Dave Bautista recently told Collider that he is not going to work with people he doesn’t like anymore because it’s “absolutely terrible.” He was fortunate enough to reach the threshold in his acting career that allowed him to choose the projects he undertakes and the actors he will be co-stars.
“I’m just old, at a point in my life that was way too bad,” Bautista said. “I love this business so I just want to work with people I love and respect. I love filmmaking and if people don’t want to be there, I don’t want to be with them. Do you know?”
“I’m happy to be there. It’s love for me and I’m passionate about it,” Bautista added. “I want to be there and I want to make the most of it, so I don’t want to hear people being stupid, complaining and moaning about doing what we’re lucky enough to do or make.”
Bautista has long been candid about his desire to diversify his acting films, far beyond his groundbreaking role as Drax the Destroyer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. He loses weight to access a larger pool of acting roles.
“I started trimming because I really got bigger because of the role, and it got bigger and bigger, which was annoyingly big,” Bautista said last year. “I’ve grown really big to ‘knock the cabin’. I was about 315 pounds… I really put on a weight fast, put on an uncomfortable amount of weight, and took me forever to throw it away. ”
“The more I cropped, the better I looked at the camera and I looked next to the other actors,” he explained. “I’m still a big person. At 6’4 and 240 pounds next to your typical actor, I look like a gorilla and get distracted. I’ll probably lose a little more pounds.”
Bautista told GQ Magazine “I just want to be a good fucking actor. A respected actor.” For this reason, he has always valued his collaborations with Denis Villeneuve, including Blade Runner 2049 and Dune films.
“Until Dennis, there’s never been a director since Dennis said you were a very strong actor,” Bautista told Gizmodo last year. “And he told me this in the first film. I was self-conscious, so I was holding back (and) I was very unsure of myself. And he came to me. He said, “You feel like you are holding back. You are a very strong actor, my friend, follow your instincts.” And I began to make it a belt, and when you were able to get my performance, it was I had with the director of that ability.
Bautista is currently appearing in Afterburn and is currently performing in theaters. His upcoming credits include the voice roles of the action thriller Trap House, the indie science fiction film Alpha Gang and The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender.
