Batista was a recent guest on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia and he was asked about whether or not The Rock motivated him or made things easier in his pursuit of a Hollywood career. Batista said it didn’t, due to the fact that things weren’t easier for him. He went on to praise The Rock’s career, calling him a star on another level, and also said he’s proud of himself for being able to play a wider range of roles that might not work for Johnson:
“I don’t know if he did. I don’t think that he made things easier for me, because things weren’t easy for me. He’s such a standalone person that it’s hard to judge, to me, there’s just something really special about him. I don’t anybody would hold to his standard. He’s on a different level; he’s just a star. You’ve been in the same room, you knew him before I did. There’s something special about that dude, and it’s hard to put your finger on exactly what it is, but there’s something special about him. You feel him walk into the room and he’s got a certain energy about him.
I think it shows in what we’ve done in our respective films. Obviously his are on a grander scale, but his roles are roles that I wouldn’t necessarily be interested in. We’ve both taken our different avenues.
Somebody made this comparison and I thought it was great—I found it flattering, but I don’t think either of these two guys would find it offensive—they said ‘could you imagine Dave Bautista in a Fast And Furious type role?’ Probably, yes. Then they said ‘could you imagine John Cena or Dwayne Johnson playing the character that Dave played in Blade Runner 2049?’ I can’t see it either, and for me that says a lot. That’s going to be what defines me. I can cross over, I can do ‘Sherlock’, I can do action, comedy. I can do those roles with highly respected actors.”
When asked if The Rock in Hollywood motivated him, Batista also said no it didn’t, because he didn’t have any interest in acting when it happened. Batista went on to explain that he fell into acting by chance, and ending up falling in love with it after he took a small role and saw how bad he was at it:
“Not to take anything away from him, but it didn’t. At that time, even when he was crushing it, I had no interest in movies. No, I fell into it by accident and became obsessed with it. The first film I did—and I had done a couple of acting roles while I was with the company, but still had zero interest in becoming an actor—but I had done this film called Wrong Side Of Town, also starring Rob Van Dam. I did it as a favor to the director, who I love to death, a guy named Dave DeFalco. He offered me the role in the film, and originally it was just written really bad, and I asked if there’s any way they’d let me contribute. He said sure, so I wrote it and I was just mortified at how bad at acting I was. That’s when I realized I wanted to do more. I wanted to be better, I was really embarrassed, and I felt so self-conscious about being so bad at it. It lit a fire under my ass to be a better actor, and literally that’s how it all started.”
Related: Batista Explains His Reaction To Stephen Amell’s ‘Celebrity Angle’ Dig About His WrestleMania Match
Listen to “Dave Bautista – The Need For Closure and Showing Vulnerability” on Spreaker.
