Dwayne Johnson becomes ‘Smashing Machine’ with Prosthetics, tattoos
The Rock had to go through whole prosthetics work for Benny Safdie’s sports biopic
Dwayne Johnson underwent a near-total physical transformation to portray legendary MMA fighter Mark Kerr in Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine.
Prosthetic makeup designer Kazu Hiro, known for The Darkest Hour and Maestro, faced the challenge of balancing realism with practicality.
“I sculpted two versions,” Hiro said. “One aimed to mimic Kerr exactly, the other more subtle. Subtlety won—fewer prosthetics, but multiple makeup stages to handle eye swelling, a broken nose, and a lost tooth.”
Johnson’s intense physicality and Kerr’s emotional complexity drove the process. Hiro studied the 2002 HBO documentary The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr to capture the fighter’s paradoxical nature.
“He was aggressive in the ring but soft-spoken, almost childlike,” Hiro explained.
Unlike Hiro’s previous work transforming Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill or Charlize Theron into Megyn Kelly, sweat and grueling fight sequences added an extra layer of difficulty.
Each bout required unique makeup adjustments and constant touch-ups.
“Dwayne worked tirelessly to match Kerr’s physique,” Hiro added. “Every fight scene had its own physical characteristics, and we had to adapt prosthetics, tattoos, and makeup to make it believable on camera.”
The Smashing Machine promises to showcase Johnson not only as an action star but as a fighter fully immersed in Kerr’s world.
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