"Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's desire to play pioneering UFC fighter Mark Kerr in " The Smashing Machine," an adaptation of the 2002 documentary of the same name, about the athlete's rise through the ranks of professional mixed martial arts, on the precipice of the sport becoming a worldwide sensation, predates when the WWE-superstar-turned-blockbuster-actor even started producing films through his company Seven Bucks Productions in 2012."
"He simply had watched the HBO documentary in the burgeoning days of his pivot to film stardom, and thought to himself, "I would love to play Mark Kerr." But even at that point, he told IndieWire over Zoom, doubt had already creeped in. "The realness was, 'Are you ready to make this film? Are you ready to go there?' Because at the end of the documentary, [Kerr] is still battling his addictions, and he's trying, and things are hard, and he loses everything,"
"The first time he thought he'd lived enough life to revisit the role was around 2019, at a point where Johnson had become the highest paid actor of the year off a string of hits that included the "Fast and Furious" franchise, the new "Jumanji" franchise, and big budget actioners like "San Andreas," "Rampage," and "Skyscraper" (plus the animated phenomenon that is "Moana")."
Dwayne Johnson longed to portray pioneering UFC fighter Mark Kerr in a film adaptation of The Smashing Machine, originally a 2002 documentary about Kerr's rise as MMA became globally prominent. The desire to play Kerr existed before Johnson launched Seven Bucks Productions in 2012. Johnson watched the HBO documentary early in his film pivot and hesitated because Kerr was still battling addictions and ultimately loses much. Johnson revisited the role idea around 2019 after becoming a top-paid actor and cited Uncut Gems and the Safdie brothers as influence when connecting with Benny Safdie for the project.
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