{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Write On: 'The Smashing Machine' Writer\/Director Benny Safdie","description":"Writer\/Director\/Actor\/Editor Benny Safdie is known for defying expectations and using his sense of humor to make a splash. He even once showed up on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon dressed all in silver, including painted silver hair and skin. So when we sat down with Safdie over Zoom to talk about his latest movie The Smashing Machine, we weren\u2019t sure what to expect. For this interview, however, there was no face paint or sparkly clothes, he was simply wearing a shirt that said, \u201cRadical Empathy.\u201d Turns out there\u2019s a very important reason for the shirt. \u201cEmpathy should be cool, you know?\u201d says Safdie. \u201cAnd for this movie, I want to put you in the mind of somebody who looks invincible and you're going to feel their pain. You're going to feel what it's like to be them. You're going to be connected to them when you go in the ring. If you could be empathetic on such a deep level, where their feelings and emotions become your own, that's radical. That's a radical form of empathy. And that's what I was trying to do with the movie.\u201d Given what Safdie says, it\u2019s no secret that all great writing starts with radical empathy.  On this episode of the podcast, we chat with him about his film The Smashing Machine starring Dwayne Johnson as UFC star Mark Kerr and Emily Blunt as his romantic partner Dawn.  Safdie talks about his personal connection to boxing and MMA, why a narrative film can tell a much deeper story than a documentary, and the highly charged fighting between Mark and Dawn that took place out of the ring, and why they ultimately couldn\u2019t make their relationship work.  To learn more, listen to the podcast.    ","author_name":"Write On: A Screenwriting Podcast","author_url":"https:\/\/www.finaldraft.com","html":"