Dwayne Johnson on tackling a dramatic role in “The Smashing Machine”

This picturesque farm in rural Virginia is Dwayne Johnson’s very private sanctuary, with a well-stocked pond that he usually fishes alone. “Just me,” he said, “and I’ll bring the girls here, and it’s magical. Just the way the property is set up, I never have to see anybody. And I know it sounds crazy, and maybe kind of weird, but that’s fun for me.”

I asked, “What does that do for you?”

“Peace,” he replied.

Peace has been hard to come by lately. Last month, Johnson made his first trip to the Venice Film Festival, for what is probably the most ambitious film of his career, “The Smashing Machine.” He plays the real-life mixed martial arts fighter Mark Kerr, a two-time world champion who fought drug addiction and depression.

Johnson endured three hours of makeup and prosthetics a day to look like Kerr, and he’s never played anyone quite so real before. But it’s something he says he’s been aching to do. 

“For years, I’ve been dreaming and hoping,” he said. “My desire was to play not only a dramatic role, but something that I felt like I could really sink my teeth into, and rip myself open. You hear that term. I just didn’t want to do drama. I wanted to do something that really allowed me to do that.”

To watch a trailer for “The Smashing Machine” click on the player below:

I asked, “This is a big, raw role. Did you have any doubts that you could do it?”

“When it became real, yes,” he said.

Director Benny Safdie paired Johnson with Emily Blunt as Mark Kerr’s volatile wife, Dawn Staples. The two last worked together in Disney’s 2021 film “Jungle Cruise,” the kind of film on which Johnson built his multi-billion-dollar career. 

“I was chasing something for a lot of years, and what I was chasing was box office,” he said. “And there’s a part of me, the brain [that goes], ‘Don’t rock the boat. Stay in this zone. Everyone’s happy. You’re paying the bills.’ But the heart is like, ‘Yeah. But you’re not being fulfilled.'”

“Did you feel like that, you weren’t being fulfilled?” I asked.

“One hundred percent,” Johnson said. “But I was really nervous. And on day one, I remember Benny coming to me, and Emily as well, [they] said, ‘Are you scared?’ I went, ‘Yes.'”

“You flat out said, ‘Yes, I’m scared’?”

“Absolutely. I am.”

And Dwayne Johnson doesn’t scare easily.

His father was a professional wrestler, and with dad on the road a lot of the time, young Dwayne grew up with his share of trauma. When he was 15, Dwayne and his mom were evicted from their apartment because they couldn’t pay the rent.

He moved around a lot, and eventually started wrestling on local TV in Memphis, which he showed us in 2022.

We also saw where he stayed back then: a dilapidated trailer in nearby Mississippi.

The trailer park kid fought his way out of poverty, became the wrestling legend known as “The Rock,” and eventually moved into movies, from action (the “Fast and the Furious” series) to animation (“Moana”).

For “The Smashing Machine,” he had to find a way to transform into someone whose whole world was coming apart, like the scene where Mark Kerr loses his first fight. To conjure up the feelings of despair on camera, Johnson knew right where to go. “I went back to what it’s like being a 15-year-old kid and coming home and being evicted,” he said.

I asked, “You said it felt like you were ripping yourself open. What do you think that did for you, Dwayne Johnson, ripping yourself open like that?”

“The thing that I was running from, which was ripping myself open, is actually the thing that I needed the most,” he replied, “because it made me realize that the thing I love, which is acting and telling these stories, now I see it in a different world.”

These days, Johnson talks a lot about gratitude. At his property in Virginia, far from the trailer in Mississippi, he said, “Even more reason to be grateful.”

One thing he won’t talk about: Oscar buzz. “No, no, I can’t, I can’t,” he said. “The thought that that is even a question?  …  You know, trailer park kid.”

The married father of three will be starting work on another “Moana” film soon, and also another drama. Yes, Dwayne Johnson will always be The Rock, but as any scientist can tell you, rocks can change.

This Rock, for one, seems smaller now. “Yeah. Svelte!” he laughed. “Because I’m preparing for a role.”

“So, this really is, this is like a new era for you?”

“It’s a new, I wouldn’t say, chapter. I would say new book. A whole new book. And I love it.”

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Extended interview – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson    

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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Steven Tyler.