UFC legend Bas Rutten played himself in the recent Dwayne Johnson vehicle The Smashing Machine — a rather unique set of circumstances, since the movie is not a documentary.
In other words, Rutten had scripted lines, but was playing a younger version of himself. Mind you, director Benny Safdie didn’t require Rutten to stick to the script. Rather, he gave the retired fighter a massive amount of leeway to make the role his own. So while Rutten did get a script and lines, he told Cageside Press recently, “those are just for your guidelines,” the director informed him. “I want you to do what you do, because it’s you! Why would I change it?”
“I was completely free from all dialogue,” Rutten noted.
The movie focuses on UFC and PRIDE legend Mark Kerr, and has brought about a lot of positive chatter for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who took himself outside his comfort zone for the project.
The experience overall, Rutten told us, “was awesome. I played myself, so I had to go back 25 years to the guy I was at the time, which was just a little more energetic. But for the rest, I’ve been teaching, doing everything.”
“Dwayne was so amazing at being Kerr, for me it was literally, I was just teaching Kerr again in the gym. Because the whole set, everything was so nice and relaxed. The way Benny Safdie works is really amazing, he keeps everybody nice and calm.”
Rutten, and former Bellator double-champ Ryan Bader, join Johnson and Emily Blunt in the film. Rutten noted that Johnson’s transformation gave him goosebumps. “This is crazy. he had the cauliflower ear, he was Kerr. And the way he was speaking as well. So I think he jumped right away into it. Right from the first time we met, I only saw him as Kerr.”
Watch our full interview with The Smashing Machine’s Bas Rutten above.
