The Rock Suffered Legitimate Concussion While Filming The Smashing Machine

The Rock was incredibly dedicated to ensuring that the Smashing Machine would do justice to Mark Kerr’s career in the UFC. However, that didn’t always give the best results as the Rock ended up suffering a concussion while filming the movie.

While speaking to Jimmy Fallon, The Rock explained that while filming The Smashing Machine, director Benny Safdie insisted on making everything look as real as possible, even avoiding stunt doubles.

For The Rock, that meant taking real hits in fight scenes. To prepare, he put on 30 pounds of muscle and went through a three-month training camp with MMA fighters and coaches to fully embody Mark Kerr.

“Yes. So, Benny Safdie had this motto before we started shooting, which was, ‘As real as it gets. Let’s make it as real as it gets.’ And then he said to me, ‘I would love, in these fighting scenes, to never cut away from you. And I would like to not use your stunt double.’

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Well, I know what that means—that means I’m getting my ass kicked. And I said, ‘Absolutely. Let’s do it.’ Aside from putting on the 30 pounds of Mark Kerr muscle, I went through a three-month training camp with MMA fighters and coaches because I really had to look the part.”

One major scene recreated Kerr’s real fight in Japan against Kazuyuki Fujita, where Kerr was on all fours taking strikes in front of 30,000 fans. Safdie wanted the film to capture that exact moment without faking it. The Rock told his opponent in the scene to hit him for real but the fighter refused at first. Eventually, Safdie convinced him to go through with it for authenticity.

So the Rock took repeated shots during filming and ended up with a legitimate concussion. Despite the risk he believed it was necessary, saying that if you’re going to make an MMA movie, you have to commit fully and play the part all the way.

“There’s a scene at the end, and this happened in real life. Mark Kerr is in Japan, fighting in front of 30,000 people against Fujita. Mark is on all fours, Fujita is wailing away on him, and he’s not moving. But he’s not knocked out—he’s just taking every hit. And I asked Benny, ‘Are we going to shoot the scene like that?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ So I told the fighter I was working with, ‘Hey brother, I know it sounds crazy, but you’ve got to hit me. You have to hit me.’ And he was a Japanese fighter, very respectful.

He said, ‘No, no, I will not hit you.’ He refused. Finally, I said, ‘Please, we have one shot at this. You must hit me.’ Benny came over and said, ‘You must hit him. I know you respect DJ, but you respect the real fight with Mark Kerr in Japan. Keep our integrity and whale away.’ So in the movie, you’ll see him rocking me over and over. After that fight, you see me looking loopy—that’s because I had a concussion. But that’s the thing, if you’re going to make an MMA movie, you’ve got to go all the way. And that’s what we did. You’ve got to play the part.”

The Rock’s dedication did pay off as the movie received a lot of critical acclaim ahead of its release on October 3. Nonetheless, the Rock showed how serious he was about making the movie real by pushing himself to honor Mark Kerr’s MMA career. He chose realism over comfort, giving one of the most honest performances of his career, even though it came at a physical cost.

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