Ryan Bader reflects on emotionally acting alongside The Rock in ‘The Smashing Machine’.
Bader and The Rock act alongside each other in the movie based around Mark Kerr’s life, with The Rock playing the lead role of Kerr while Bader would portray Kerr’s best friend and training partner Mark Coleman in the movie.
While speaking on My Mom’s Basement in a recent interview, Ryan Bader spoke about acting emotionally alongside The Rock in ‘The Smashing Machine’.
“I felt pretty comfortable. Maybe it was because it wasn’t The Rock, right? It was Mark Kerr. He had prosthetics on, and he looks like Mark Kerr, and when he shaved his head, you’re looking at the real Mark Kerr. He did an unbelievable job and for me, I felt pretty comfortable with him right off the bat. Maybe it is because we’re in those scenes that I’m comfortable in. Right? We’re in a locker room. I’m getting them ready. You know, we’re buddies, too. I guess the biggest scene for me that’s out of my wheelhouse would be, you know, when I have to go and get emotional with them and kind of get them back. Right? You know, that’s alright. That’s one that, you know, it’s dramatic. I’m not a dramatic- I’ve never acted before in my life. But I felt like I was looking at a buddy and, you know, I can put myself in that situation. I’ve had friends, I’ve gone down that kind of route, right? You know, and then being around the real Mark Kerr too and hearing the stories and stuff like that, and we’re buddies, you know, I can put myself in that situation. We kind of shot that scene a little later in shooting and so I was kind of in my groove by then.”
Elsewhere in another recent interview, Bader spoke about The Rock’s overall performance in ‘The Smashing Machine’. You can read more about that here.
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