Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has acknowledged that he felt like Mark Kerr in his most vulnerable performance to date after giving his most recent one.
Former WWE star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has admitted that he’s “not a big therapy guy”, despite suffering from several severe bouts of depression. The 53-year-old actor found the pressure of making Hollywood blockbusters particularly difficult to deal with.
But ahead of his upcoming biopic, the wrestler has opened up about the similarities between him and his troubled character Mark Kerr. The Smashing Machine delves into the life of former wrestler and MMA fighter Kerr, who battled addiction problems and experienced multiple overdoses.
The critically acclaimed movie sees Johnson portray Kerr, whose promising career was derailed by his opioid addiction. Kerr, 56, is now in recovery and on a mission to inspire others to fight their demons and free themselves from addiction.
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Johnson himself inducted him in the UFC Hall of Fame in 2025 with a moving performance. However, the actor, who admits he’s always preferred to “bottle s*** up,” discovered that playing the lead character in the new film had old wounds.
Speaking to the Guardian, Johnson revealed: “I’m not a big therapy guy. I’ve had some great conversations with therapists but it’s not the thing I run to. I bottle s*** up inside me, like a lot of guys, which I recognise is not the healthiest thing to do.
Then I said, “Wait, I can still do what I love to do, acting. What if, however, it contains something deeper and more meaningful for me?
Johnson, the wrestler who played Kerr, admitted that he had been wanting to do something more brutal for a while and that the two wrestlers shared traits. He acknowledged that he felt free from the pressure of the box office and that he felt “comfortable with the challenge of having to live up to an image”.
The Smashing Machine was “so liberating” despite his passion for “making the Jumanjis and Moanas”. Johnson was pleased that the “process” was being prioritized over the “money” issue.
Johnson, a Fast & Furious star, previously discussed his mental health issues on The Pivot Podcast. He had his first encounter with depression when he left school, revealing: “At that time… I simply knew I didn’t want to be there because I didn’t know what depression was or what mental health was.
Speaking to former NFL stars Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder, he shared aspects of his mental-health journey and the “three bouts of depression” he has faced. He experienced it again when he divorced his first wife, Dany Garcia in 2008, and then again in 2017.
He explained to the hosts, “Fortunately at that time, I had some friends on whom to lean on and say, “Hey, I’m feeling a little wobbly now, have a little struggle happening, I’m seeing a little gray and not the blue.”
His mother also had her own experiences with depression. In a 2019 interview with the Express, he revealed he had saved his mum from a suicide attempt as she stepped onto a freeway in Nashville when he was just 15.
He responded, “I grabbed her and placed her back on the side of the road that was gravel.” We both recovered, but we must always make an effort to watch other people when they are hurt. We must remind them that they are not the only ones who have to face it.
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