Benny Safdie on Blurring Reality and Fiction in ‘The Smashing Machine’

On this episode of the No Movie Faculty Podcast, GG Hawkins sits down with filmmaker and actor Benny Safdie to dig into his solo directorial function, The Smashing Machine — a biopic‑adjoining portrait of UFC legend Mark Kerr starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. The dialog ranges from genesis tales and casting experiments to the heavy emotional labor behind staging home fights, and the way Benny’s twin identification as actor-director shapes his strategy to fact in movie.On this episode, we focus on: How the movie started as a handwritten letter and a classic sweater, and the shocking miscommunication that delayed the projectBenny’s want to make emotional scenes really feel like “digital actuality,” pushing the boundary between fiction and lived experienceHis technique of breaking huge scenes (fights, home battle) into overlapping sections for pacing, focus, and emotional veracityWorking with first-time actors and actual athletes: adapting dialogue, rehearsal throughout casting, and honoring spontaneityThe position of the rating (with Nala Sinefroo) as an “actor” within the movie, and the way Benny collaborates with musiciansEditing whereas taking pictures, watching dailies, and carrying the movie in his thoughts from set to cutStruggles in balancing inventive work with private life, and the way images serves as a solitary inventive practiceAdvice for rising administrators: begin with one thing you intimately perceive earlier than making an attempt to overreachGuestsSubscribe to the No Movie Faculty Podcast on:Get your query answered on the podcast by emailing podcast@nofilmschool.comListen to extra episodes of the No Movie Faculty podcast proper right here:This episode of The No Movie Faculty Podcast was produced by GG Hawkins.