A two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion, World Vale Tudo Championship tournament winner, and a PRIDE FC competitor, Mark Kerr, a former wrestler, is one of the greatest mixed martial artists to ever emerge from the sport.
Following his coverage as a subject in the documentary The Smashing Machine, which detailed his fighting career, director Benny Safdie adapted the documentary and created a feature of the same name, detailing specific years of Mark’s life, tracking both his personal and professional struggles, with Dwayne Johnson turning in a transformative performance as Kerr; the film itself winning the Silver Lion at this year’s Venice International Film Festival.
As the film arrives in theatres across the globe (you can read our review here), our Peter Gray spoke to both Kerr and another mixed martial artist, Bas Rutten, who appears in the film as himself, on the red carpet ahead of the North American premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, touching on what they learnt about themselves through the filmic process.
When you watched Dwayne Johnson become you – was there a moment or gesture that felt most haunting? Like you were looking at yourself across time?
Mark Kerr: You know, a lot of the interaction with Dwayne, a lot of it was in the gestures. It was just scary. He paid so much attention to these little details in my movement. My gate. My walk. My speech patten. Oh my gosh, creepy isn’t the right word, because it’s humbling. It’s humbling. It wasn’t one of those things where I was thinking that I had a particular way of talking. You ever listen to your voice on a recorder? That’s what it was. Like, “That’s how I sound? That’s my speech pattern? That’s my dialogue?” Oh my gosh, man, it was unreal.
Fighting, at its purest, is two people in a cage searching for truth with their bodies. After all the years, all the battles, what truth did fighting reveal to you about who you are?
Bas Rutten: For me, even when you think you want to quit…don’t quit. I had a moment, and I was talking about this, where I wanted to stop because I was very sick. I was travelling and I didn’t sleep. I came from Holland to Japan, and I was throwing up. My manager had to carry my stuff, and then in the fight (my opponent) had me in an armbar. I wanted to tap. I was ready to tap. And then I heard the audience chanting for him, and my ego took over. I got out of the armbar, (but) I really wanted to stop. I thought I had nothing in me. Then, 30 seconds later, I knocked him out. And that’s when I told myself, I will never listen to that crazy voice anymore. That will never happen.
So, I think once you experience things like that….you know, fighting is mental, right? In order to get out of bed, to train, you have to have your mind saying yes. If you can accomplish that, you can probably do anything else in life. Even when you’re completely down, there’s always a way out. You just got to keep going.
The Smashing Machine is screening in Australian theatres from October 2nd, 2025, before opening in the United States on October 3rd.
