(This story originally appeared on USA TODAY<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Minor spoiler alert! We’re discussing plot points from “The Smashing Machine” (in theaters now<\/a>), so be warned if you want to go in completely cold.<\/strong><\/p>\n With the new sports drama \u201cThe Smashing Machine<\/a>,\u201d director Benny Safdie and Hollywood megastar Dwayne Johnson want audiences to experience the world of a mixed martial arts fighter through their eyes.<\/p>\n For Mark Kerr, the Ultimate Fighting Championship pioneer played by Johnson, watching his life unfold on screen has been \u201ctherapeutic.\u201d He tears up recalling the 15-minute standing ovation at the movie’s Venice Film Festival premiere<\/a>. “Smashing Machine” follows Kerr in the late 1990s on his quest to be the greatest fighter in the world but also tackles his struggles with painkillers and volcanic relationship with girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt).<\/p>\n Join our Watch Party!: <\/strong>Sign up for USA TODAY’s movie and TV recommendations delivered right to your inbox<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cParts of me were just so hard on everybody around me, especially the addiction part,\u201d Kerr, 56, says in a video chat. \u201cAt the time, I didn’t understand how it just impacts every single person in my orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSmashing Machine\u201d follows Kerr\u2019s career in the late 1990s on a quest to be the greatest fighter in the world but also tackles his dependence on opioids and volcanic relationship with girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt). Safdie had \u201cdeep conversations\u201d with Kerr in crafting a narrative around the complicated balancing act of his emotional and physical selves.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what the movie\u2019s about, that struggle to come to peace with yourself, that struggle to become aware of who you are,\u201d Safdie says. And while he aims for it to be a \u201ctruthful representation,\u201d the director did change things from real life, \u201cputting people in rooms they weren’t, making things up and trying to glean things about what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cSmashing Machine\u201d himself discusses what\u2019s fact and what\u2019s fictionalized:<\/p>\n Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson, second from right) takes a picture with his opponent (Oleksandr Usyk, far right) after a match in “The Smashing Machine.”<\/p>\n In \u201cSmashing Machine,\u201d Mark transitions from freestyle wrestling to the fledgling days of extreme fighting in 1997 and goes on an undefeated streak. The matches are pretty violent, with nasty punches to the face and vicious knees to the head. After one win, Mark meets up with his opponent afterward but there\u2019s no ill will \u2212 instead, manly embraces happen and pictures are taken.<\/p>\n In real life, Kerr was also surprised by this in his early days. He had an \u201cabsolutely brutal\u201d contest with Brazilian MMA star Fabio Gurgel in his home country, \u201cto the point where I was trying to take his will to win and he just wouldn’t give it to me. I was frustrated and I put my thumb in his cuts and all this other stuff.\u201d The day after his victory, Gurgel\u2019s wife called Kerr and invited him over for lunch, and although Kerr worried he might get jumped, instead the two fighters had an enjoyable meal and chat. It was a \u201cpivotal\u201d moment, he says. \u201cIt set the tone for me of this is how you carry yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n In one of film\u2019s early moments showing Mark\u2019s softer side, he\u2019s in Japan shopping for a souvenir for Dawn and buys a gorgeous gold-leaf bowl (plus a scarf because she likes colorful things). Later on in the movie, during one of Mark and Dawn\u2019s domestic disputes, she hurls the bowl to the ground, leaving it in many metaphorical pieces.<\/p>\n In reality, it was an expensive silk robe rather than a bowl. Safdie wanted \u201cthat violent explosion,\u201d Kerr says, and it was \u201ca lot easier to break\u201d a bowl than to tear apart a robe, which is what actually happened. \u201cFor Dawn to hurt me, it was like, \u2018Yeah, OK. You got this for me and (now) it’s ripped up.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n ‘The Smashing Machine’ review: Dwayne Johnson, Benny Safdie make an elite MMA movie<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Director Benny Safdie (far left) goes over a particularly emotional scene with Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson on the set of “The Smashing Machine.”<\/p>\n \u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d depicts several fights between Mark and Dawn, some of them smaller \u2013\u00a0like using the wrong milk in his smoothie \u2013 but others quite harrowing. In the film\u2019s climactic tussle, the couple is having an increasingly volatile disagreement and she pulls out a handgun, tearfully holding it close to her head in the bathroom. Mark acts quickly to defuse the situation, and it ends with Mark holding her and both of them shattered emotionally.<\/p>\n That \u201cextremely powerful\u201d moment plays out on screen much like it did in real life. Kerr says Dawn \u201cdidn’t know anything about handguns\u201d and had never even shot one when she pulled a Glock 23 out of nightstand, and was unaware the gun didn\u2019t have a safety. The whole scenario shook him.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was a little girl that just needed to be loved and I had no clue how to love her. Like, no clue at all,\u201d he says. \u201cSo she was just crying and asking for it. Now we tried this way and that way, and it just was not the way that she needed to be loved or accepted.\u201d<\/p>\nFor real, are MMA fighters good pals even after pounding each other?<\/h2>\n
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Did the \u2019Smashing Machine\u2019 buy his girlfriend a Japanese vase that she smashed on purpose?<\/h2>\n
Did Mark Kerr\u2019s girlfriend really pull out a handgun during an argument?<\/h2>\n
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