‘The Rock had too many tattoos and his nose kept falling off’: Prosthetic artist reveals challenges on the sets of The Smashing Machine

Oscar winning prosthetic artist Kazu Hiro gives some insights into the transformation of Dwayne Johnson into UFC fighter Matt Kerr for The Smashing Machine.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | September 16, 2025 09:28 PM IST

3 min read

Dwayne Johnson in a still from the trailer of The Smashing Machine. (Photo: YouTube/A24)

Anticipation is sky-high for Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s upcoming film The Smashing Machine. The actor is already generating Academy Award buzz, with many praising the transformation he underwent for the project. One of the people responsible for this transformation was the Oscar-winning prosthetic artist Kazu Hiro, who worked day and night to make the actor look like UFC fighter Matt Kerr.

Responsible for turning Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill and Bradley Cooper into Leonard Bernstein, Hiro has been looking for the opportunity to retire for years, but somehow work keeps falling into his hands. His most recent project was Ben Safdie’s directorial The Smashing Machine, and he was tasked with transforming someone like Dwayne, who isn’t very easy to hide, into a different character than the one he is constantly playing: a man the size of a mountain, good for comic relief and great for action. But Hiro managed to do it anyway, and the results received serious applause during the world premiere of the film.

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Talking about the transformation, Hiro said, “It’s very important and very easy to make someone unrecognizable, but the very important part is to really reflect the meaning of the makeup and the purpose of the makeup, and also the subject we are trying to portray. I knew that there would be a lot of physical activity, sweating and fighting, like a punch in the face.” He went into the finer details of the change and said, “Mark Kerr has a prominent eyebrow bone, and so I also have to put the eyebrows on it and change the shape of the nose. His hairline and the shape of the head also bring the design of a likeness to it.”

Kazu Hiro admitted while talking to Variety that covering Dwayne’s tattoos was a daily task and one that was extremely challenging. He also faced a lot of problems with the prosthetic nose, as it kept falling due to the sweat and movement. “His nose would start to peel off, and that’s something that can’t be avoided because people sweat. Especially when he’s fighting or working out. Whatever glue we used, sweat would push out and start to slide off. It was constant maintenance,” said Hiro while also crediting Johnson’s own makeup artist Bjoern for his help.

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Bas Rutten, Dwan Staples, and Oleksandr Usyk, The Smashing Machine will release in the theatres on October 3.

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