterstock
He likened the successful of a struggle to an orgasm. For the SI interview, he said, “I’m putting enough pressure on you to give it up. I’m taking your will to win. It’s like taking your will to live. It’s that powerful.”
He received straightened out with rehab and is at the moment clean. However, his glory as an MMA fighter was diminished after the OD. Kerr started his profession with a beautiful 11-0 document (successful fights in Brazil, the UFC octagon and the Japanese MMA league that was identified as PRIDE Fighting Championships) but then ended up on a dropping streak, ending at 15-11.
After the combating ended, Kerr received his real estate license and later bought vehicles. Right now, though, “The Smashing Machine,” is drawing early Oscar buzz – and snagged a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson taking part in Mark Kerr at his best. AP
The director Benny Safdie breaks out high-resolution gear with which to seize the the real Mark Kerr — and he wears a Kerr shirt to do it. Courtesy Everett Collection
Kerr also received inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame this past June, one more indication of how the pioneering MMA fighter is finally getting his due.
The film consists of a glimpse of Kerr taking part in himself, procuring in a grocery store, strolling out to his car and smiling. “We’re seeing him in real life,” said Safdie of the scene.
“I wanted to show that the guy you see walking down the supermarket aisle … You might brush him off as just this nice guy. But he’s lived a life that you would never imagine.”
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