<\/p>\n
Ryan Bader makes his acting debut in The Smashing Machine<\/a>, but he says working with stars like The Rock took away a lot of the pressure he felt on set.<\/p>\n Bader spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard ahead of the film\u2019s nationwide opening on October 3. Bader, a mixed martial arts star who has competed for UFC and Bellator, plays UFC legend Mark Coleman in the film. His role as Coleman sees him spend much of the film alongside The Rock\u2019s Mark Kerr, and Bader praised the relationship they built on the set.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was great. This was my first acting gig ever, right? And then I get thrown in with two of the biggest movie stars in the world, with Emily Blunt and The Rock<\/a>\u2014DJ. One thing I noticed was when he came on set, he was Mark Kerr, with the prosthetics, the clothes, everything. That helped alleviate some of the pressure for me being on set for the first time.<\/p>\n \u201cI was observing a lot\u2014watching him and Emily and their process, how they prepare, what they do before scenes. That helped me a lot,\u201d Bader said. \u201cHe was great to me. There were a few times where we\u2019d play off each other. If I slipped up, he\u2019d pick it up, and vice versa. We had a good working relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n The Smashing Machine is based on the 2022 documentary that profiled a turbulent period in Mark Kerr\u2019s life. Just like the documentary, the new movie portrays the good and the bad. As Bader pointed out, the documentary isn\u2019t a typical happy-ending sports story, and the movie is a raw and gritty version of that.<\/p>\n The Rock told Variety<\/a> that director Benny Safdie didn\u2019t want to use his stunt double for the fight scenes, opting to shoot it without cuts in a cin\u00e9ma v\u00e9rit\u00e9 style. Bader says in contrast, he actually had to learn how to lighten up on some fight sequences. Bader started two weeks early just to practice with the stunt coordinator, but said he and some of the fighters who played Coleman\u2019s opponents in the movie had an \u201cagreement\u201d to make it look as real as possible.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, I have the MMA background, but I had to relearn from the ground up. You can\u2019t really hit these guys. We did two straight weeks before filming anything,\u201d Bader said. \u201cThe stunt coordinator was awesome. They told us some MMA fighters are really good at this, and some aren\u2019t. The ones who are good can put their ego aside and listen. That was me\u2014I wanted to make it look real, but I understood the process.<\/p>\n \u201cI also worked with a few fighters who played Coleman\u2019s opponents. We made a pact: \u2018Hey, you can give me a little bit to make it look real.\u2019 Some of those punches on the ground? I was really giving it to them a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Mark Kerr is also featured in the film and has participated in a lot of the marketing of the project. Bader says Kerr deserves the spotlight now and hopes he is enjoying it.<\/p>\n The Smashing Machine is Mark Kerr\u2019s story, but it\u2019s also a way to show how much the sport of mixed martial arts has evolved. Bader hopes that the MMA community is proud of the movie, but also hopes it serves as a message of inspiration for those who need it.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope it helps people going through addiction or tough relationships. There is light at the end of the tunnel. If you take the steps, you can get out,\u201d he noted. \u201cLook at Kerr\u2014he\u2019s sober seven years now. He never would\u2019ve thought The Rock would play him in a movie 20-plus years later. You never know what\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s raw and gritty, not just another sports movie. People need to remember it\u2019s a true story, based very closely on the documentary.\u201d<\/p>\n Read More: WWE Hall Of Famer Believes WrestleMania Is Set To Undergo A Major Change<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post The Smashing Machine: Ryan Bader On Working With The Rock, Making Fights Look Real<\/a> appeared first on Wrestlezone<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ryan Bader makes his acting debut in The Smashing Machine, but he says working with stars like The Rock took away a lot of the pressure he felt on set. Bader spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard ahead of the film\u2019s nationwide opening on October 3. Bader, a mixed martial arts star who has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2060679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[384205,360077,344655,384204,360534],"class_list":["post-2060678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-bill-pritchard","tag-mark-coleman","tag-mark-kerr","tag-ryan-bader","tag-smashing-machine"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Ryan-Bader-On-Working-With-The-Rock-Making-Fights-Look.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2060678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2060680,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060678\/revisions\/2060680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2060679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2060678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2060678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2060678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Ryan Bader on re-learning to fight on film<\/h2>\n
Ryan Bader highlights what he hopes viewers take away from The Smashing Machine<\/h2>\n