These days, Dana White isn’t typically a fan of fight movies, but “The Smashing Machine” is a different story.
The UFC CEO had plenty of praise to offer actors Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, and director Benny Safdie for bringing Mark Kerr’s story to the silver screen.
“So, ‘The Rock’ flew out to Vegas and showed it to me first, and it’s unbelievable,” White told Mario Lopez on ‘Access Hollywood.’ “Now, what happens is a lot of times these guys that make fight movies want me to see the fight movies. And they come and they screen them for me, and I don’t like ’em. There’s nothing worse than sitting there with a guy who wrote, produced, and directed this movie and going, ‘So, what do you think?'”
As the most prominent promoter in MMA, White’s perspective on how the sport is portrayed on screen is going to be very different from that of a casual fan of the sport. As such, most of the time, they miss the mark for him. However, he believes there should be Oscar nominations for this film.
“I grew up on the ‘Rocky’ films, ‘Raging Bull’ and those type of movies which I loved young,” White said. “Now I’m so in it, I see these movies and I think they’re ridiculous, because I’m too (immersed). There’s a scene in there with (Johnson) and Emily Blunt, and I think they should both win an Oscar based off this one scene.”
The film primarily follows Kerr’s journey through PRIDE FC, giving the viewer a real look at what it was like for him to navigate his fighting career, personal relationships, and addiction. Johnson told MMA Junkie his goal was to create a film for MMA fans with a deeper understanding of the sport. If it struck a chord with White in that manner, Johnson may have nailed it.
“The movie is incredible, I’m happy for him,” White said about Johnson. “He’s finally gonna get the credit for his acting skills – and people that they put in the movie, that I thought was pretty brave, because they don’t have a lot of acting experience, they killed it too. Everybody in this movie does a great job. And believe me when I tell you, I’m not here to sell ‘The Smashing Machine.’ You know, I tell you straight up I don’t like a lot of the fight movies.
“This is a great movie and everybody involved, including the director, who is obviously getting a ton of shine and buzz off this movie, but he also directed the Adam Sandler movie that many people thought should have won an Oscar too.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Dana White doesn’t like MMA films, but praises ‘The Smashing Machine’
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