Guardians of the Galaxy is inarguably the film that cemented Dave Bautista's jump from the wrestling ring to the big screen, but it was a brief role in Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 that catapulted him firmly into "oh crap, he can act" territory. As a soon-to-be-retired Replicant named Sapper Morton, Bautista brought a shocking tenderness to his sole scene, portraying Sapper as a fragile, broken-down piece of machinery in a strongman's body. So if you were excited to see that Bautista is re-teaming with Villeneuve for the highly-anticipated Dune adaptation, know that you were only half as enthused as the man himself. When I sat down recently with the actor to talk Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead, we also discussed the great honor he felt in Villeneuve offering an integral part of his massive sci-fi epic, a role that Bautista says will "have people looking at me differently" in the same vein as Blade Runner 2049.
Here's exactly what Bautista said:
"We tracked that movie for months because I wanted to be a part of it so bad. I never reached out, because I don’t want to be that guy, like 'Hey, Denis, is there a part for me?' I never wanted to be that guy. But he actually called me, he didn’t say anything like 'so there’s this part…' He just straight up asked me if I would come and play this part. I was so taken aback I didn’t even know what to say, except for, obviously, 'yes.' Moments like that really gauge how far I’ve come, as an actor. There’s a lot of pride in it for me that a director like Denis would call like that and offer me a role in a film that I know is going to be enormous. Because people have been waiting for this for years and years and years. And people are so passionate about the novels. So for him to offer me such an integral part of this film, for me, it was a personal statement. I can’t purchase that type of emotion, that sense of pride. These are the few moments in life where I get that, where I feel like my life is worth something, I did something with my life. My life means something."
In Dune, an adaptation of Frank Herbert's landmark sci-fi series, Bautista plays Glossu Rabban, the cruel and sadistic nephew to the story's main antagonist, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård). If it was up to Bautista, that's all he'd know about the film; dating back to Avengers: Infinity War, the actor has preferred to read as little of a given script as possible to avoid spoilers. But Villeneuve urged him to read the entire Dune script, an experience Bautista described as overwhelming due to the story's sheer scope.
"I was blown away [by the script]. I was blown away. It’s weird, because when I read Blade Runner, when I read Dune, it’s hard for me to know what their visions are. Especially what Denis’ vision is, because the worlds they create are just so enormous. I don’t think I could ever direct a film like that. My talent would lie in a very contained drama, that’s what I would like to do, that’s what I aspire to do. But creating these—even like James [Gunn]—these universes, these galaxies, they’re just so far over my head. So I read it and thought it was beautiful, I was emotionally invested in the script and the characters, but I don’t think my imagination stretches that far to create these worlds."
So is Dune the enormous event promised by those trailers? "Absolutely," Bautista says.
Check out what Bautista had to say in the player above, and be on the lookout for the rest of our interview—which also includes stories about making Army of the Dead, Blade Runner 2049, Guardians of the Galaxy, and more—late this week. Dune is set to hit theaters and HBO Max on October 1, 2021.