Dwayne Johnson is unrecognizable as a buff and bloodied MMA legend in 'The Smashing Machine' trailer
The new trailer for A24 drama The Smashing Machine is out now, and it reveals star Dwayne Johnson's total transformation into legendary mixed martial arts and UFC fighter Mark Kerr. If not for the hulking physique, which the wrestler-turned-actor is, of course, known for, it'd be hard to tell it's Johnson under that wig and prosthetics.
The trailer, below, first introduces us to Johnson's bloodied Mark in a doctor's office waiting room, where an elderly woman asks him, "Do you hate each other when you fight?" "Absolutely not," he tells her, as we see brutal shots of him in the ring, both past and present.
The glitz and glamour of the UFC is shown, as is the obvious physical, mental, and emotional toll fighting takes on Kerr. At one point, he's shown punching a wooden door, and his relationship with girlfriend Dawn Staples, played by Emily Blunt, seems tense.
The film promises to tell the no-holds-barred story of the two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion at the peak of his career and explore his struggles with addiction. (Kerr was previously the subject of the 2002 HBO documentary of the same name, which refers to the nickname he earned due to his fighting style in the ring.)
It wasn't just Kerr getting banged up on camera; Johnson revealed some real-life battle wounds from filming the biographical drama on his social media accounts last summer.
'Look at that sucker right there,' he said in the video, poking an injured area on his arm. 'It looks like I have a cantaloupe in the bottom of my elbow. I got banged up pretty good today in our scenes. And there might be some soft tissue damage in there. That's a lot of fluid. We'll see. I gotta get it out of there first before I get any kind of MRI.'
The elbow injury was a bit of art imitating life, of course. Kerr once famously won the World Vale Tudo Championship with a fractured hand and was later forbidden from competing in American Championship Fighting due to a different hand injury.
The Smashing Machine sees Johnson reunite with his Jungle Cruise costar Blunt. Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, and Oleksandr Usyk also star in the film, which is written, directed, and edited by Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems, Good Time). Johnson also produces alongside David Koplan, Hiram Garcia, Dany Garcia, Safdie, and Eli Bush.Prior to becoming a major movie star, Johnson, who went by The Rock in the ring, made his WWE debut in 1996 and became an eight-time WWE Championship and two-time WCW Championship winner.
The Smashing Machine hits theaters nationwide on October 3, 2025.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
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