Key Points

The biopic charts the life of UFC legend Mark Kerr, whose meteoric rise in the late 1990s was followed by personal struggles, including painkiller addiction and two overdoses, before he staged a comeback.

"Fighting just happened to be what he did, and he was awesome at it," Johnson told reporters, emphasising the universal struggles Kerr faced with pressure, pain, and addiction. "At one point, he was the greatest fighter on the planet, and then he lost. And he had a hard time reconciling with that loss. And he overdosed twice; he's lucky to be alive, and I'm so happy that he is alive," as quoted by Deadline.

Co-star Emily Blunt, who portrays Kerr's then-girlfriend Dawn Staples-Kerr, shared her gratitude for having the real Staples-Kerr available to provide insight. "I had never had that opportunity to play someone who's with us," she said. "You know, I've played people who are not with us anymore, so to get to talk to her, absorb her, hear the entirety of her life story, from her childhood--and god bless her, she was so indulgent of my incredibly intrusive questions."

Writer-director Benny Safdie, who began developing the script with Johnson in 2023, explained what attracted him to the MMA fighter's story, which was also told in the 2002 HBO documentary of the same name.

"Mark is a unique person, in that he can go in the ring and beat the crap out of somebody, and in his words, 'take their will away from them,'" he explained. "But he can come out and then wax poetic about why he did it. And he could talk about his feelings and emotions in a way that's really almost like a psychoanalyst, and I thought, this is a really unique, special individual," as per Deadline.

Safdie said. "I felt like I could learn something by going through this story and feeling these feelings for myself. And if I did that for an audience, I felt it would be really awesome for them to experience it."

Kerr himself praised the cast and Safdie for authentically capturing his story. "With DJ, he was just a sponge, soaking in everything. And Emily, I call her an 'emotional detective' because she digs for these nuggets and pulls them out," he said.

Kerr and his ex-wife reunited on the red carpet alongside their on-screen counterparts, celebrating the Los Angeles premiere of The Smashing Machine, now showing in theatres, reported Deadline.

- ANI