Dave Bautista Knows Exactly When He's Leaving the MCU

Dave Bautista will reprise the role of Drax the Destroyer in the upcoming sci-fi superhero sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but now confirmed that this will be his final time playing the character. In a recent interview with GQ, the wrestler-turned-actor revealed that the time has come for him to leave the Marvel Cinematic Universe after nearly 10 years, in order to pursue new challenges as an actor.

"I'm so grateful for Drax. I love him," he said. "But there's a relief [that it's 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."

While Bautista's acting career has followed a similar trajectory to other former WWE stars like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and John Cena who have made the transition to movies, he clarified that he is more interested in finding interesting roles than he is in leading big action franchises. "I never wanted to be the next Rock," he puts it plainly. "I just want to be a good fucking actor. A respected actor."

He intends to continue to push himself as a performer, he explained, by seeking out directors who will push him, like auteur filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, whom he worked with on Dune.

"If I could be a number one [on the callsheet] with Denis, I would do it for fucking free," he says. "I think that's how I could find out how good I could be. He brings out the best in me. He sees me in a different light, sees the performer that I want to be. That might be how I solve the puzzle."

Most recently, Bautista has been garnering acclaim for his performance as Duke, an alt-right streamer, in Rian Johnson's whodunnit Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, and will next appear as the antagonist of M. Night Shyamalan's horror thriller Knock at the Cabin—which puts him front and center in a way we have never seen before.

"It's by far the most I've ever spoken in a film," he says. "Just huge pages of monologues. We were shooting on film, which is very expensive. And we were shooting with one camera, so you don’t have the luxury of edits. It’s your only opportunity—you need a perfect take. It’s a lot of pressure."

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