Dwayne Johnson’s connection to Mark Kerr runs deeper than his role in The Smashing Machine, the highly anticipated biopic about the MMA legend. Long before portraying Kerr on screen, Johnson had already shared a personal bond with the fighter dating back to the 1990s.
Speaking on the season premiere of Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast, Johnson revealed he first met Kerr during his early WWE wrestling years. “In the mid-90s, after my football career ended, I started wrestling in ’96. Around ’97 or ’98, whenever we wrestled in Los Angeles, we all went to the same gym. That’s where I met Mark, Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Don Frye—absolute legends,” Johnson recalled.
At the time, Johnson was still struggling as “Rocky Maivia” in WWE. “It wasn’t going well. I was getting booed,” he admitted. Meanwhile, Kerr and his peers were thriving in Pride Fighting Championships in Japan. Johnson remembered asking Kerr if he could seek advice, to which the fighter responded with encouragement.
Looking back, Johnson admitted he had no idea Kerr was secretly battling addiction, depression, and shame. “You think someone’s on top of the world, but you never know what they’re going through,” he reflected.
Preparing to play Kerr in The Smashing Machine required an extreme physical and emotional transformation. Johnson described the role as “the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” involving prosthetics, vocal training, and months of grueling workouts. Director Benny Safdie demanded a raw, immersive approach—if Kerr took a punch, Johnson took it too.
To replicate Kerr’s physique, Johnson gained 30 pounds of functional muscle, focusing on wrestling-specific strength. “It wasn’t about bodybuilding—it was about fast-twitch power,” he explained. He even trained his neck and traps to capture Kerr’s signature wrestler build, before later shifting gears to voice Maui in Moana.
Laughing, Johnson summed it up: “It was Mark Kerr and Maui. Two big dudes.”