Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson recently shared how his Oscar snub motivated him as an actor.
Speaking with Esquire, Johnson said that not being nominated for The Smashing Machine changed him.
“It would have been incredible to get nominated for an Oscar,” he said in a recent interview. “I realized very quickly that it’s a rare thing to reach this pinnacle where you’re even having these conversations. And it’s exciting! It would have been amazing. I wish it happened. But it didn’t.”
“But in no uncertain terms did I ever think, ‘Oh, that doesn’t matter,’” he went on. “I always thought it mattered. And it has lit a fire in my spine… which is: Let’s go back to work.”
Johnson also spoke about the difference between his public self and private self.
Released in 2025, the film captures the raw, tumultuous life of legendary mixed martial arts (MMA) pioneer Mark Kerr. The film is set during the unfiltered, “no-holds-barred” era of the early UFC and PRIDE Fighting Championships.
Johnson delivers a deeply transformative, emotionally vulnerable performance. His portrayal explores Kerr’s meteoric rise to the top of the fighting world alongside his devastating battles with substance abuse and severe opioid addiction. . The film premiered at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival—where Safdie won the Silver Lion—and earned Johnson a Golden Globe nomination for his dramatic turnaround.
THE SMASHING MACHINE AT THE BOX OFFICE
Across the globe, The Smasing Machine grossed $20,409,324.
“Is it a lot of work to control what the world sees of you?,” he said. “When you go into public Dwayne mode, can you be as real as maybe you want to be all the time? We’re obviously not going to sit here for two hours and you tell me your deepest, darkest secrets—”
“Well, when it reaches about that line,” he continued. ‘That’s when it all comes out.”