“You Gotta Do This Movie”: Emily Blunt Urged Dwayne Johnson to Take On a Role That Could Finally Earn Him the Respect of Fans
- Filmmaker Benny Safdie told Emily Blunt that he was going to work with Dwayne Johnson on a movie before COVID-19.
- Blunt recently revealed that she personally asked her Jungle Cruise co-star to take on this role.
- The Edge of Tomorrow star has nothing but nice things to say about Johnson's performance in the upcoming biopic.
Emily Blunt has done the world a favor and by that measure, she has also done her friend Dwayne Johnson a favor by convincing him to take on a role that he probably would not have done without her intervention. Suffice it to say, Blunt is a great friend to everyone she has ever worked with.
Fresh off the success of the Academy Award-winning biopic Oppenheimer, Blunt appeared in The Fall Guy alongside Barbie star Ryan Gosling. Unfortunately, the action romance-comedy did not work out how it was expected to. Next year, the actress will be appearing in yet another biopic, The Smashing Machine, for which she convinced her Jungle Cruise co-star Dwayne Johnson to play the lead role.
Emily Blunt Personally Asked Dwayne Johnson to Consider Starring in Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine
Emily Blunt made her professional acting debut at the age of 18 in the West End production of The Royal Family. Her theatrical debut came two decades ago in the independent romance drama My Summer of Love. The Devil Wears Prada, released in 2005, marked her international breakthrough.
In 2021, Blunt appeared in two movies, the horror film A Quiet Place II and the adventure film Jungle Cruise. In the latter of these, she starred alongside Dwayne Johnson, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, and Paul Giamatti. Naturally, she became good friends with Johnson while working on the film.
While she was filming Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, her co-star Benny Safdie, an acclaimed filmmaker, asked her if she was friends with Johnson and informed her that they were going to work together on a movie before COVID-19 hit. In a recent interview with Deadline, she recalled:
Then he [Benny Safdie] said, “Did he ever mention this movie Smashing Machine?” Benny sent me the documentary, and then I called Dwayne and was like, “You got to do this movie. This is unbelievable, and you have to work on it.”
Luckily, the Red Notice actor listened to her and he is now going to star as the legendary former wrestler and MMA fighter Mark Kerr in the biographical sports film. Blunt plays the role of his wife, Dawn in the movie.
Emily Blunt Is All Praise About Dwayne Johnson’s Performance in The Smashing Machine
While speaking at the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, Emily Blunt opened up about working in The Smashing Machine and praised Johnson’s performance in the A24 biopic. To play Kerr, Johnson had to wear prosthetics and transform his body, something he has rarely done in previous roles.
The Edge of Tomorrow star believes this is the first time Johnson could truly “disappear” for a part (via Variety).
Dwayne is someone who, as you know – not only because of his colossal size, but just who he is – has never really been allowed to disappear, and he is unrecognizable in this. And it’s an incredibly intense film – yes, centered around the life of this real-life MMA fighter Mark Kerr – all of his struggles with addictions, his relationships. It was, again, an incredibly immersive, very intense, very emotional experience to do it, and he is extraordinary in it.
Blunt said that she loved Johnson and enjoyed working with the Jungle Cruise star. She also stated that they knew they wanted to work together again, though they did not expect it to be on such an intense film. She is also very eager for fans to see the movie.
The Smashing Machine will be released in 2025.
