{"id":191466,"date":"2025-09-01T12:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T12:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/191466\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T12:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T12:47:10","slug":"dwayne-johnson-oscar-contender-the-smashing-machine-starts-buzz-at-venice-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/191466\/","title":{"rendered":"Dwayne Johnson, Oscar contender? \u2018The Smashing Machine\u2019 starts buzz at Venice Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dwayne Johnson takes a serious turn as UFC fighter Mark Kerr in \u201cThe Smashing Machine,\u201d which has its world premiere Monday at the Venice Film Festival.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI have for a long time wanted this,\u201d Johnson said before the premiere. \u201cThe transformation part was something I was really hungry to do. I\u2019ve been very fortunate to have the career that I\u2019ve had and make the films that I have, but there was just this voice inside of me, this little voice, like what if I can do more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The actor, best known for big budget action movies and comedies, is already sparking Oscar buzz for his transformation in the film from Benny Safdie. The festival has launched several recent best actor Oscar winners, from Brendan Fraser in \u201cThe Whale\u201d<\/a> to Adrien Brody in \u201cThe Brutalist.\u201d<\/a> Like both of those films, \u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d is being released by A24.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe box office in our business is very loud,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cAnd it can push you into a category and into a corner: This is your lane, this is what you do, this what people want you to be in and this is what Hollywood wants you to be. And I understood that. And I made those movies, and I like them and they were fun. And some were really good and did well and some not so good.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he felt like he had more to give, not to prove something to Hollywood, but to himself. The push to take on a new challenge came in part from his co-star and friend Emily Blunt, who he worked with in \u201cJungle Cruise,” and who encouraged him to draw on everything he’d gone through in life and put it into his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019ve been pigeonholed into something it\u2019s hard to know, wait, can I do that?\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes it takes people you know and love, like Emily and Benny, to say you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson was joined in Venice not only by Safdie and Blunt, but also the man he’s portraying in the film. Kerr is a two-time UFC heavyweight tournament winner and MMA fighter who retired in 2009. Known as \u201cThe Smashing Machine,\u201d Kerr also struggled with addition to painkillers and opioids, overdosing twice.<\/p>\n

Before Johnson was best known as the star of franchises like \u201cJumanji\u201d and the \u201cFast & Furious\u201d series, as well as a producer and business owner, he made his name in wrestling. A third-generation wrestler, he won eight WWE championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved wrestling and I had such a great time, but it’s very bombastic,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

He remembered meeting Kerr in the late 1990s and said how much he looked up to him. This film, he said, feels like a full circle moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d takes place between the years 1997 and 2000, a tumultous time in both Kerr\u2019s professional and personal life. His relationship with then girlfriend Dawn Staples was particularly volatile.<\/p>\n

Blunt got to know and spend time with her counterpart as well. She said she was excited to show the \u201cfull weather system\u201d of a relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been part of a lot of relationships that are essentially more curated to a movie, a moviefied relationship,\u201d Blunt said. \u201cThis felt like the full spectrum of what a relationship really looks like. Because humans change within the hour. I think we got to show that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said it was extraordinary and a little \u201cspooky\u201d to see Johnson fully disappear into this role. The prosethtics were designed by master makeup artist Kazu Hiro, who helped Bradley Cooper turn into Leonard Berntstein and Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill.<\/p>\n

Venice\u2019s artistic director Alberto Barbera said last week he wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see Johnson, who he called \u201cabsolutely amazing\u201d in the film, and Blunt, who plays Kerr\u2019s wife, among the Oscar nominees next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been scared to go deep and go intense and go raw until now, until I\u2019ve had this opportunity,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

Both Johnson and Safdie said that Kerr had changed their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s such a beautiful thing to shine a light on him and learn from his experiences,\u201d Safdie said.<\/p>\n

Safdie is also an actor, who recently appeared in \u201cOppenheimer\u201d and \u201cHappy Gilmore 2,\u201d and filmmaker who, along with his brother Josh, codirected \u201cUncut Gems.”<\/a><\/p>\n

In his director\u2019s statement for \u201cThe Smashing Machine,\u201d Safdie called the title, \u201ca perfect onomatopoeia for something visual, conjuring images of domination and destruction with ease.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film is playing in the main competition, with titles like \u201cFrankenstein,\u201d<\/a>\u201cBugonia,\u201d<\/a> \u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab,” \u201cLa Grazia<\/a> \u201d and \u201cNo Other Choice\u201d also vying for the top prizes, including acting and directing awards. Winners will be announced on Sept. 6.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d will open in North American theaters on Oct. 3.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

For more coverage of the 2025 Venice Film Festival, visit https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/venice-film-festival.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dwayne Johnson takes a serious turn as UFC fighter Mark Kerr in \u201cThe Smashing Machine,\u201d which has its…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":191467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[107007,56034,107006,185,60990,57038,171,1020,107005,67,132,68,30989],"class_list":{"0":"post-191466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-adrien-brody","9":"tag-benny-safdie","10":"tag-best-actor-oscar-winners","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-dwayne-johnson","13":"tag-emily-blunt","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-film","16":"tag-mark-kerr","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-venice-film-festival"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115129119204379300","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}