Dwayne Johnson has signalled his intentions to work on more dramatic films, in a move away from the action blockbusters that made him famous.
The Hollywood star and former professional wrestler has been announced as the lead in the upcoming biopic The Smashing Machine, which will tell the story of the MMA fighter and UFC Heavyweight Champion Mark Kerr.
The film, an A24 production, is set to be written and directed by Benny Safdie, one half of the Safdie Brothers, who made films including Uncut Gems and Good Time.
Speaking to Variety about the film and his move to more serious acting, Johnson said: “I’m at a point in my career where I want to push myself in ways that I’ve not pushed myself in the past. I’m at a point in my career where I want to make films that matter, that explore a humanity and explore struggle [and] pain.”
“I want to be clear not to say that this is an abandonment of big, four-quadrant movies,” he continued. “I love making them, and there is tremendous value and importance in [them]… but there’s a time and a place for them.”
“I’m at this point in my career where I want more. And I don’t mean I want more box office. I mean I want more humanity. And that is why Benny Safdie is the perfect, collaborative, hungry partner for me.”
It emerged this week that the Safdie Brothers, Benny and Josh, had separated. Benny was quoted as saying the split had been “amicable”.
“It’s a natural progression of what we each want to explore. I will direct on my own, and I will explore things that I want to explore. I want that freedom right now in my life,” Benny Safdie explained.
Last November, Johnson revealed that he had been approached several times by multiple political parties to run for US president.
“I’ll share this little bit with you: at the end of the year in 2022, I got a visit from the parties asking me if I was going to run, and if I could run,” he said.
“They brought up their own deep-dive research that would prove that should I ever go down that road [I’d be a real contender]. It was all very surreal because that’s never been my goal. My goal has never been to be in politics. As a matter of fact, there’s a lot about politics that I hate.”
Johnson has in the past stated to Variety that a 2024 presidential campaign was “a realistic consideration”.
Elsewhere, Johnson recently asked a Paris museum for the skin colour of his waxwork model to be updated, following mockery online.