Dwayne Johnson’s last “dream role” was the polar opposite of ‘The Smashing Machine’
With the release of The Smashing Machine, Dwayne Johnson’s heartfelt biopic of former mixed martial arts fighter Mark Kerr, the artist formerly known as The Rock may be poised to break out as a serious thespian for the first time.
Throughout his movie career, the musclebound star has had great success transferring the innate charisma and astonishing physique that made him one of the biggest pro-wrestling stars in history to the big screen. After an early Hollywood career in which he fumbled around for a while trying to figure out what he was best at (Is it action? Is it comedy? Is it kids’ fare?), he settled into a groove as one of the most bankable blockbuster stars in modern memory.
From the Fast and Furious movies to the Jumanji franchise, and from Skyscraper to Jungle Cruise to Black Adam, audiences, by and large, paid good money to see him match known expectations. In many ways, it often seemed like he was playing variations on his tried-and-tested screen formula: a little funny, a little badass, a little vulnerable, all delivered in a ludicrously jacked package that sweated profusely with some panting biceps for the camera. Lather, rinse, repeat, and hey presto, box office glory.
It was in this period that Johnson played his first dream role: the mythological Roman warrior Hercules. In 2014, he signed up to don a loincloth and a long, flowing wig as the legendary demigod, who leads the armies of Thrace into an enormous battle with the bloodthirsty warlord and sorcerer, Rhesus. For Johnson, who had grown up idolising a late ‘50s cinematic version of Hercules, playing his childhood hero was a total “dream come true”.
In a Reddit AMA, he gushed, “When I was five years old, I was in awe of the late, great Steve Reeves’ movie poster of him as Hercules. I saw it in a gym when I used to go hang with my dad while he and his buddies worked out. I remember then being captivated by that iconic look.”
Hercules wound up being a hit at the box office, and Johnson’s committed performance was singled out for praise. Fast-forward more than a decade, and after many more productions like Hercules, The Rock came to a startling realisation about his career: he was done making movies whose primary goal was raking in box office accolades only. He accepted that, for the longest time, he had been chasing green with roles like Hercules, Rampage, and Red One because it made him feel good, but it wasn’t the be-all end-all of a career.
Gradually, a desire to seek out a part that would require him to do more than smile at the camera and toss bad guys on their heads began to consume Johnson. As he told CBS News Sunday Morning, “For years, I’ve been dreaming and hoping. My desire was to play not only a dramatic role, but something that I felt like I could really sink my teeth into”. He wanted to get raw and intense, envisioning himself ripping his heart open onscreen by plumbing emotional depths the likes of which the Herculeses of this world simply aren’t expected to do.
He is a different man than he was 11 years ago, and he has different motivations with The Smashing Machine. For him, it was all about getting out of the box-office pleasing “comfort zone” he’d been mired in, and allowing his heart to overrule his head for once. “You realise that your heart is its own boss,” he said, at the risk of sounding like a self-help card with washboard abs, “And as strong as the mind is, you can only tell the heart so much before the heart says, ‘No, no, no’. And for a long time, my heart was saying, ‘Hey, there is more. You can do more.'”
