Christopher Nolan praises Dwayne Johnson’s “incredible” ‘The Smashing Machine’ performance

Christopher Nolan has praised recent release The Smashing Machine, despite its box office failure.

Dwayne Johnson starred in Benny Safdie’s biopic of MMA fighter Mark Kerr, portraying his mental health and addiction struggles following the first loss of his career. Despite positive reviews, and a standing ovation at its Venice premiere, the film performed poorly at the box office. At the time of writing, it has made $12million (£9million) worldwide against a $50million (£37.2million) budget.

Nevertheless, during a conversation with Safdie on The Director’s Cut podcast, Nolan expressed his admiration of the film. “Congratulations on the movie” he said. “It’s a really remarkable and radical piece of work that will be understood more and more over time. I’m very proud to know you.”

He described Johnson as “heartbreaking” in the lead. “I think it’s an incredible performance” he said. “I don’t think you’ll see a better performance this year or most other years.” He also joked with Safdie about the director recruiting Emily Blunt for the film, after both were cast as actors in Nolan’s Oppenheimer.

“I heard a rumour that when you were supposed to be learning your lines on my set, you were actually canvassing people to be in your movie. I wasn’t aware of that at the time, but it seems to have worked out great for you.” Safdie laughed and said he did indeed first talk to Blunt about the film at a Q&A for the Oscar winning drama.

Dwayne Johnson has addressed the box office reception, saying on Instagram that “you can’t control box office results”, and that “this film has changed my life.”

Christopher Nolan’s next project will be The Odyssey, adapted from the Ancient Greek epic. Recently, cast member Elliot Page discussed reuniting with the director 15 years after they worked together on Inception, and the “joy” of working on the film after his transition.