Dwayne Johnson, the undisputed box office king and one of the most popular blockbuster stars of the past 15 years, has gotten very serious all of a sudden.
He’s now headlining an A24 biopic directed by an indie darling, a far cry from the days of things being fast and/or furious.
In The Smashing Machine, Johnson (never “The Rock” now) plays Mark Kerr, one of the pioneering figures in the modern MMA fighting scene. It’s a meaty role, easily the most interesting one Johnson has had in years, and he knew it—having spent the last weeks exhaustively campaigning, junketing, and, in at least one case, getting weepy at a film festival in order to make sure he doesn’t throw away his shot at snagging his first Best Actor Oscar nomination.
The chances of that happening for The Smashing Machine seemed to hit the mat this weekend, after what industry pundits considered a disastrous opening tally at the box office. So far was the haul from expectations—and certainly from the studio’s hopes—that Johnson even threw himself somewhat of a pity party in an Instagram post on Monday.
Still, it’s been undeniable that Johnson really wants awards attention. He’s clearly parched for legitimate respect from Hollywood, having launched the thirstiest Oscar campaign of the season so far. Will that be enough to combat the opening-weekend disappointment?
The narrative, which frequently matters more than the performance itself, is still in Johnson’s favor.
So many of the film’s reviews, which are widely positive towards his performance, note how it is prime awards bait. It’s a biopic, one that required the actor to wear prosthetics and “transform” his appearance, and it’s a boxing-adjacent story, which the Academy has long had a soft spot for.
The Academy also loves it when blockbuster or comedic actors get serious, from Jamie Foxx in Ray to Tom Hanks in Philadelphia to Mo’Nique in Precious. The Smashing Machine is practically a full bingo card of Oscar bait, but the real work is off screen.
Nobody would have expected Johnson to half-a– his Oscar campaign. He’s making the rounds, dressed to the nines and speaking adoringly of the film and his work in it.
In a glowing and exceedingly long profile by The New York Times, Johnson talks about being “terrified” to try something new, of having to change his entire acting process to “become” Mark Kerr, and finding kinship with the man he’s playing. But the central hook is the line that forms the backbone of his awards narrative: that he spent years being typecast and now this is his opportunity to be a serious artist.
“A few years ago, Johnson found himself asking, frequently: Am I actually doing what I want? Or am I just doing what the people around me want?,” reads the Times profile.
“I just had this burning desire and voice that was saying, ‘What if there is more and what if I can?’ A lot of times, it’s harder for us — or at least for me — to know what you’re capable of when you’ve been pigeonholed into something,” he said at the film’s press conference at the Venice Film Festival.
“I wanted to not only challenge myself but to listen to my gut. To really rip myself open,” he told The Guardian. “Then I said: Wait, I can still do the thing I love, which is acting. But what if there’s something deeper and more meaningful in it for me?”
It’s a solid story to sell: the action star who’s taking things seriously and proving the critics wrong. But it’s also a weird line to push when you previously spent your career talking up your hyper-ambitious career plans and control over the box office.
If anyone helped to typecast Johnson into this marketable image of a muscled hero who never loses and always wears the same shirt, it was Johnson himself.
He’s a hyper-ambitious businessman whose entire brand is built on being a 24/7 hustler who is bigger, richer, and more successful than any of his peers (but inspirational to the masses about it.) So much of his own marketing around his films is rooted in his ceaseless drive to be the greatest. It’s an ambition so mighty that he spent years letting people believe he would run for President. Now, however, he’s trying to rein in his own grandstanding to sell himself as prestigious rather than commercial. It’s a sharp U-turn that doesn’t ring as authentic.
Johnson is very good in The Smashing Machine, a film that is solid but not great. There are moments where you see the seething resentment of Kerr’s bottled-up pain seep through in a too-tight smile or passive-aggressive comment, and Johnson nails those scenes.
It’s not a massive stretch for Johnson. This is still a very Rock role. That actually works in his favor because the meta elements make for a sturdier foundation than the actual plot of the movie. (It wants so hard to be an unconventional biopic, but frankly, it needed more of the genre’s tropes to flesh out some of its flabbier parts.) Every time Kerr takes a hit to the face or a knee to the chest, you feel it with a gut-rattling force and it makes you wonder what Johnson himself went through in his WWE days.
Oscar thirst can backfire. There’s still this sense among the industry that you have to “earn” your win after years of hard graft. (Or at least you do if you’re a man since women are more likely to win one as young ingenues before they’re told they’re too old for movies at the age of 35.)
Look at how Leonardo DiCaprio had to be nominated four times before he was deemed worthy of a win on his fifth. While the Academy does love to reward success, it’s easy to see how they may think that Johnson hasn’t done the time, so to speak. The movie also, as mentioned, had a rough commercial start, landing an opening weekend low for Johnson; at least, though, his Instagram post about it was a far cry from his accountant pedantry when Black Adam underperformed..
Do audiences not want this version of Johnson? And will that matter to awards voters, who don’t typically stray from the pack?
The awards season race has only just begun and players like Johnson will have much more to do: actors’ roundtables, further film festival appearances, screenings for Academy voters, and parties to attend. He’ll be rubbing shoulders with fellow Best Actor competitors like Brendan Fraser, Paul Mescal, Michael B. Jordan, Timothée Chalamet, Wagner Moura, and Leonardo DiCaprio. What Johnson has in his advantage is that ceaseless drive.
Nobody else this season will shake more hands, share more toasts, and RSVP to more events. The Academy wants its prospective nominees to put in the work and tends to frown upon those who reject the process. Johnson will never tell them that the Oscars are silly.
While The Smashing Machine’s reviews have grown more tepid with a wider release and its commercial performance has been disappointing, one is hesitant to write Dwayne Johnson off.
He’s the guy who went from being a wrestler to the biggest box office star of his era. Nobody will work harder for this chance. Frankly, that might be more interesting than the film itself. But the Oscars do love a show and it needn’t be on the big screen to make an impact on their ballots.
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