Dave Bautista, now starring in Netflix’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, tells GQ he’s relieved to be done playing Drax The Destroyer in Marvel’s The Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
The former pro wrestler-turned-actor told the magazine the story of his rags-to-riches career, from broke wannabe wrestler to WWE superstar who gave it up to be a struggling actor.
After appearing in November’s The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special as the gray-skinned, overly literal alien, Bautista has one more go-round as Drax, in May’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which has already wrapped.
“I’m so grateful for Drax. I love him,” the actor says. “But there’s a relief [that it is over]. It wasn’t all pleasant. It was hard playing that role. The makeup process was beating me down. And I just don’t know if I want Drax to be my legacy — it’s a silly performance, and I want to do more dramatic stuff.”
That said, Bautista fondly recalls how he learned he landed the role that helped launch his career: A phone call from Marvel Studios as he was on his way to the gym. “I had to pull over because I was crying so hard,” Bautista says. “I turned right back around and walked into my house shaking to tell my wife I had gotten the role, and we were both standing there freaking out.”
Bautista followed the Guardians movies with more dramatic parts, like director Denis Villenueve‘s 2017 film Blade Runner 2049. He worked with the Oscar-nominated director again in 2021’s Dune reboot.
He’ll soon be seen in the next film from another acclaimed director, M. Night Shyamalan, in the thriller A Knock at the Cabin, which debuts in theaters February 3.
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