MMA legend Bas Rutten has opened up about his experience working on The Smashing Machine movie with Dwayne Johnson.
As we know, Bas Rutten is an icon in the world of mixed martial arts. He accomplished some incredible things throughout the course of his career and to this day, he is a big fan favorite within the sport. He was also, once upon a time, a coach for Mark Kerr, who was recently played by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in The Smashing Machine – a film based on the documentary of the same name.
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Rutten appeared in the documentary over 20 years ago and now, he’s back to portray himself once again. Bas was shown to have an interesting relationship with Kerr, and in the aftermath of the film’s release, he was getting a lot of praise for his performance, alongside Ryan Bader who played Mark Coleman.
In a recent interview, Rutten spoke candidly about what the experience was like.
Rotten discusses The Smashing Machine movie
“I was completely free from all dialogue,” Rutten noted.
The experience overall, Rutten told us, “was awesome. I played myself, so I had to go back 25 years to the guy I was at the time, which was just a little more energetic. But for the rest, I’ve been teaching, doing everything.”
“Dwayne was so amazing at being Kerr, for me it was literally, I was just teaching Kerr again in the gym. Because the whole set, everything was so nice and relaxed. The way Benny Safdie works is really amazing, he keeps everybody nice and calm.”
Rutten also spoke about Johnson’s transformation as Kerr.
“This is crazy. he had the cauliflower ear, he was Kerr. And the way he was speaking as well. So I think he jumped right away into it. Right from the first time we met, I only saw him as Kerr.”
Quotes via Cageside Press