Over the years, Dwayne Johnson has become one of Hollywood’s favorite musclemen. His various roles have shown the world his range. However, it was recently revealed that Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer had re-opened the doors for the star to pursue his most dramatic role yet. Although the 51-year-old already had a row of projects lined up, he admitted that this one could take priority over everything else.

While the announcement for the upcoming film was already made, the actor ended up sharing the story behind why he decided to pick it up.

Dwayne Johnson discusses his upcoming MMA role

Just last year, it was revealed that Dwayne Johnson would be gearing up for an MMA film with Benny Safdie. It was titled, The Smashing Machine. While fans were already hyped about it, the actor recently gave them a little more backstory to the whole thing. The Rock told Variety that he called the whole film and his casting “a convergence of kismet and irony.” He said that the confirmation had happened one night when he was talking to his close friend, Emily Blunt.

When the actress was filming Oppenheimer, she had encouraged the former wrestler to take up the role of MMA fighter, Mark Kerr. While the world might have Blunt to thank for convincing the star to pursue the film, they might have her to thank for even getting the director and actor back in contact again. There is no doubt that the actor is looking forward to the challenge of taking up a true-life story that he might relate to.

While Johnson has worked with Benny Safdie before, there was a small hiccup that ended up leaving them separated from each other for quite a few years.

Dwayne Johnson and Benny Safdie’s friendship

During the same interview with Variety, Dwayne Johnson revealed that he and Benny Safdie had initially connected back in 2019. While they were already in discussion about The Smashing Machine film, everything came to an unexpected stop due to the COVID-19 pandemic just a year later. Once the pandemic ended, both the director and the actor were pulled in different directions due to various pending projects and their collaboration ended up getting pushed back.

However, during that time, they ended up losing touch with each other. There is no doubt that both of them constantly thought about their planned collaboration. However, no one ended up reaching out. Thankfully, Emily Blunt swooped in for the rescue when she met Safdie on the set of Oppenheimer last year.

What do you think about how Oppenheimer brought back Dwayne Johnson’s most dramatic role? Let us know in the comments below.