Dwayne Johnson opens up about being ‘pigeon-holed’ in Hollywood blockbusters

Actor’s newest film, ‘The Smashing Machine’, premiered at Venice film festival on Monday

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson said he was “scared to go deep and intense and raw” until his role in The Smashing Machine because he felt he had been “pigeon-holed” into starring in blockbuster action movies.

Johnson, 53, plays UFC champion Mark Kerr in Benny Safdie’s wrestling biopic that premiered at the Venice film festival on Monday.

Emily Blunt plays Kerr’s then-wife Dawn Staples while Ryan Bader, Oleksandr Usyk and Bas Rutten are cast in supporting roles.

Speaking at a press conference for the film earlier in the same day, Johnson said he had wanted to break out of the blockbuster formula and try something different for a long time.

“I have, for a long time, wanted this. The three of us have talked for a very long time about, when you’re in Hollywood – as we all know, it had become about box office,” Johnson said, referring to co-star Blunt and director Safdie. “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. This is your lane and this is what you do and this is what Hollywood wants you to do.”

Benny Safdie, Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson arrive at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival (AFP via Getty)

Johnson, one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood, starred in big-budget productions like Jumanji, Red One, and the Fast and Furious series and acknowledged them as “fun”, adding that “some were really good and did well, and some not so good”.

Jumanji and the Fast and Furious films did very well both critically and commercially. While Red One fared poorly at the box office and with critics, it still went on to become one of the top streamed films of the year after its release.

“I had this burning desire and voice that was saying, ‘What if there is more and what if I can?’ A lot of times, it’s harder for us – or at least for me – to know what you are capable of when you’ve been pigeonholed into something,” he said. “Sometimes it takes people who you love and respect, like Emily and Benny, to say that you can.”

“I looked around a few years ago and I started to think, you know, am I living my dream or am I living other people’s dreams?” he continued.

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“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’d this opportunity.”

Dwayne Johnson was reportedly visibly emotional after the film’s premiere (A24)

Blunt, who previously worked with Johnson in the 2021 film Jungle Cruise, described the experience of watching him become Kerr as “spooky”.

“It was one of the most extraordinary things watching him disappear completely,” she said.

Johnson reportedly got visibly emotional after the film premiered to a 15-minute standing ovation. The actor’s performance is getting rave reviews and there is already talk of a best actor Oscar.

The Independent’s Geoffrey Macnab, in his four-star review of the film, described Johnson’s as a “performance of immense pathos, intensity and depth – one that looks bound to win him awards recognition”.

The Smashing Machine releases in theatres on 3 October.