In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast features in-depth conversations with today’s most noteworthy actors and creators. Join host and senior editor Vinnie Mancuso for this guide to living the creative life from those who are doing it every day.
With “The Smashing Machine,” Dwayne Johnson would like to introduce himself…again. Not as the electric superstar of the wrestling ring known as “The Rock” or the face of Hollywood blockbusters who spent most years as the highest-grossing actor alive. No, Benny Safdie’s biopic of MMA pioneer Mark Kerr strips Johnson down to a more vulnerable place, one we haven’t seen the once-untouchable A-lister occupy for decades.
The process has Johnson reminiscing on the last time he truly felt this exposed in front of a crowd: Corpus Christi, 1996. His debut professional wrestling match, the first (and last) time an audience met “Dwayne Johnson” as a complete unknown. “I’ll never forget it. When they did announce my name, I came out, and within 10 seconds I heard someone scream ‘You fucking suck!’ ” Johnson tells us on the latest episode of In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast. “You gotta try and stay cool in the pocket when you hear stuff like that.”
The rest, of course, is history; Johnson not only stayed cool, but went on to become a wrestling icon and the box office–breaking star of films like “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” and “Furious 7.” But over time, Johnson says, he got lost in his own success. He was performing, but he wasn’t acting.
“When I started making some of my early movies, the truth is, I was coming from a real place but I would always have the audience in mind. Are they going to like this? Is the audience in the theater going to respond to this?” Johnson says. “The transition from that [became], Well, do I like it? Am I good with this? Am I good and centered and anchored with what I’m doing and saying? Then it’s almost as if the world opened up. Because then there is no right or wrong; there’s just what you’re doing in the moment.”
Safdie’s portrait of Kerr’s turbulent life both in and out of the octagon presented Johnson with that transition point. It offered an opportunity to show a rawer side of his screen presence, one without the safety net of a high-budget sheen. “I had this strong desire, and I know this may sound crazy, to be uncomfortable,” Johnson says.
“Because these other films that I’ve made, the big ones, they don’t make me uncomfortable,” he continues. “I’m excited. They’re fun. But they don’t make me uncomfortable. And I’ve reached that point in my life where I’d like to be uncomfortable. You brought up Corpus Christi, 1996. That’s uncomfortable. I like that. I missed that, and I wanted to go back to that.”
On this episode, Johnson candidly opens up about his career evolution, the most important lessons he’s learned about navigating the industry, and much more. Listen and subscribe to hear the full conversation:
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