Emily Blunt Talks About Reuniting With Dwayne Johnson in ‘Smashing Machine’: ‘He Is Unrecognizable in This Film’

variety.com:

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor British actor Emily Blunt, who is being honored Thursday at the opening ceremony of the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, told an audience earlier in the day about Benny Safdie’s MMA fighting drama “The Smashing Machine,” in which she stars alongside Dwayne Johnson.

During a public interview, which runs as part of the festival’s “In Conversation With” strand, she said: “It’s an incredibly intense film.” She said Johnson, with whom she starred with in “Jungle Cruise,” is “unrecognizable” in “The Smashing Machine.” She said: “Dwayne is someone who, as you know – not only because of his colossal size, but just who he is – has never really been allowed to disappear, and he is unrecognizable in this. “And it’s an incredibly intense film – yes, centered around the life of this real life MMA fighter Mark Kerr – all of his struggles with addictions, his relationships.

It was, again, an incredibly immersive, very intense, very emotional experience to do it.” Talking about Johnson, she said: “I love him so much, and we had the best time on ‘Jungle Cruise.’ We knew we wanted to do something else together.

I don’t think either of us knew it would be a departure like ‘The Smashing Machine,’ which I can’t wait for people to see.” She described Safdie as a “very cool, aesthetic, exciting visual director.” Earlier she was asked about how she felt when she first started acting and how she learned by playing roles, not at acting school.