Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson recently opened up on what it was like to receive a 15-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival premiere of “The Smashing Machine.”
In a film that will hit U.S. theatres this weekend, Johnson plays Pride FC heavyweight Mark Kerr as he battles addiction, marital issues and the tough sport of MMA. The biopic is based on an early 2000s documentary of the same title.
Johnson recently explained on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon how, before the premiere, he was worried about how the film’s reception would measure up against other projects at the festival.
“I went over there to Venice Film Festival, we’re in competition, I’m floating as it is, I get there on Saturday, and the premiere of Smashing Machine is on Monday. We’re in Venice, and I’m looking through my phone at these other movies that are debuting and that are getting these standing ovations, like five minutes, six minutes and 10 minutes. I’m thinking, ‘God, are we gonna get a minute?’ I thought, do I have to clap for myself?”
In the end, “The Smashing Machine” was well received in Venice. While it was rewarding for Johnson, he described that it felt like it meant even more to Mark Kerr, who watched the film alongside him.
“There’s cards at the end of our movie before the credits roll, and one of the cards says, ‘These fighters today, they make millions of dollars and everyone knows their name. But his name was Mark Kerr.’ That place, I have chills, erupted for 15-and-a-half minutes and before the credits even rolled. And the lights come on and I’m crying, trying to clear my tears away. Emily [Blunt] was crying, Benny Safdie, our director, was crying. And by the way, Mark Kerr, who I sat next to watching, and this is his life, and he’s a big guy and our bodies are here, and he was shaking the entire time. It was a very intense, emotional film. And I was so happy for him, for Mark, because it was his validation that, despite your struggles, despite the fact you overdosed twice and you’re still here, he’s lucky to be alive, things turned out okay, and you are an inspiration to everybody. That’s what the applause meant.”
The number of changes that The Rock had to undergo for the film was quite large. He told Fallon that he had 22 prosthetics, gained 30 pounds of muscle, and, since he was doing many of his own stunts, was actually hit in the face during one of his scenes.
The entire project was a long time coming for The Rock, as he initially pitched the idea back in 2019.
“I went to Benny and I said, ‘Hey, I got this idea called the Smashing Machine, it’s based off a documentary. Based on your auteur style of being a director, and how bold you are, I think you’d be great at directing this and writing it.’ We agreed to do it, then COVID hit.”
Safdie attempted to send a jacket to Johnson’s house with a message about working on the project, but the jacket never arrived. Thus, briefly, Johnson thought the filmmaker “ghosted” him on the project. Eventually, through Emily Blunt, Johnson discovered that Safdie remained interested in working on the film, thus getting the ball rolling on the movie which has its official release in just a couple of days.
