Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Nominated For Prestigious Acting Award
The Rock has been acknowledged for his incredible acting performance in “The Smashing Machine.”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been a major motion picture star for over 20 years, but he hasn’t been known for delivering masterful performances worthy of nominations for major awards. That has changed in 2025.
Earlier this year, In The Rock started in a film called “The Smashing Machine,” where he plays former MMA fighter Mark Kerr. Unlike some of his other films, The Rock was praised heavily for his performance in “The Samshing Machine” because of how much he resembles Kerr, and also for looking different from his regular appearance.
It was announced on December 8th that The Rock is one of the six nominees for a Golden Globe award for the Best Performance by a Male Actor (Drama) category. The list of nominees are:
- Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams)
- Oscar Isaac (Frankenstein)
- Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (The Smashing Machine)
- Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)
- Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent)
- Jeremy Allen White (Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere)
The Golden Globes are seen as the second biggest awards in Hollywood after the Academy Awards (Oscars). The 83rd Golden Globe Award ceremony will take place on January 11, 2026.
Emily Blunt, who co-stars with Johnson in “The Smashing Machine,” is also nominated for the Golden Globes for the Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture.
Was The Rock Sad About “The Smashing Machine” Not Being A Success At The Box Office?
Even though “The Smashing Machine” was praised heavily for the acting performances of Johnson and Blunt, the film was considered a box office failure.
While speaking about the film, The Rock had his reasons for making the movie.
“Smashing Machine also represents a turning point in my career that I’ve wanted for a long time: for the first time in my career — 20 plus years since The Scorpion King came out — I made a film to challenge myself and to really rip myself open and to go elsewhere and disappear and transform, and not one time did I think about box office.
In our world you’re like, “Sh*t, how are we going to look?” And then Friday night comes and you’re like, “Oh man.” You wake up Saturday, and sometimes you wake up feeling good, and sometimes you’re like, “Oh my God, didn’t do well.”
I had not thought about that at all. And even that Friday night when we opened, I went to sleep peacefully and woke up peacefully because it represented this thing. And even though we didn’t do well [at the box office], or as well as we wanted to, it was okay because it just represented the thing I did for me.”
Regarding his WWE life, The Rock hasn’t been seen since the Elimination Chamber PLE in Toronto on March 1st when he was part of John Cena’s heel turn on Cody Rhodes, and then was never seen again.