Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson ‘Really’ Wanted to Work Together Again: Friendship Has ‘Endured’

Emily Blunt has developed a very close relationship with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and the unlikely duo are set to team up on their second movie together — and take over Hollywood.

“You gotta hand it to both Emily and Dwayne, there’s no shortage of ambition between either of them, and when they said they wanted to work together again, they really meant it,” an insider exclusively tells Closer of the pair, who costarred in the 2021 film Jungle Cruise.

What’s “notable,” the source points out, is that they’re not teaming up on another big Disney theme-park extravaganza.

Instead, the Fast & Furious actor, 52, and the Devil Wears Prada star, 41, will have an onscreen reunion in Benny Safdie‘s upcoming mixed martial arts drama, The Smashing Machine. Emily will play Dawn Staples, the wife of MMA and UFC champion Mark Kerr (Dwayne), in the biopic.

“It’s much different than what we did with Jungle Cruise, but I got to tell you there is no greater partner in our industry than Emily who I would want to have to rip this thing open. This is a long time coming, man,” The Rock told Variety in March. “I can’t wait.”

According to Closer‘s source, the two “are going to be making this intense, intimate MMA story with Benny Safdie directing them in high-stress situations and also very romantic situations.”

The insider adds, “Benny is so respected, he could have gotten anybody in this movie but the lead roles are actually tailor-made for Dwayne and Emily, and putting this movie together has been their main preoccupation since the [actors’ and writers’] strikes ended last year.”

With all the buzz surrounding the upcoming film, Emily and Dwayne could also cash in big at next year’s Academy Awards.

“She wants Dwayne to win an Oscar, and that’s so crazy it just might work!” says the source. “There was a lot of skepticism when Emily and Dwayne made their unexpected real-life friendship a selling point when they were pushing their last movie Jungle Cruise, but it really has endured, in no small part due to Emily and her husband John Krasinski dead set on having exclusively household names in their friend group! It’s weird, and slightly pathological, but that’s Hollywood for you!”

“The people who are jealous of that — and there are plenty of them — are the ones who were never invited into the friend group in the first place.”

During an appearance on The Howard Stern Show in April, Emily gushed about her working relationship with The Rock, telling host Howard Stern, “I love him.”

She even revealed that they’re both very generous. After they wrapped Jungle Cruise, Emily gave him a signed Raiders of the Lost Ark poster in celebration of finishing the film.

“I love giving a wrap gift. I don’t expect one in return, I just think it’s important. You’ve survived this thing together — you’ve been in this insular world, these incredibly accelerated friendships. You’ve done something impossible. It’s impossible to make a film.”

As for The Rock, he has also “given me lots of gifts,” Emily revealed. “He sends me endless tequila. Endless!”