In Ukrainian distribution is your film “Unbreakable” – a biopic about the legendary athlete Mark Carrey, an insurmountable fighter, who knows how to overcome the horrors. The lead role is played by Dwayne “Skelya” Johnson, who has never experienced physical overload, and the role of Kerry’s opponent, Ukrainian boxer Igor Vovchanchyn, is played by world boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk.
In the film, Dwen Johnson had intense battles with Oleksandr Usyk during filming and was not afraid to show a man who is broken. The director of the film, Benny Safdi, won a prize for directing at the Venice Film Festival, and Dwayne Johnson is already predicted to receive great respect in the national season. Film critic Sonya Vselyubska talks about how an actor achieved such a feat, as well as about Usik’s wonderful acting work.
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The post of American actor Dwayne Johnson is a special feature of the Hollywood movie theater. His physical aptitude, athletic discipline and, at the same time, dramatic talent have made him one of the most sought-after actors in the world. Having appeared in over a hundred films and television series, including iconic appearances in The Fast and the Furious and Jumanji, he has become one of the highest paid actors in the industry who can earn 20 millions of dollars per film. At the same time, his work in the film “Unbreakable” redefines his career, opening up new boundaries of the actor’s spectrum. This live-action film, based on the biography of UFC legend Mark Kerr, brings to Dwayne Johnson an unprecedented physical transformation and psychological impact, as well as a symbolic moment of rethinking his career in sports and cinema.
It’s no secret that Johnson himself was a fan of wrestling, having spent his life in the cinema, and moreover, wrestling was present in his life from the people. Johnson was born in the homeland of professional athletes: his father Rocky Johnson and his grandfather Peter Maivia were professional wrestlers. Dwayne came to the ring not immediately, but only after he had tried out football. In 1996, the couple made their debut under the pseudonym Rocky Maivia, known by his nickname “Skelya”. After all, he became a professional wrestler, reaching the status of a ten-time world champion, among a great number of other professional marks. In addition to the technique in the ring, sports journalists also noted his charisma, which, by the way, found its way into the cinema.
In 2001, the team of the film “The Mummy Turns” was looking for a handsome and physically fit actor for the cameo role of the Scorpion King, focusing on Dwayne Johnson. This debut role for the actor became so popular that even after the spin-off was filmed, he played the lead role – and so began the actor’s career. Throughout his continuous work in film, Dwayne has never lost his training – not only through the director's efforts to enhance his unnatural physical form in the frame, and also because he simply adores sports. Make sure you exercise six times a day, keeping your body fat at 14%.
“This transformation has been the most difficult in my life,” Dwayne Johnson said in an interview with Variety before the release of the film “Unbreakable,” which became a new testimony for the actor on rich levels. Here we are working hard with a director rooted in Indian cinema, whose ambitions are directed not at the box office, but at the artistic result. For Benny Safdi, “Unbreakable” is his debut film after his directorial collaboration with his brother Joshua, and based on the authentic work of Mark Kerr. Safdi decided to ask Skel for this role, who had trained with Kerr in the same room.
The director took as a basis a 2002 documentary film of the same name, adapting not only the plot, but also the visual aesthetics of the late nineties. However, Safdi’s story is not just a goddamn visionary biopic about sports. “Unbreakable” is primarily a psychological drama about trauma and neglect, where crooked sports become a portal to the hero’s inner light.
Safdi was clearly aware of the doubles and editing tricks: it’s not all that easy, but it’s not possible. There are no real physical performances in the aesthetics of a documentary camera. Johnson was faced with the task of literally reshaping his body: gaining ten kilograms of meat and radically changing the level of adipose tissue. It would seem that for a professional of his level this would not be a problem, but in reality everything turned out to be significantly complicated. As he himself confessed in an interview: “On the right there is no shortage of vase, but in the clear growth of the muscles, these ones quickly disappear… I have never been able to swing my trapeze and neck in my life.”
In an interview with GQ, professional trainer Dave Rienzi, who has been working with Dwayne Johnson for over a decade, shares details of his six-month preparation for the role. At the same time, they looked through the records of Kerr’s battles in order to identify the key areas of the robots – the trapezium zone and the back volume of the body. The trainer also talks about the actor’s special diet: this time Johnson has more, or even earlier, six meals a day with a high mixture of proteins and carbohydrates.
The transformation was attention to every detail – to the voice, even to Kerr's very specific manner of speaking. Beyond this, the film’s team finalized the resemblance to the additional prosthetics and makeup. The leading makeup artist, Kazuhiro Tsuji, applied 21 prosthetic techniques to Johnson’s face, giving special attention to the ridge, the shape of the eyes, the nose and ears.
With such a physical transformation, Dwayne Johnson has every chance of becoming the first bodybuilder with nominations for the Golden Globe and Oscar.
The result of the team work is incredibly impressive: the actor achieved the “fluffiness” of the body required by the director, practicing the choreography in the ring and performing Kerr’s characteristic facial expressions, silently repeating frames from the documentary film. Such a quick approach by Safda Mav is intended to authentically convey the atmosphere of the era – and it was decided to acknowledge the greater importance of giving the history of this sport. The most promising proof of this was the request of Oleksandr Usyk for the important role of the Ukrainian athlete Igor Vovchanchyn, who is the head of the first blows to the invincible Mark Kerr. Johnson has repeatedly observed the Ukrainian champion's hoarding, which signifies his strength and splendor. At the same time, he added with humor that he was ready to take a potential blow and did not include “preventative” visits before the medical treatment after the sleeping scenes.
If Usik and Johnson appear in the same frame at the same time, it is important not to worry about how rare it is that a professional athlete takes on a truly important, non-caricatured role in a movie – although not great, but not dramatic navantazhennyam. Usik plays an attractive and decisive fighter who, if he wants to meet his opponent through the transfer, demonstrates sports etiquette and respect to the new. Varto means how natural the mustache looks in a soft, light 16-mm spit with a Hollywood mirror.
Usik plays an attractive and decisive fighter, who, if he wants to meet his opponent through the transfer, demonstrates sports etiquette and respect to the new
The result of the film was not a hit because Johnson and Safdi did not find the right balance between intense physical performances and the subtle dramatic cries that go into the heroes. The role of an indefatigable athlete, who drowns in weakness to painkillers and is unable to overcome mental trauma, also enters into an informal dialogue from the anonymous roles of “unbreakable” masculine men, without personality variations of which actors pay for their careers. Johnson emphasizes the importance of this role: “As soon as I crossed the line and began to work in the dramatic genre, I realized that I would end up stuck in the dark depths – in trauma, even in those that I was destined to avoid. I want to hang around. I’m not a big fan of therapy and, like many people, I keep it in myself. It’s so awkward, and this film gave me a place where I could let it all go.”
Due to his extreme physical fitness and courage to try out acting roles, Dwayne Johnson has every chance of becoming the first bodybuilder with nominations for the Golden Globe and Oscar.
