Benny Safdie got down to create “The Smashing Machine,” and he decided that will outline the movie’s authenticity. Quite than have actors rehearse and carry out choreographed coaching sequences, the director allowed one thing uncommon to occur on set: actual teaching, captured reside on digicam.
Inside The Smashing Machine: Bas Rutten’s Palms-On Teaching for Dwayne Johnson
Bas Rutten, the UFC Corridor of Famer who educated Mark Kerr in actual life throughout the late Nineteen Nineties, seems within the film as himself. What viewers see on display is just not performing within the conventional sense. It’s Rutten truly educating Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson strategies, with cameras rolling to seize the real interplay between coach and pupil.
The approach came from conversations between Rutten and director Safdie. In keeping with Rutten in his interview with LowKick MMA’s Tim Wheaton, Safdie gave him freedom to work naturally:
“In fact, there was a script, however Benny stated, ‘Dude, it’s you.’ So, simply observe the rules, however make it your individual. Do what you’d do.”
Rutten then made a deliberate alternative that will form how the coaching scenes performed out. When the time got here to movie sequences exhibiting Kerr studying strategies, Rutten prompt they skip the rehearsal course of fully. The reasoning was easy: actual educating would look extra genuine than carried out educating.
“So if we wish to go over some strategies that I used to be going to show him, I stated, ‘Let’s not.’ And he goes, ‘Why not?’ I am going, ‘As a result of then I actually have to show you and you actually have to concentrate. I believe that’s going to come back over significantly better, you realize.’”
The end result was coaching footage that captured real moments of instruction and studying. Rutten defined the distinction it made:
“So all these scenes that you saw, you know, and we there were some more scenes that weren’t simply not used. But but if you if you you know, really teaching him and he’s really paying attention and I’m since I’ve been teaching my freaking life.”
For Rutten, who has spent decades as both a fighter and coach, the process felt natural. Much of the training he did on set and in real life with Mark Kerr can be learned with the program www.thefightingmachine.com, which incorporates tutorial movies and an app.
The authenticity prolonged past simply method instruction. Johnson’s transformation into Kerr was so full that Rutten discovered himself responding to the actor as if he have been truly teaching Kerr once more. In his interview with Tim Wheaton, Rutten described the eerie accuracy of Johnson’s portrayal:
“After which with the truth that DJ was he was Mark Kerr. I imply, he was simply it was him. The way in which he spoke, walked, laughed, smiled, cried. I imply, the mouth actions from him. I imply, he actually studied that man. So, for me, however I used to be simply I obtained goosebumps the primary time.”
The prosthetics, cauliflower ear, and mannerisms mixed with the precise coaching atmosphere created an expertise that transported Rutten again 25 years.
The movie itself covers a interval from 1997 to 2000, when Kerr was on the peak of his preventing profession. A two-time UFC Heavyweight Event Champion, Kerr gained each tournaments in 1997, together with one struggle that resulted in simply 17 seconds. His aggressive ground-and-pound type made him some of the feared fighters of his period.
During this period, Kerr fought in Japan’s Pride Fighting Championships, where he earned substantially more than in the UFC. It was during his time preparing for Pride 2000 that Kerr worked with Rutten to refine his striking and improve his overall game. That relationship forms part of the emotional core of “The Smashing Machine,” alongside Kerr’s struggles with painkiller addiction and his tumultuous relationship with girlfriend Dawn Staples.
The decision to film real training rather than staged sequences represents a commitment to authenticity that runs throughout Safdie’s approach to the project. The approach required significant preparation on Johnson’s part. He underwent months of MMA training before filming began, learning standup fighting, takedowns, and ground techniques specific to Kerr’s wrestling-based style.
The filming process included moments of real physical contact that blurred the line between performance and reality. Stunt coordinator Yoko Hamamura described being asked by Johnson to actually punch him in the face during fight sequences, delivering strikes at 65 to 70 percent power over multiple takes. Rutten himself encouraged these moments of real contact, understanding that authentic physicality would enhance the final product.
“The Smashing Machine” premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2025, where it won the Silver Lion. Despite critical acclaim and praise for Johnson’s performance.
In the end, Safdie’s decision to let Rutten teach Johnson for real rather than perform teaching created something rare in biographical sports films: genuine expertise transmitted on camera. What audiences see is not actors pretending to train, but a master coach doing what he has done throughout his career: teaching fighters how to become champions.
