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

Leo Barraclough

5 December 2024 at 7:58 am·3-min read

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.”

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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. She said was still terrified when acting.

Blunt said: “I’m still learning. I have not filled up my cup yet. I still feel absolutely terrified before I start a film. I love that feeling now. I used to be very scared of it, but I don’t mind the terror.”

Blunt was Oscar nominated for Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” this year. She won a Screen Actors Guild award in 2019 for husband John Krasinski’s sci-fi horror “A Quiet Place.”

Blunt broke through in 2004 with romantic drama “My Summer of Love,” when she was nominated for most promising newcomer at the British Independent Film Award.

She followed that with David Frankel’s 2007 comedy “The Devil Wears Prada,” for which she picked up a BAFTA nomination. Blunt is set to reprise her role as Emily Charlton in Frankel’s “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” alongside Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Stanley Tucci, who were all in the first film.

She was also BAFTA nominated 10 years later for thriller “The Girl on the Train.”

Blunt is slated to appear in Steven Spielberg‘s yet-to-be-titled film for Universal Pictures, alongside Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo and Eve Hewson.

Recent starring roles for Blunt include David Leitch’s action-comedy “The Fall Guy” alongside Ryan Gosling.

The fourth edition of the Red Sea Film Festival runs from Dec. 5 to 14. Other honorees at the festival include Viola Davis and Aamir Khan.

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