Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been cast to play former MMA fighter Mark Kerr in the upcoming movie “The Smashing Machine” which tells the tale of a former heavyweight champion who became a severe drug addict. Having The Rock portray Kerr in the true story has given the former MMA star “goosebumps” as he’s taken on a big challenge acting in an alternative role.
The Rock is known for being the big, loveable tough guy in the majority of his movies which has made him a global celebrity and highly successful actor.
But he’s coming out of his comfort zone in the upcoming movie, which is expected to be released in 2025. Kerr had a difficult upbringing but found his purpose through fighting, although he almost killed himself in the process due to substance abuse.
The Rock actually met Kerr back in 1999 but reconnected with him after the movie was moving into the production stage. Both The Rock and Kerr have been very emotional about the process, and the former MMA fighter is honored.
In an interview with The Sun, Kerr revealed that The Rock told him ahead of filming: “This is the biggest honor of my life to do this role.” It was a major statement, but Kerr believed him and added: “It gives me goosebumps because when he says it you know he means it.”
The Rock further justified his decision to take on such a heavy role, adding: “I’m at a point in my career where I want to push myself in ways that I’ve not pushed myself in the past. I want to make films that matter, that explore humanity and explore struggle pain.”
Kerr dominated his opponents inside the cage, and although the movie will highlight his success after working out in the same gym as the Rock during the nineties, it’ll also tell the tale of how steroids, painkillers, and methadone nearly led to an early death.
The former fighter maintains that he had a good family life, but his father was an alcoholic and he was one of six children. Kerr still made it to college and studied at Syracuse University in New York State, where he won the US National Collegiate Athletic Association aged 24 for wrestling.
Kerr was on the path to success and had Olympic aspirations, and ended up training at the Foxcatcher wrestling center, but things quickly went downhill. The owner of the center, John Du Pont, was sent to prison after murdering Kerr’s friend. “In January 1996 my friend Dave Shultz was murdered by Du Pont, the owner of the facility who I had wrestled for,” Kerr said.
Later that same month, Kerr’s mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died later that year before an injury cost him his Olympic dreams. Kerr was desperate for money and turned to MMA as a quick solution, and he was a natural.
In 1997, Kerr won two UFC heavyweight titles in a row, but the sport was more brutal back then than it is now and his body was struggling to keep up. Rather than recovering in the conventional route, Kerr turned to steroids and drugs in an attempt to keep making money and put his body on the line.
“Instead of doing rehabilitation the shortcut for me was just take narcotics, steroids and take painkillers and train. I didn’t know what chemical dependency was to the point that if I didn’t consume on a daily basis I would get violently ill. Once I became a drug addict, which included taking opioids, I can’t go back and say, oh, I’m just going to use them casually – it doesn’t work like that.”
Eventually, the build-up of drugs in his system backfired, and the dangerous amounts he was taking almost killed him. “I really didn’t know what I was getting into and the real dangers of using performance-enhancing drugs,” Kerr added.
Heroin-substitute methadone almost cost him his life, as he said: “I had no idea how awful of a narcotic that is. It shut down my respiration and shut down my heart rate. You get to a point where you’re not taking in enough oxygen and your blood becomes like acid.”
In 1999, an overdose left Kerr gasping for air in hospital but he managed to recover, although he still didn’t retire for another 10 years. Kerr is now happy, healthy, and honored that The Rock will help bring his story to life.