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Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson burst into tears on Tuesday night as his film The Smashing Machine received a 15-minute standing ovation at Venice Film Festival.
The former WWE star, 53, has even been at the centre of Oscars buzz for his new role, which sees him depict former amateur wrestler and MMA fighter Mark Kerr in the biographical movie.
He stars opposite Emily Blunt in the film, who plays Mark’s girlfriend Dawn Staples.
During the ovation – one of the longest at Venice this year – the film’s director Benny Safdie embraced the leading actors and also burst into tears of joy at the reception.
The new role marks a move away from Dwayne’s typical action films.
Dwayne – crowned Favorite Male Buttkicker at the 2013 Kids Choice Awards – has now expressed a desire to ‘be taken seriously’ after being ‘pigeonholed’ with his roles.
He began his acting career on television while wrestling and during the Venice screening one fan noted his career roots as he shouted: ‘Can you smell what the Rock is cooking?!’ – prompting laughter from the WWE star.
The Rock has appeared in hit big budget movies such as Jumanji, Moana and The Fast and the Furious, but is now aiming for something bigger than the box office – and hopes to get an Oscar with The Smashing Machine.
An online campaign has been kickstarted to see this dream come to fruition, with fans tweeting: ‘The upcoming Rock campaign is gonna’ give us so much meme material and clips. Even if he misses at Oscar I can see him getting Globes/CCA/SAG, which means he could be around for a while. Hopefully this means he’ll continue to do more serious roles.’
‘We’re living in a time where Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson could receive an Oscar nomination this winter. Anything is possible, don’t stop chasing that dream kids.’;
”’And the Oscar for best actor and performancein a film goes to.. Dwayne The Rock Johnson”’
The Smashing Machine, by super-indie A24, tells the story of the MMA star Mark, and his struggles with substance abuse and domestic dramas, as well as his sporting journey at a point when the wrestling phenomenon had yet to become a big cultural noise.
Speaking in Venice, Dwayne shared: ‘When you’re in Hollywood — as we all know, it can become about box office.
‘And you chase the box office, and the box office can be very loud and it can become very resounding and it can push you into a category and into a corner…
Dwayne continued: ”This is your lane and this is what you do and this is what Hollywood wants you to do.
‘I understood that, and I did those movies, and it was fun. And some of them did really well. It’s not about proving something to Hollywood as much as it is proving something to me.
‘A few years ago I started to ask myself, am I living my dream or am I living other peoples dreams.’
‘You come to that recognition and I think you can either fall in line – Well, it’s status quo, things are good, I don’t want to rock the boat..
‘Or go, I want to live my dreams now and do what I wanna do and tap into the stuff that I want to tap into and have a place finally to put all this stuff that I’ve experienced in the past that I’ve shied away from.
‘I’ve been scared to go deep and intense and raw until now, until I had this opportunity.’
The son of a professional wrestler, Dwayne said that he was not inspired by his own father in his new film.
‘My dad was homeless at 13, so his capability for love was very limited. That’s the man that raised me – tough love,’ he said.
The real Mark Kerr was in the audience at the press conference on Monday and Dwayne asked him to stand up and take the applause of the audience.
Dwayne said: ‘Mark’s life has changed our lives and certainly changed my life as well. As we found with the film, it’s not about the wins or the losses, it’s also a film about what happens when winning becomes the enemy.’
Mark was a two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion, World Vale Tudo Championship tournament winner, a Pride FC heavyweight champion, 1992 NCAA national wrestling champion, 1994 National Freestyle Champion, and 4x ADCC World Submission Champion.
In 2003, he was the subject of an HBO documentary titled The Smashing Machine, which detailed his MMA career fighting in Vale Tudo, the UFC, and Pride.
In order to portray Mark in the film, Dwayne shed a whopping 60lbs.
This has led to wide speculation among fans as to whether he had jumped on the celebrity trend of using fat jabs, such as Ozempic and Mounjaro.
Dwayne previously admitted that when he made his break into Hollywood in the mid-2000s he was told to lose weight in order to be taken seriously as an actor, but in recent years he has looked more ripped than ever.
‘This transformation was something I was really hungry to do,’ Dwayne told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday during the Venice Film Festival.
‘I had been very fortunate to have the career that I’ve had over the years and to make the films that I’ve made, but there was just a voice inside of me, a little voice that said, “Well, what if I could do more — I want to do more and what does that look like?”‘
