Benny Safdie says his work as director of The Smashing Machine benefitted from his wildly successful second career as an actor, following recent performances in the likes of Oppenheimer and Licorice Pizza.
Safdie is best-known as the co-director of the exceedingly tense drama-thrillers Uncut Gems and Good Time, as well as being the sole director of The Smashing Machine – an unconventional sports biopic which stars Dwayne Johnson as early UFC champ Mark Kerr. But the filmmaker also has a burgeoning career in front of the camera, having appeared in movies for the likes of Christopher Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson and Claire Denis – work that informed his approach to directing his latest movie.
