{"id":192370,"date":"2025-09-01T20:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T20:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/192370\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T20:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T20:49:09","slug":"the-rock-sobs-as-the-smashing-machine-gets-15-minute-venice-ovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/192370\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rock Sobs as ‘The Smashing Machine’ Gets 15-Minute Venice Ovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIs Dwayne Johnson<\/a> headed to the Oscars? <\/p>\n

\n\tJudging by the rapturous reaction to his performance as wrestler Mark Kerr in \u201cThe Smashing Machine<\/a>\u201d at the Venice Film Festival<\/a> on Monday night, that seems to be the consensus out of Italy.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 53-year-old actor (who had his own former life as the WWE wrestler known as the Rock) sobbed uncontrollably as the audience on the Lido erupted into 15-minute standing ovation, one of the longest at this year\u2019s festival so far.<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson has been the star of such commercial fare as \u201cThe Mummy,\u201d \u201cBlack Adam\u201d and \u201cBaywatch.\u201d But he goes much deeper in his next project, which will be released by A24 in November, as a \u201990s fighter with demons. <\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson stars opposite Emily Blunt in the film, who plays Kerr\u2019s girlfriend Dawn Staples. During the ovation, Benny Safdie \u2014 the film\u2019s director \u2014 hugged both his stars and joined Johnson in shedding tears of joy as the clapping continued. Adding to the waterworks, Kerr also wept as the credits rolled. <\/p>\n

\n\tAs the hooting and cheering stretched on, \u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d proved to be the most emotional premiere on the Lido since Brendan Fraser collapsed into tears four years ago, launching his Oscar campaign for \u201cThe Whale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore the screening started, one fan shouted Johnson\u2019s signature WWE line, \u201cCan you smell what the Rock is cooking?!\u201d \u2014 prompting laughter from the man of the hour.<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson is nearly unrecognizable in the film, undergoing pounds of prosthetics to portray the beefy two-time UFC Heavyweight champ. The actor previously told Variety <\/a>that he was drawn to \u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d because Safdie is someone who \u201ccontinues to push the envelope when it comes to stories that are raw and real; characters that are authentic and at times uncomfortable and arresting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m at a point in my career where I want to push myself in ways that I\u2019ve not pushed myself in the past,\u201d said Johnson, best known for franchise fare like \u201cJumanji,\u201d the \u201cFast and Furious\u201d franchise and superhero adventure \u201cBlack Adam.\u201d \u201cI want to make films that matter, that explore a humanity and explore struggle [and] pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d marks the solo feature directorial debut of Benny Safdie, who worked with his older brother, Josh, on indie favorites like \u201cGood Time\u201d and \u201cUncut Gems.\u201d (Josh will also make his solo feature debut this year with A24\u2019s \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d a sports drama starring Timothee Chalamet.) \u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d reunites Benny Safdie and Blunt, who shared a memorable scene in Christopher Nolan\u2019s historical epic \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d as well as Johnson and Blunt, who co-starred in Disney\u2019s action-adventure \u201cJungle Cruise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is Dwayne Johnson headed to the Oscars? Judging by the rapturous reaction to his performance as wrestler Mark…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":192371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[60990,171,107384,67,132,68,30989],"class_list":{"0":"post-192370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dwayne-johnson","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-the-smashing-machine","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-venice-film-festival"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115131015155239267","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192370","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=192370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}