Dwayne Johnson’s Emotional Message to Younger Self Amid Oscar Buzz (Exclusive)

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt are dishing on their new biographical drama “The Smashing Machine,” based on the story of MMA fighter Mark Kerr.

“Extra’s” Derek Hough spoke with Dwayne and Emily about their “effortless” chemistry and the Oscar buzz over the film.

It isn’t Dwayne and Emily’s first film together; they also worked on “Jungle Cruise.”

Emily recalled, “When we first met, we just had this sort of secret language and it was just effortless and I think that I was so taken aback when I met him on ‘Jungle Cruise,’ that purely from an acting level, I was really taken aback by how he was the antithesis of what I thought he would be as a person.”

Blunt went on, “I remember sitting that first week and I went, ‘You know what? I’m realizing I said that The Rock is the performance of a lifetime.’ Then I started to think because he’s so different from that character and I was like, ‘You built that character, you created that character. How did you do it? In what way?’ And we started to talk about The Rock as an acting performance and he was like, ‘No one’s ever spoken to me about The Rock.’ I truly was like, ‘Wait, how many more characters does he have lurking inside that enormous frame?’”

When Emily heard about “The Smashing Machine” from director Benny Safdie while they worked together on “Oppenheimer,” she instantly thought of Dwayne.

She gushed, “To see my friend completely just in full immersion mode was just beautiful.”

The film got a 15-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, which had Johnson tearing up!

He reflected, “I think of what the moment represented for all of us. We went into this and making this film for ourselves and to discover things about ourselves and without an attachment to an outcome, a reception, a reaction, you’d never know.”

Dwayne remembered that the audience “erupted” even before the credits rolled. He said, “That’s why when the lights came on, we were already emotional. I was already emotional because I was sitting next to Mark… and I felt his body shaking.”

Derek noted that the movie and Dwayne’s performance are getting Oscar buzz, asking what Johnson would say to the little boy growing up in Hawaii.

Trying not to get emotional, he said, “I would say, it’s gonna be alright. It’s gonna be okay.”

Dwayne remembered a tough time when he and his mom were evicted from their apartment in Hawaii.

“We came home to our little, we had an efficiency apartment. There was a notice there that says you’re, you gotta — the eviction notice. You have five days to get out. If not, the cops are gonna come escort you out. My mom was just there crying, and so that left an indelible mark, and I stuffed it deep down in here… So, to go from that to the career that I’ve been lucky enough to have, blessed with people like Emily, who I have this love, incredible support and bond and friendship… To go from that to today… like, that other kind of conversation, is…”

Emily and Dwayne also spoke about how the story was a “full weather system” as they explored Kerr’s approach to fighting, life, his great love with Dawn (played by Blunt), and the demons he dealt with.

She commented, “It was just exciting to make a movie about a character like that… It wasn’t just pent-up rage that he hardly knew what to do with, why is he that way in the ring and how does he kind of great white shark in the ring and then out of the ring, he’s just, you know, sweet and soft-spoken.”

While Kerr looked invincible, Johnson noted, “There was so much stuff that he was dealing with. Demons, addiction, he OD’d twice. He’s lucky to be alive.”

Dwayne also pointed out that they wanted to show the sacrifices that Kerr made, but also his inner circle, saying, “It’s the wives, it’s the girlfriends, it’s the kids, it’s the families, who sacrifice that too.”

Emily spoke with the real-life Dawn to prep for her role. She shared, “She was just a really exciting woman, not only for me to talk to and absorb, and she was so open with her story… and all the regrets, all the vulnerabilities… all the ways she behaved that she regrets, but all the ways that she knew she was right… And so it was really exciting to hear what happened behind closed doors because I think that there’s a tendency to sort of vilify the partner.”