© Marvel Studios
With a summer blockbuster behind him and a role as a henchman in a James Bond film on the horizon, Dave Bautista is the latest professional wrestler to flip successfully from the ring to the multiplex.
“Wrestling is storytelling,” Bautista once said – and no wonder. The stage names, costumes, signature moves, and theatrics of the arena guarantee these athletes put on a show between power-slams. Those who venture into acting tend to veer toward genres that play to their strengths: action and comedy.
Bautista, a repeated WWE World Heavyweight Champion, won over critics and mainstream audiences alike last summer with his deadpan turn as Drax in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” He brought “ferocity and feeling” to a tattooed alien who wants revenge for the deaths of his wife and daughter – and takes figures of speech as literally as Amelia Bedelia.
“Nothing goes over my head,” he says in the film at one point. “My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it.”
The official James Bond 007 Facebook page this month released stunning photos of the Austrian Alps where Bautista, Daniel Craig, and Léa Seydoux are filming “Spectre,” the twenty-fourth film in the franchise based on the books by Ian Fleming. Bautista plays the villainous Mr. Hinx. The film co-stars Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes, and Monica Bellucci.
At Word and Film today, I highlight other wrestlers such as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Andre the Giant, Woody Strode, and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper who have smacked down audiences and critics by appearing in adaptive works.