An MMA fighter reaches the peak of his career but faces personal hardships along the way in Director Benny Safdie’s biographical drama, The Smashing Machine.

Safdie’s film dramatizes the life of mixed-martial artist and UFC champion, Mark Kerr, a former collegiate wrestler who became a star during the early, unregulated days of MMA but had to deal with depression, a difficult battle with painkiller addiction, and a volatile relationship with his girlfriend, Dawn Staples, during his meteoric rise.

On October 5, after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Safdie discussed the making of The Smashing Machine during a Q&A moderated by DGA President Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer). He also spoke about the film during a conversation moderated by Director Bradley Cooper (Is This Thing On?) following the New York screening on October 11.

During the Los Angeles conversation, Safdie revealed how he approached the style of the film.

“If you allow yourself to exist in these moments they become real scenes. There was a time at a bus stop and by living in that scene for a good period of time, you actually discover a lot about the character. That’s how I approach this. Take these moments in these lives and kind of magnify them with performance, camera placement, positioning, and just make it feel like you’re there. You can understand as an audience member, ‘I’m here. I know where I am.’ And even in the editing process I was always aware of if the camera had technically seen itself, so I would edit as if — ‘I can’t use that shot over there because I’d be looking at myself.’”

Alongside his brother Josh, Safdie’s other directorial credits include the feature films Good Time, Heaven Knows What, Daddy Longlegs and The Pleasure of Being Robbed; and the documentary Lenny Cooke. He has been a DGA member since 2018.