Five years ago, Dave Bautista was best known as a professional wrestler, but it’s amazing what can change in half a decade. Now Bautista has built a solid resume of acting work. However, for those of you who were hoping that Bautista might lend his talents to franchises like The Fast and the Furious or Transformers, don’t hold your breath, as he explained his reasoning for avoiding such movies thusly:
I want good roles. I don’t care about Fast and Furious or Bumblebee. ... That’s not the kind of stardom I want. ... I want to be in Dune. I want to work with Denis Villeneuve. I want to work with Sam Mendes and Jodie Foster. I want to work with Academy Award winners. I’m proud to be a character actor. I want that respect and credibility and education.
Given his physicality and time as Drax the Destroyer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you’d think it would be easy enough for Dave Bautista to leave his mark on other action franchises, just like what fellow wrestlers Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and John Cena have done. But as he said in an interview with The Tampa Bay Times, he’s not interested in that kind of acting career. He’d rather focus on enhancing his work as a character actor and collaborate with the top filmmakers and performers of the industry. In other words, don’t expect to see Bautista pulling off car-centric heists or coming face-to-face with Autobots and Decepticons.
Even though Dave Bautista is still arguably best known on the acting front for playing Drax, he’s certainly done a good job of diversifying his acting career. His other notable credits include Spectre, where he was directed by Sam Mendes; Hotel Artemis, where he acted alongside Jodie Foster; and Blade Runner 2049, which was directed by Denis Villeneuve. And just because Bautista’s not interested in joining the Fast and the Furious or Transformers franchises doesn’t mean he’s given up on action-oriented projects outside of the Marvel sphere, as evidenced by him starring in 2016’s Kickboxer: Vengeance and last year’s Escape Plan 2: Hades, to name a couple examples.
Perhaps Dave Bautista will change his mind on appearing in a Fast and the Furious or Transformers movie down the line if a meaningful enough role is offered to him. For now, though, he has enough to keep himself busy. This year alone, he’s reprising Drax in Avengers: Endgame (his fourth time playing the character), and he’s also starring in Stuber, Escape Plan 3: Devil’s Station and My Spy coming later this year. As for 2020 and beyond, Bautista will be teaming up with Denis Villeneuve again for Dune, where he’ll play Glossu ‘Beast’ Rabban, and while the actor was vocal about his dissatisfaction with Disney firing James Gunn from the MCU, as far as we know, he’ll still play Drax again in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all the latest updates on what’s happening with Dave Bautista’s acting career. In the meantime, don’t forget to look through our 2019 release schedule to find out what other movies are hitting theaters later this year.
