How “The Smashing Machine” Makeup Designer Kazu Hiro Transformed Dwayne Johnson into MMA Legend Mark Kerr

Veteran prosthetic makeup designer Kazu Hiro has garnered two Oscars for his outstanding work: one for transforming actor Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill for Darkest Hour, and the other for transforming Charlize Theron into Megyn Kelly for Bombshell. More recently, he was nominated for sculpting Bradley Cooper’s visage as legendary composer Leonard Bernstein in Maestro.

But for writer/director Benny Safdie’s biographical drama about the beginnings of mixed martial arts (“MMA”) and what would eventually become the UFC,