They might share a related physique and preceding perform experience, but Dave Bautista is adamant that he is not the second coming of Dwayne Johnson. “I in no way wished to be the future Rock,” the former WWE star claims emphatically in a new GQ interview. “I just want to be a very good f***ing actor. A highly regarded actor.”
As the magazine notes, Bautista’s ambitions are spending off with a run of initiatives that are poised to win him both of those respect and box place of work pounds. He’s at present part of the ensemble of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out adhere to-up, Glass Onion, which parlayed a effective restricted theatrical run into large Netflix streaming numbers.
And in 2023, Bautista is established to look in A Knock at the Cabin, the subsequent motion picture from reliable hitmaker M. Evening Shyamalan James Gunn’s trilogy-capping Marvel adventure Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Denis Villeneuve’s hotly-predicted Dune: Part Two. That’s a line-up that undoubtedly distinguishes him from Johnson, who is coming off of two underwhelming would-be franchise starters — the animated DC League of Tremendous-Animals and the dwell action Black Adam — and whose only 2023 element movie (so far) is the Amazon Studios-backed Xmas journey, Purple One particular.
For the report, Bautista has sought to distance himself from other wrestlers-turned-actors in advance of. In a 2019 job interview with The Tampa Bay Periods,, he identified as Johnson a “film star before he was even a film star,” even though also introducing “Would I take into account him a terrific actor? F*** no.”
And in 2021, he took to Twitter to publicly reject a fan pitch to team up with Johnson and John Cena in an action motion picture. “Nah I’m superior,” he wrote in response, later on issuing a stick to-up tweet indicating that he didn’t want to be “lumped in” with his WWE cohorts. (Back again in his wrestling days, Bautista and Cena tangled in the ring a number of moments, and he was portion of a three-male workforce that took on the Rock and Mick Foley at Wrestlemania XX in 2004.)
Whilst Johnson hasn’t commented on Bautista’s remarks more than the many years, Cena has designed it apparent that he understands the place the ex-wrestler is coming from and will not choose it individually. “Dave has labored so challenging on his craft,” he informed Esquire in 2021 when requested about Bautista’s Twitter remarks. “I don’t have any beef with Dave and I seriously truly imagine Dave does not have any beef with me. He truly just wishes to be recognized and regarded for his get the job done. And I are unable to fault him for that. I applaud him for it.”
Bautista could not appear to Cena or the Rock for acting inspiration, but he tells GQ that he did soak up some early vocation information from a different wrestling icon-turned-actor: “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. “Ahead of I left WWE, [Steve] pulled me aside and claimed, ‘You’re heading to get gives for horrible scripts. The money will be tempting. Really do not get caught in that lure.’” (Austin’s filmography included roles in The Expendables, Grown Ups 2 and direct-to-video titles like Highest Conviction.)
With Austin’s words ringing in his ears, Bautista says that he was deliberately “picky and picky” about deciding upon movie jobs — an method that paid off when he landed his vocation-reworking position as Drax the Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy, a character he is now ready to depart in the rearview. “There is a relief [that it’s over],” he admits, acquiring formerly complained about the “shirtless scenes” essential for his Marvel Cinematic Universe appearances. “The makeup process was beating me down. And I just never know if I want Drax to be my legacy — it’s a silly performance, and I want to do far more dramatic things.”
In addition to having remarkable, Bautista has also sought out the challenge of having on extra major roles, starting with Zack Snyder’s Army of the Useless.”I preferred to be the chief, it was a little something I chased following,” Bautista informed Yahoo Leisure in 2021 in the course of an interview for that zombie action motion picture. “But I hardly ever felt like I was the heart of awareness on established, since if you look at the film, you see that every single character receives their minute to glow.”
Speaking with GQ, Bautista teases that A Knock at the Cabin represents another leap forward for his acting vocation. “It is by far the most I’ve at any time spoken in a film,” he reveals. “Just enormous webpages of monologues … It’s a great deal of force. I want to bear in mind my dialogue, but not at the expenditure of losing the emotion of the scene.”
Glass Onion is at this time streaming on Netflix