Benny Safdie Recalls Conversations With The Rock About Taking Real Hits For One Fight Scene In ‘The Smashing Machine’

The Rock took part in a real fight while filming ‘The Smashing Machine’.

Throughout the ongoing press tour for the movie, The Rock has been open about suffering a concussion during the film’s production. Specifically, Rock stated that he wanted to “go all the way” with the fights since he was making a MMA movie.

Appearing on the latest episode of Impaulsive, director/writer Benny Safdie recalled some of the conversation leading up to one of the film’s specific fights.

“There was a moment where DJ is like — there’s a really specific fight where you just can’t fake it. From the beginning, he’s like, ‘I’m going to have to take it. I’m going to have to get punched.’ They call it laying it in. He’s like, ‘It’s just going to have to happen.’ The day of the fight, I didn’t want to be like, ‘Hey, remember what you said?’ He came in and he’s like, ‘Alright.’”

Safdie also recalled Rock telling his scene partner to punch him with “everything you’ve got”.

“In that moment, he’s talking to the guy and he goes, ‘You’ve got to hit me. Don’t knock me here, don’t knock me here, but just punch me with everything you’ve got and lay it in with a knee.’ You see it in the movie.”

‘The Smashing Machine’ opens in theaters on Friday, October 3.

Elsewhere in the interview, Benny Safdie touched on connecting with The Rock for the first time. Check out his full comments by clicking here.

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