There was a decent chance last year that the phrase “Oscar-nominated actor Dwayne Johnson” would actually materialize. The 54-year-old actor and professional wrestler starred as MMA fighter Mark Kerr in Benny Safdie’s biopic, The Smashing Machine, which critics hailed as an awards-worthy performance.
Johnson surprised audiences with the depth and emotion that he brought to the character, even if the film didn’t find much success at the box office. He starred alongside Emily Blunt, and Safdie won Best Director at the Venice Film Festival following the film’s premiere. But even though Johnson nabbed his first nomination from the Golden Globes for Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama), recognition from the Academy still eludes him.
“It would have been incredible to get nominated for an Oscar,” Johnson told Esquire in our latest cover story. “I realized very quickly that it’s a rare thing to reach this pinnacle where you’re even having these conversations. And it’s exciting! It would have been amazing. I wish it happened. But it didn’t.”
Instead, the field at the 2026 Academy Awards consisted of Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme), Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), and winner Michael B. Jordan (Sinners).
“In no uncertain terms did I ever think, Oh, that doesn’t matter,” Johnson said. “I always thought it mattered. And it has lit a fire in my spine.”
Johnson is already booked for two blockbusters coming out this year—the live-action Moana and the third film in his Jumanji trilogy, Jumanji: Open World—but the actor is looking to pursue Oscar gold after that. As he tells Esquire, he has three meaty films in the works. Following a second movie with Safdie, he’s working on a film with Darren Aronofsky and another with Martin Scorsese. The subjects remain under wraps, for now.
But Johnson is doing his homework to prepare for the roles, according to Safdie. The director praised his “film knowledge,” stating that he could “talk about Jimmy Stewart’s performance in It’s a Wonderful Life and relate it to Mark Kerr, and Dwayne knows exactly what I’m talking about,” on the set of The Smashing Machine. “I realized I could ask Dwayne to do anything,” he said. For some actors, that’s exactly what it takes.
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