Dave Bautista Asked for Rom-Com Roles, and Now He’s Getting Them

Former WWE wrestler turned actor Dave Bautista lamented in a Page Six interview final yr that he had by no means been supplied a rom-com function, questioning if maybe he simply didn’t match the visible mould of the style. Earlier this week, nonetheless, Bautista reported that he was lastly receiving calls about his dream character, teasing a softer aspect of the star’s usually hardcore persona that followers haven’t seen earlier than.

With a repertoire chock-full of motion heroes and tough-guy roles, it’s no surprise that Bautista is on the hunt for one thing completely different. In January 2023, he expressed an unfulfilled need to behave in a romantic comedy, however stated that he’d by no means acquired gives for such a component — presumably resulting from his “tough across the edges” look. Happily, based on the Hollywood Insider, the tide appears to have turned for Bautista. The actor acknowledged that, following his feedback in January, he started receiving calls about potential rom-com roles nearly instantly, and is now within the strategy of creating a number of of these concepts.

Though Bautista emphasised his want to star in a real romantic comedy — not simply an motion film with romantic and comedic parts — he’s already transferring in direction of his purpose in J.J. Perry’s The Killer’s Recreation, the place Bautista performs a number one man with a love curiosity for the primary time in his profession. The movie casts Bautista as an murderer identified with a terminal sickness who authorizes successful on himself solely to find that he was misdiagnosed, and features a romance sub-plot with a girl performed by Algerian actress Sofia Boutella. One of these character is a major step for Bautista, who confessed that the function was a nerve-wracking however in the end essential problem so as to attain his final purpose because the main love curiosity in a real romantic comedy.

Dave Bautista’s Lengthy Street to Romance

In what might have been the most effective profession determination of his life, Bautista started showing in movies as early as 2012 — and seemingly by no means seemed again. Since then, he’s performed a really spectacular plethora of characters, from muscled powerhouses like Drax the Destroyer within the MCU and Duke in Glass Onion, to a foreboding villain in Dune and a mysterious harbinger in M. Evening Shyamalan’s horror movie Knock on the Cabin. This extensive number of roles emphasizes Bautista’s potential to ship unimaginable and drama-packed performances no matter style, and plenty of followers consider {that a} Bautista-led rom-com would mark one more success for the multi-faceted actor.

Though Bautista himself appears to consider that his bodily look will not be fairly suited to romantic characters, followers had been fast to supply potential rom-com plots upon listening to Bautista’s curiosity within the style. For instance, one Reddit person steered utilizing Bautista’s visage to his benefit, subverting audiences’ expectations by having him play a softer, extra home character, whereas his love curiosity is a tough-as-nails hitman or murderer. Others most well-liked to stay to extra conventional plots, envisioning Bautista as a bookshop proprietor or a barista. Both approach, although, the prospect of a Bautista rom-com within the close to future has many followers on the fringe of their seats.