If you didn’t know Dwayne Johnson was starring as Mark Kerr in a biopic about the former two-time UFC heavyweight tournament champion, you’d probably have no idea it was him in the first look at “The Smashing Machine.”
On Tuesday, A24 posted a teaser image from writer/director Benny Safdie’s feature film in which The Rock, as Kerr, is sitting on a stool in the ring while his cornermen work on him. Also in the image, his wife, played by Emily Blunt, looks on from ringside. The Rock, with a thick head of hair and without his tattoos, is nearly unrecognizable and looks so much like Kerr, you’ll have to do a double take.
First look at Benny Safdie’s THE SMASHING MACHINE starring @TheRock and Emily Blunt. pic.twitter.com/GVC2XIHwGV
— A24 (@A24) May 21, 2024
Kerr, who won back-to-back one-night UFC heavyweight tournaments in July and October of 1997, afterward went on to have a successful run in Pride FC that spanned the late 1990s to early 2000s. According to Deadline, “The Smashing Machine” will focus on the year 2000 and how Kerr’s life and rise as a mixed martial artist was derailed by addiction.
The Rock spent months training for the role and recently shared images of himself and Kerr in the gym together.
“The Smashing Machine” is still in search of a buyer to distribute the film. It was set to be screened at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in France.
