Would you believe that Dave Bautista is actually an introvert? Given his huge persona on screen, both as a wrestler and as Drax, I would have never believed it. Especially in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 where his character is so funny! (I love how they allowed us to get to see another side of his character). That’s why I love interviews, you get to know so much more about the celebrities we love.
Dave Bautista is such a nice guy. Here’s what he had to say about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- When he first read the script for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, he wasn’t excited about it. “When I first read the script, I wasn’t crazy about it…when I usually get a script I go over my dialogue first. So, I read over my dialogue and for one I was expecting them to go a different direction with Drax. I thought he was gonna be more of the destroyer. I thought he was gonna be a more comic book Drax and then I realized they were digging more into the funny bits. And I don’t find myself funny at all, so when I was reading these lines I was like they’re not funny. [LAUGHS] I just didn’t really get ‘em and I read the script, and I thought, wow, this is really a great script. It’s deep. It’s emotional, but I still was a little bit disappointed about my part. And then the first day we did our table read, I realized it was hysterical. [LAUGHS] And then I just had a completely different outlook on it as a whole.”
- He doesn’t enjoy watching himself on film. “…I don’t like watching myself on screen. It’s just uncomfortable for me. That’s why, when we were filming and we watched playbacks, everybody knows that I don’t like ‘em…they’ll call Zoë, call Chris to watch the playbacks. They don’t call me to watch playbacks, ’cause they know I won’t sit there and watch it.”
- Dave initially didn’t think that there was a comparison between his time as a wrestler and his character, Drax but something that someone said to him recently really resonated with him. “…someone said something to me the other day that kinda resonated a little bit, and I never really put any thought into it. He was making the comparison, and I said there’s no comparison. I said wrestling is so big and so broad and such a big improvisational physical performance, and acting is so intimate. He goes, yeah, but Drax is so big. He’s so larger than life. And I never really thought about it, but it really is. So, maybe subconsciously it does help a little bit, ’cause Drax is definitely not who I am. He’s big and boisterous and a little bit egotistical and proud. [CHUCKLES] And I’m just not that. I’m just much more self-conscious and understated. I just never really thought much about it and I never put it in that perspective. But, yeah, maybe it does have something to do with it, especially when, you know, Drax starts laughing. It’s just so big and ridiculous.” [LAUGHS]
- If he had any input into his story line in future films, he would want them to show Drax’s family. “…if I had some input in it, what I’d really love is for people to have a visual…I’d love if they would actually show Drax’s family…You know, some of the race of beings that he comes from. You know, I’d like to see more Drax, more people with different tattoos and just that race of people. But I’d really think it would be great if the audience could just have a visual of Drax’s family.”
- His make up process now only takes about an hour and a half. ” It takes about an hour and a half now. On the first film — and that’s kind of a bad day. On the first film it took like four to six hours. it was just like these big sheets of silicone, but it’s like these glue transfers that they have and it takes about an hour a half. It’s really hard to get off, but otherwise it goes on really fast and I can’t complain. I think regularly Zoë and Karen had like two, three a.m. pickups.”
- There’s a lot of great chemistry within the cast. “…I mean a lot of great chemistry. We also got really close in the first film. We’ve spent so much time together on press tours and whatnot. And now we’ve actually done like three films together as the Guardians. We’ve done, Guardians 1 and 2 and gone to the Avengers. So, we’ve spent a lot of time together…it just kinda naturally happened. We don’t just overthink it. And it’s really a huge luxury coming into the second one. It’s like I felt comfortable with everybody. It didn’t have to feel self-conscious, ’cause they knew I was a little awkward and they kinda accept that about me. They don’t judge me for it and I know they’re not going to. Sometimes I still get inside my head and self-conscious about it…”
Since he mentioned Avengers, I couldn’t pass up on the chance to ask him if there was anything he wanted to share about it. ”
I would love the spill the beans [LAUGHS] I can tell you this. We’re in the Avengers. [LAUGHS]
But here was my fear going into the Avengers was that they were gonna try to make us into characters that we weren’t, they were gonna take their of the Guardians and try to go with that and not let us be James Gunn’s Guardians. And it was completely opposite. We had the luxury of James doing a lot of the writing for us. And also when we showed up the, Russo brothers were just so encouraging of us being our characters. And a lot of times ’cause this — we have a certain way of doing things. I mean we’ve done two films. You have the two Guardians films…we just bounce off each other. Chris hardly ever says anything that’s actually on page. [LAUGHS] You know, he says it a bunch of different times and a bunch of different ways. So, that’s just the way we do things. We bounce and we’re very flexible. And they were just very encouraging of just letting us do things our way.
Not only that but they really liked it. Like they really appreciate it. They — a lot of times we would say something that wasn’t even on page, wasn’t even close to what was on page and they’d come running on, what was that you said on the last take? And we’d say it again. They’d say, yeah, do that again. And then [LAUGHS] [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. Yeah, and they just kinda let us be ourselves, man. It was great.”
Want more Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Interviews? Check out my interview with Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Kurt Russell, James Gunn, Kevin Feige, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff & Elizabeth Debicki.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is in theaters May 5th!
Note: Disney provided me with an all-expenses paid press trip, in exchange for my coverage of the world premiere of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. However, ALL opinions are my own.
