ExclusiveDwayne Johnson Stars as MMA Pioneer in 'The Smashing Machine'

Former wrestling champion and Hollywood star Dwayne Johnson takes on one of his most demanding roles yet, portraying real-life mixed martial arts pioneer Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine. At the movie premiere on September 29th in Beverly Hills, California, Kerr said that the story is about the universal challenges of living. It's not really about mixed martial arts, it's about the human condition of just living life and some of the experiences you go through, good, bad, and different. And when it was put to me that way, it made more sense of like, okay, I understand why you want to make it. And thank you to everyone for allowing me to be here today. You have been extremely understanding to me, dealing with my personal struggles. Took a lot of work, I know that, because my son saw it and he called me and said, Dad, he's got your voice, he's got your speech pattern, he's got your mannerisms, he's got your walk. So I knew it took a lot of work to get to that part. The movie traces Kerr's rise in the brutal early days of the UFC and Japan's MMA scene, but it also reveals the heavy cost, his battle with painkillers, the strain of a turbulent romance with girlfriend Dawn and the crushing pressure to remain undefeated. But what we can all relate to is pressure and the pressure to deliver, pressure to raise our kids, pay our bills, pressure in our marriages. And we can relate to what happens when we don't deal with pressure well, like Mark. And he lost. He was the greatest fighter on the planet, undefeated, and then he lost. He overdosed twice. He's lucky to be alive. He was on death's doorstep twice. And so he is a shining example these days of what happens when you have faith, faith that things are going to get better every day.