Despite campaigning hard for his performance in The Smashing Machine, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson did not earn a nomination for this year’s Oscars.
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The Smashing Machine follows the story of mixed-martial arts and UFC champion Mark Kerr. Johnson stars as the lead alongside his former Jungle Cruise co-star Emily Blunt.
The film did not do so well at the box office, with finishing in third during its opening weekend. It only secured only $21 million on a $50 million production budget (not counting marketing costs).
However, even though the film didn’t meet expectations at the box office, Johnson said he wouldn’t change a thing about the role.
“From deep in my grateful bones, thank you to everyone who has watched The Smashing Machine,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “In our storytelling world, you can’t control box office results — but what I realized you can control is your performance, and your commitment to completely disappear and go elsewhere. And I will always run to that opportunity.”
He then noted, “It was my honor to transform in this role for my director Benny Safdie @bowedtie. Thank you brother for believing in me. Truth is this film has changed my life.”
Johnson Pushed Hard for The Smashing Machine During Promos
While promoting The Smashing Machine, Johnson said the film had completely changed his life in ways he didn’t anticipate.
“Because of what it represents,” he said. “It represents, for me, listening to your gut, to your instinct, to that little voice. Sometimes in life, you think you’re capable of something, but you don’t quite know. And sometimes it takes people around you to go, ‘Come on, you could do this.’”
He further noted, “Smashing Machine also represents a turning point in my career that I’ve wanted for a long time: for the first time in my career — 20 plus years since The Scorpion King came out — I made a film to challenge myself and to really rip myself open and to go elsewhere and disappear and transform. And not one time did I think about box office.”
Continue to remain optimistic about the box office flop, Johnson said, “Even though we didn’t do well [at the box office], or as well as we wanted to, it was okay because it just represented the thing I did for me.”
Johnson has notably never received an Oscar nomination.