The Rock Says The Smashing Machine Was His First Role Where He Questioned If He Could Do It
The Rock speaks on the complexities of playing Mark Kerr in 'The Smashing Machine'.
The Rock speaks on the complexities of playing Mark Kerr in ‘The Smashing Machine’.
In ‘The Smashing Machine’ The Rock plays former MMA fighter Mark Kerr throughout his life and hardships with a cast that also features Emily Blunt and people from the world of fighting like Bas Rutten. The role is out of the usual casting range of The Rock, and for him, it is a scary role to take on.
While speaking to IMDB in a new interview alongside Emily Blunt and Benny Safdie, The Rock opened up about how scared he was to take on the role of Mark Kerr.
“Everything. I wanted to, of course, challenge myself and do things that I’ve never done before and jump off the cliff, as we’ve been saying, and work with not only Benny and, of course, worked with Emily before, and everything was different for me, and this role and this part in this film, it just represents so much more than just the film that’s based off this incredible human being and another human being who was the love of his life. It also represents for me just kind of like doing something that I was really scared to do. To be honest with you, I’ve not been in that position. Where I was scared, like, I don’t, can I do this? Am I going to fail? I don’t know, I’ve never, 13 or 14 prosthetics and a physical transformation, a vocal transformation. How he walked, his mentality, he OD’d twice, he’s lucky to be alive. There’s so much in this volatile relationship that was still an impassioned one with love that he had. So it was a lot. Everything was different.”
The Rock would later comment on the relationship Kerr had with his wife, noting his struggles to be vulnerable after his childhood.
“That Tara is great part, I had not experienced that and I just grew up an only child. My dad was a tough guy. He raised me with tough love. So if I was scared of something, I’m not going to say it. You know, I’m not going to be vulnerable. So getting together with these two and us becoming very, very close, all of us allowed for that vulnerability. But that idea that Tara is a good thing, and when you’re really scared to do something, do it scared. because on the other side of that is something that’s going to be good.”
Elsewhere in another recent interview, The Rock discussed the 15 minute applause the movie received at the Venice Film Festival. You can read more about that here.
The Smashing Machine comes to theatres on October 3rd.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit and link to the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
