MMA legend Ryan Bader makes his acting debut in The Smashing Machine — and it didn’t take him long to realize he was in uncharted territory after filming with costar Emily Blunt.

“We have a scene where she runs up and she’s bawling,” Bader, 42, exclusively told Us Weekly. “I’m holding her and this and that. They’re like, ‘All right, cut!’ [Director Benny Safdie] was like, ‘That was great, we’ll do another one.’ She stops crying. We’re talking. We go back and she’s just absolutely bawling again. I’m like, ‘How does that happen?’”

He added, “They were maybe going to have me cry. I was like, ‘You guys got any bear spray to spray me with so we can get some tears out?’”

Bader, a former Bellator World Heavyweight Champion and UFC fighter, plays MMA pioneer Mark Coleman in The Smashing Machine

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