“It looks like I have a cantaloupe in the bottom of my elbow,” the star said of his injury
From Left: Dwayne Johnson on Instagram; and as Mark Kerr in ‘The Smashing Machine’
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson suffered an elbow injury on the set of his film, The Smashing Machine.
In the Benny Safdie-directed movie, the 52-year-old actor returned to the ring as real-life mixed-martial-arts fighter Mark Kerr — and got a little “smashed up” in the process, he revealed.
On June 11, the wrestler-turned-actor — who is no stranger to on-the-job injuries — shared in an Instagram video that he hurt his right elbow while filming the sports biopic.
“As you guys know, I’m filming a movie called The Smashing Machine,” the star said, before pointing out the obvious correlation: “And anytime your film is called The Smashing Machine, well, you’re kind of going to get smashed up.”
Johnson then raised his right elbow, and pointed to a swollen area.
“Look at that sucker right there. It looks like I have a cantaloupe in the bottom of my elbow,” he said with a laugh. “I got banged up pretty good today in our scenes, and there might be some soft tissue damage in there — that’s a lot of fluid, we’ll see.”
The actor has not yet gotten an MRI, so he is not sure how bad the damage is yet — but assured fans that he is “all good.”
And, he noted, “The pain feels pretty good.”
“It is what it is until it isn’t,” Johnson continued, before sharing a piece of wisdom his “old man,” Rocky Johnson, an “old-school” pro wrestler and bodybuilder used to tell him.
“He always used to say, ‘A day without pain is like a day without sunshine, boy,’ ” The Rock said with a laugh.
The star also said he’s open to any counsel from his fans, noting that he’s been pretty “banged up” all over his body in wrestling matches. “So I’ve been there before,” he said, before raising his elbow again. “Look at that f—— thing.”
Dwayne Johnson in ‘The Smashing Machine’
But, his “favorite” medicine is tequila from his own brand, Teremana, he said, taking a a big swig to finish the clip.
“I gotta tell you, even with all the advanced medicine out there that can take care of this, it feels better already,” he said, adding in the caption, “Don’t sleep on the power of the ‘healing Teremana hooch.’ ”
The Smashing Machine not only marks Johnson’s return to the ring, but also a Jungle Cruise reunion, as Emily Blunt is slated to star in the film as Kerr’s wife, Dawn Staples.
The A24 movie is set to explore the life of now-55-year-old Kerr — who earned the titular nickname due to his unbridled fighting style — at the peak of his career in 2000, while he navigated career victories, love, friendship and addiction.
Speaking about the The Smashing Machine in January, Johnson told Variety, “I’m at a point in my career where I want to push myself in ways that I’ve not pushed myself in the past,” adding that he wants to make films that “matter, that explore a humanity and explore struggle [and] pain.”
