Dwayne Johnson Opens Up About Losing 15 Friends to Addiction and Suicide Over 20 Years

Dwayne Johnson has opened up about the personal pain that shaped his latest project, The Smashing Machine.

Speaking with Variety on the 2025 Golden Globes red carpet, Johnson revealed that over the last twenty years, he has lost “exactly 15 friends to addiction and suicide who just couldn’t handle depression.”

The actor explained that this loss made his work on the film especially meaningful. “You discover a greater sense of empathy because I also realized that… you know, reminds me of that great quote where they say, ‘Hey, you know who’s really going through some s**** right now?’ And you say, ‘Oh, say who?’ ‘Everybody. We’re all going through s****” Johnson said.

Dwayne Johnson reveals that he has lost 15 friends to addiction and suicide over the past two decades and says that “The Smashing Machine” taught him that “we're all going through sh*t.” pic.twitter.com/kVzm7y1yzF

— Variety (@Variety) December 18, 2025

Earlier this month, Johnson spoke with The Hollywood Reporter, sharing that some of his friends “OD’d, some decided to check out. Life was too hard,” and that The Smashing Machine became “a love letter to those that I just talked to you about.” The film, which tells the story of MMA fighter Mark Kerr’s struggles with opioid addiction, carries a personal weight for Johnson, one that he says reshaped him as both an actor and a person.

For more than twenty years, Johnson has been known for blockbuster hits like The Mummy, Fast and Furious, Jumanji, and Red Notice. While these movies brought him fame and success, he admitted something was missing. “I liked making the bigger movies that made a lot of people happy,” he told Screen International, “But I had this little voice between my ears about wanting to do more, and wanting to challenge myself.”

That drive led him to revisit the 2002 documentary The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr. Johnson recalled being drawn to the story but unsure if he was ready to take it on. Familiarity with the MMA world and his own experiences with friends struggling with addiction eventually pushed him forward.

“I was familiar with the legend of Mark Kerr, but I didn’t know he had spiralled so badly with his addictions and his overdoses. I unfortunately had a lot of friends who were addicted to painkillers at that time, and I sadly lost a lot of them,” he said.

The filming process challenged Johnson in new ways. Working with Benny Safdie, Emily Blunt, and makeup artist Kazu Hiro, he spent four hours each day in prosthetics. “I was told my entire career, ‘You can never disappear, you look how you look,’ but I now understand what it means to be in somebody else’s skin,” he explained.

Johnson admitted that the Venice Film Festival premiere left him emotional. “I couldn’t hold back my emotions and I couldn’t stop crying,” he said.

The actor’s candid reflections show how personal loss and empathy have influenced his career choices. The Smashing Machine isn’t just a movie for Johnson—it’s a tribute to friends he lost and a deeper exploration of the struggles many face in silence.

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