He made his name as part of a sibling tag team. Now Benny Safdie enters the ring alone

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Benny Safdie’s eyes start to fill with tears when he remembers the moment. At the world premiere of his new film, “The Smashing Machine,” at the Venice Film Festival in September, he noticed that Mark Kerr-the man whose life the movie portrays-began to cry during a particularly moving scene near the end. Safdie, himself overcome with emotion and also crying, reached out and took Kerr’s hand.

“Honestly, for the remainder of the film, we were just on the edge of our seats,” Safdie explained, briefly touching two fingers to his eye as if to hold back tears. He was speaking from a private meeting room at the West Hollywood offices of A24, the film’s distributor, earlier this week.

It might be surprising to hear these reactions to a movie that immediately opens with intense, violent mixed martial arts combat. Kerr was a pioneer in the sport, achieving championship status before it grew into a multi-billion-dollar industry. Sadly, his career was cut short due to an addiction to pain medication.

Primarily taking place between 1997 and 2000, “The Smashing Machine” features Dwayne Johnson in a powerfully dramatic role, drawing on his background as a professional wrestler before becoming a major film star. Johnson’s character, Kerr, is surprisingly relatable, even though his poor choices ultimately lead to his ruin. A large part of the story centers on his turbulent romance with his girlfriend, Dawn Staples, portrayed by Johnson’s “Jungle Cruise” colleague, Emily Blunt.

The fact that Kerr, in real life, had such a strong reaction to seeing the film meant a lot to 39-year-old Safdie. Safdie wrote, directed, and edited the movie, and also served as a producer on the project, alongside Johnson.

“I hoped he’d feel a sense of responsibility for both the film and his own experiences,” explains Safdie regarding Kerr. “That meant a lot to me. Hearing him discuss it now is fascinating, because he’s able to say, ‘I understand where I went wrong in that relationship.’ He’s taking accountability for his actions. A key goal for me was to create a movie about how someone’s outlook on life can evolve.”

Josh Safdie won the directing award in Venice, which is especially impressive since it was his first time directing a feature film on his own. He’s previously collaborated with his brother, Josh, on several well-received and increasingly popular movies. These include “Daddy Longlegs,” inspired by their own upbringing; the documentary “Lenny Cooke,” which follows a promising high school basketball player who didn’t reach the professional level; the intensely stressful stories in “Heaven Knows What,” adapted from the experiences of a teenage heroin user; “Good Time,” featuring Robert Pattinson as a somewhat clueless criminal; and “Uncut Gems,” starring Adam Sandler as a compulsive gambler.

In recent years, Benny Safdie has been incredibly active. He’s taken on notable supporting acting roles in films by prominent directors, including Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza,” Claire Denis’ “Stars at Noon,” Kelly Fremon Craig’s “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret” and Kyle Newacheck’s “Happy Gilmore 2.”

I’m a big fan, and I’ve been following his work! He’s produced some really interesting TV, like the documentaries Telemarketers and Pee-wee as Himself. But I especially loved that he co-created and wrote The Curse on Showtime – he even starred in it as this really complex TV producer alongside Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone. And get this – he’s going to be in Christopher Nolan’s new take on The Odyssey, which I’m super excited about!

Moshe Safdie currently resides in New York City with his wife and their two young children. Recently, while in Los Angeles, he quickly went from a question-and-answer session following a film screening to the Vista Theater to watch Wes Anderson’s latest movie, One Battle After Another.

While writing the script for “Smashing Machine,” he contacted Paul Thomas Anderson, the director of “Boogie Nights,” to ask for guidance. Later, as he was editing the film, he shared a preview with Nolan.

“It’s amazing to be able to discuss these things with these people,” Safdie explains. “But you also need to be open to what they have to say. They won’t necessarily tell you what you *want* to hear. It comes down to asking, ‘Okay, what’s the reasoning behind this?’ ‘What’s the purpose?’ And then you realize, ‘Actually, I’m not sure. I need to work that out now.’”

Anderson attended the Los Angeles premiere of “The Smashing Machine,” joining a diverse group of people including Fielder and basketball icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Prior to the film, Safdie, Johnson, and Blunt, along with the actual Kerr and other actors, came on stage at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater to present the movie.

“He truly embodied a paradox,” Johnson explained about Kerr at the film’s North American debut last month at the Toronto International Film Festival, “being both a remarkably skilled warrior and a genuinely kind, loving, and sweet person-yet also someone who was vulnerable, wounded, and simply striving to cope.”

Safdie has a knack for helping actors transform by putting them in challenging and emotionally raw scenarios. Both Good Time and Uncut Gems were crucial for Pattinson and Sandler, allowing them to portray a palpable sense of risk and a dynamic energy that became a signature of the Safdie brothers’ collaborations. These roles truly showcased their abilities.

Viewers haven’t quite seen Johnson like this before as Kerr – his impressively muscular build contrasts sharply with his quiet, gentle way of speaking, only occasionally broken by bursts of anger, like when he dramatically destroys a door. Safdie has once again given his lead actor a chance to truly shine.

With Dwayne Johnson, I felt the same way – I discovered a hidden side to him that most people don’t see,” Safdie explains. “He’s a very complex and thoughtful person. When you see him in movies like ‘Fast Five’ or ‘San Andreas,’ you get a sense of security, knowing he’ll protect you, and that’s something truly unique. But I started to wonder: What if people truly understood who he is as a person?‘”

While writing the screenplay, Safdie conducted his own research and interviews. He also used John Hyams’ 2002 documentary, “The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr,” as a guide, and even recreated some scenes accurately.

“The documentary portrays events as they actually happened, and that was my focus from the beginning,” explains Safdie. “I aimed for absolute realism in every aspect – the way it was filmed, the sets, the costumes, and especially the acting.”

Working with cinematographer Maceo Bishop, Safdie created a distinct visual style for the film. This look was intended to capture the grainy, somewhat blurry aesthetic common in early digital video – the very era the film portrays. While some scenes utilized older video equipment, most of the movie was actually shot on 16mm film. This film was then scanned to 4K during postproduction, allowing them to reduce some of the film grain while maintaining the desired look.

“That’s what gives it a unique, almost unreal look,” Safdie explains. “It feels like a type of film that doesn’t exist in the real world. It’s neither the standard 35mm nor 16mm – it’s something new we built through this Frankenstein-like process. Ultimately, I was aiming to create a specific feeling, and that’s what matters most.”

Benny’s brother, Josh, has a new film, “Marty Supreme,” coming out in December. The movie stars Timothée Chalamet as a top table tennis player. (A24 is distributing the film.) Benny mentions he hasn’t had a chance to see his brother’s movie yet, but Josh *has* seen “The Smashing Machine.”

Many people have been wondering and talking about the brothers’ decision to stop collaborating for a while. Does he feel like they’ve split up? It’s been a topic of much discussion.

“It honestly feels like we’ve completed that chapter,” says Benny Safdie. “We achieved what we set out to do, and now I’m eager to move forward with new projects. It all began with ‘The Curse,’ which really solidified my vision – I knew this was the direction I wanted to take, and it became a very personal endeavor. That was the initial step in this new phase.”

After that, I started a new collaboration with Nathan, and it was a completely different experience. It was exciting to see how we worked together and realize, OK, this is something new, and I’m picking up new skills. I’ve always enjoyed making movies with my brother – we accomplished a lot together, and I cherish those films. But this feels different. It’s a different kind of creative energy.

Safdie states resolutely, “We acted as we did and gained the knowledge we gained, and now I plan to pursue some projects independently.”

Safdie is naturally enthusiastic and has a bit of a performer’s personality. He recently promoted “The Smashing Machine” by handing out a thousand fliers while wearing a sandwich board and walking around Manhattan – something he’d also done years earlier.

He explains that it keeps him grounded, which he appreciates. He’s also astonished that people are interested in his work and says he doesn’t overlook that support.

Currently, Safdie intends to work with Johnson once more, this time on a movie based on Daniel Pinkwater’s playful 1976 children’s book, “Lizard Music.”

The film “The Smashing Machine” concludes with a coda featuring the actual Mark Kerr grocery shopping in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 2025. It might take viewers a beat to recognize it’s not Johnson appearing on screen-and that was precisely the filmmaker’s intention.

I remember talking with Dwayne, and I told him we were going to switch to Mark. I was so confident that for at least five or ten seconds, the audience wouldn’t even realize it wasn’t him! The idea was that he’d essentially *become* the same person, and that was exactly what I was hoping for. I wanted the viewers to be caught off guard, to take a moment and think, ‘Oh, wait a second… that’s the *real* guy! I was just experiencing things from his perspective.’

With “The Smashing Machine,” Johnson explores a fresh creative avenue, and we also see Safdie embarking on a solo journey as a writer and director after years of working with his brother. As he delved into the challenges Kerr faced, both emotionally and physically, Safdie discovered a central theme that resonates with his long-held fascination with resilience – the ability to keep going even when things are tough. He believes it’s less about failing and more about simply not achieving victory.

“I’m not sure if my film follows all the usual rules for a biopic,” Safdie explains. “But my goal was to create a movie about a real person, and to really put the audience in their shoes. I want you to be that person, to truly experience what they felt. And that’s why I always envisioned the film ending with Mark.”

Though the film opens with the violence of an MMA match, it ends on a much gentler note.

“He’s doing alright,” Safdie explains. “The important thing is he got through it. And isn’t that amazing? It really makes you appreciate life – to be able to face challenges and still be OK afterwards, doesn’t it?”

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2025-10-03 19:33