Watching The Smashing Machine was impactful in a variety of ways for Mark Kerr, the UFC Hall of Famer whom Dwayne Johnson portrays in the new A24 movie.
Kerr hadn’t seen the finished film about his life until watching with the audience at this summer’s Venice Film Festival, where it received a rapturous response. Emily Blunt co-stars as Kerr’s then-girlfriend Dawn Staples in writer-director Benny Safdie‘s feature that hits theaters Friday and details Kerr’s fighting career and opioid addiction. The project is based on the 2002 documentary The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr.
“The last scene was gut-wrenching, just the intensity of what was going on,” Kerr tells The Hollywood Reporter about The Smashing Machine. “DJ [Johnson] is sitting on my left and patting my leg. Benny’s on my right and patting my leg, and I ended up holding his hand for the last half-hour of the movie. I have so many emotions running through me, and the way that I’m releasing them is tapping my legs and my arm back and forth. Benny’s like, ‘Hey, it’s going to be OK,’ and I just hold onto him. It’s just really amazing what they were able to capture and put on screen.”
A key point of discussion surrounding the film has been the extensive facial prosthetics that Johnson wore to portray Kerr. As it turns out, Kerr was initially unaware that Johnson’s look would so closely mirror his own.
Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine.
A24
“Nobody told me,” Kerr admits. “I had this idea and image that, ‘He’s just going to be DJ. He’s going to put a wig on,’ or something like that. The first time I saw him at prosthetics, I cussed at him for a minute. I’m looking at him, [and] he’s a doppelganger. He’s a mirror image of me. I’m looking at myself in front of me.”
This current moment represents a major transition for Kerr, and not just because a film about his life is earning praise. Last month, THR reported that Kerr signed with Innovative Artists for representation.
One of Kerr’s agents, Mark Fenlon, tells THR that he sees the former fighter as a good fit for brand endorsements, speaking engagements, live sports broadcasting and potentially some acting gigs. “We expanded into the sports space somewhat recently, and we have had an eye on him for a while,” Fenlon says. “We’re really excited for this film to bring his personal journey to the masses. The film is an incredible tribute to Mark, his career and the struggles he’s overcome in life.”
Kerr agrees that the partnership with the agency feels like a timely fit. “They want to have a bigger footprint in taking retired athletes and making opportunities for them,” he explains. “I have a book that I’m working on right now [about my life], and that just fills in a lot of the spaces that are missing in this.”
He also feels continued support from Johnson as his onscreen counterpart: “Every single text or voice message that he’s ever left me, he’s left it with, ‘If you need anything, please call me.’ He’s a good person to have at your back.”
Kerr hopes that viewers of The Smashing Machine will appreciate that his addiction was exacerbated by “the shame and my inability to ask for help.” He adds, “Where I am now, [with] my ability to connect with another human being and ask for that help — it’s not a weakness, it’s a strength. So hopefully, [audiences] can watch it and understand what was going on with me at the time, [that I could] absolutely face-plant, dust myself off and move forward in my life. That’s the hope that anybody could have.”