00:00Hello again Dwayne. Hello. Last time I saw you was Black Adam. How are you doing? Remember a long time ago. Good to see you. You as well. It was in London. It was in London and you also had another drink. You were drinking something else at Black Adam. Probably the same thing. What is the secret drink? I need to know. The secret is tequila. Tequila. Yes. Right okay I'm trying to get more into tequila. Oh. It's strong for me even though I'm Scottish. But I'm trying to like blend it with ice. Mix it with something. Yeah because that was refreshing. It's really good. Yeah. Especially the one I make. Yes.
00:29Well listen if you want to make me one we can talk about it but we've got to talk about this film. You are incredible in this. Oh my goodness. Thank you so much. And I loved when you were talking about it in Venice and I feel like this role has been really personal for you as well right? It's very personal for me. This one is personal and you know the reception in Venice was crazy because you don't we went into this unattached to an outcome unattached to a reaction. You never know how people are going to respond to a film. I've been in them where
00:59people are so happy. Hey you made a great one. And then I've been in them too as well. We're like hmm that flopped. Let's learn from that lesson. But this one was special and we went to Venice and I was there with Mark Kerr. Mark Kerr who's the man I play. He watched it with us and that that audience erupted.
01:17And am I right in saying you met Mark when you were in your WWE days and now you're playing him. What is going on?
01:22So wild isn't how the world can work. I met Mark in the late 90s and we had post-workout lunch together.
01:31And I was interested back then because already he was ascending. He was already Mark Kerr. He was the most dominant heavyweight in the world. And I was so interested in his training and in his ascension. And then what kind of money is he making?
01:48Because at that time I wasn't making that much money. And but yeah it's so wild that you know years later here we are.
01:55And I love the friendship between you and Emily. I love you two together. Did you ever think you know back in the day from Jungle Cruise you'd be here doing a film like this together?
02:04No. No. We always talked about working together and trying to figure out what it is and what it would be. But this was you know it's like it's like kismet. How it's just kind of in the stars. Universe works. God works. Whatever the higher power is that you believe in.
02:23It's like we with Emily I sent her the documentary of the Smashing Machine. She was filming Oppenheimer with Benny Safdie at that time. And then Benny said hey you know Dwayne right? You guys are friends. She's like yeah he's one of my best friends. He's like I was going to do something with him called Smashing Machine but COVID happened.
02:42And so I sent her the documentary and so I sent her the documentary and she loved it. And she I'll never forget that call. She called me and she said you must make this movie and I'm going to text you and Benny together. You have to do it together. So in a way she was Emily Blunt was the glue.
03:02And that's that's amazing. And just finally then asked Dwayne Johnson. What was it like being told that you have to get back. That's what he said. Yeah. It's like you got to get bigger puffier. And I at first I told him I said well give me 24 hours. Let me think about this. And then I went back to Benny and I said I get it. Mark is a big guy is a lot bigger than I was back then a lot bigger than I am now.
03:29But but but I also knew that there was a real challenge because that's 30 pounds of muscle. There's a different quality of muscle that Mark Kerr had and it's not like I'm going to go eat milkshakes and cheeseburgers you know every day. Not that I wish it was that kind of role but it wasn't and it just so it was putting on the weight and at the same time making sure that I was still able to move and be athletic and be in the cage and be in the ring and it was that was hard that was really really hard it was hard to carry that
03:59weight. So not only did I have to carry it for three months but then two weeks later when we wrapped Smashing Machine I went into live action Moana as Maui. So I had to keep the weight on. So my joints are like hurting. I'm still recovering. Excuse the pun but you smashed it. I'm off to get your tequila recipe now. Get it. Thank you so much. It's so good to see you again. Good to see you too. I'm serious. I'm going to go and get it. Well it's at the bar. I'm going to go. Yes please go.
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