Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson breaks out of his traditional Hollywood boundaries.
On Monday night, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson celebrated the Venice Film Festival premiere of The Smashing Machine, a biopic in which he stars as former MMA fighter Mark Kerr. Typically, Johnson has appeared in billion-dollar blockbuster films. The Smashing Machine, however, allowed him to take on a different kind of a role, with more intense layers.
At the film festival, Johnson explained his motivation to take on the role.
“When you’re in Hollywood, as we all know, it had become about box office. You chase the box office,” Johnson said (H/T to BBC). “And the box office in our business is very loud, it can be very [overwhelming]. It can push you into a corner and category – ‘This is your lane, this is what you do, and this is what people want you to be and this is what Hollywood wants you to be’.
“And I understood that. I made those movies and I liked them and they were fun, and some were really good and did well, and some not so good! But I think what I did realize is I just had this burning desire and this voice that was just saying, ‘what if there’s more, what if I can?’ Sometimes it’s hard to know what you’re capable of when you’ve been pigeon-holed into something. It’s harder to know ‘wait, can I do that? I feel like I can. And sometimes it takes people who you love and respect to say ‘you can’.”
The Smashing Machine premieres in the United States on October 3. Starring alongside Johnson is Emily Blunt, who portrays Dawn Staples, and Ryan Bader as Mark Coleman. Benny Safdie serves as the film’s writer, director, and co-producer.
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