The big guy and the little spy
In his new comedic action movie My Spy, wrestler-turned-actor Dave Bautista shows his range continues to grow
After playing Drax the Destroyer in Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014), Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), Dave Bautista knows all about big movie stars.
However, his new film, My Spy,
taught him some new things about little movie stars.
Opening in Thailand on March 12, My Spy casts Bautista as a hardened CIA operative forced to team up with a nineyear-old kid, played by Chloe Coleman, who was 10 when the film was shot.
“I grew up in locker rooms, so she broke out the swear jar,” Bautista recalled with a laugh during an interview in Las Vegas. “I think the fee was about US$2 (60 baht) a swear word, which is expensive. There were dinners where the kid really made some nice change.
“She’d bring the jar with her and go home with a hundred bucks,” said the 195cm-tall wrestler-turned-actor, clad in blue jeans and a silky blue shirt. “It was a pretty good side business.”
In My Spy, Bautista plays JJ, a CIA agent who is caught spying by nineyear-old Sophie. He claims it’s a routine surveillance operation, but she realises that he’s spying on her family. They make a deal: She won’t blow his cover if JJ agrees to show the precocious young girl how to become a spy. She proves that age means nothing when it comes to outsmarting a seasoned agent.
The idea for the movie came from the production company, STX Films, which saw Bautista as a potential star of a family comedy.
“I talked to STX and they said, ‘We just really want to be in business with you’,” the actor recalled. “They told me, ‘We want to do something along the vein of Kindergarten Cop [1990]’. Everyone started throwing out ideas, and we were off to the races.”
JJ is a good man to have on your side when battling a gang of killers, but he’s out of his depth in dealing with Sophie.
“He’s good at his job — he’s just not that good with people,” Bautista said. “Somewhere along the line, working with this little girl, he finds his heart.”
In a separate interview Coleman, who is best known for playing Skye, daughter of Bonnie Carlson (Zoe Kravitz) on HBO’s Big Little Lies, called her character “a master manipulator. She’s very smart and very clever”, Coleman said with a laugh. “She really gets to this guy, JJ, with all these tricks up her little sleeve.”
An old stage adage warns actors against working with kids or animals, but Bautista wasn’t buying into it.
“She was more prepared with her lines and is much smarter than me,” he said. “It was such a learning experience. She was so professional and mature — two things I’m not.”
Coleman returned the compliments. “He has such a warm energy,” she said. “I just loved being around him. Each day on the set, I was like, ‘Where is Dave? I want to find Dave.’ He became such a dear friend for life.”
“We still FaceTime,” Bautista added. “We’re buds.”
He owes that relationship, and most of the other good things that have come to him lately, to having been cast as Drax in Guardians Of The Galaxy. It was a role he wanted desperately, but didn’t expect to get.
“My agent told me not to get my hopes up,” Bautista recalled. “He said it was a real long shot. But, each time I went in, I felt like I was getting better. I was also getting emotionally attached to the role. I’d go home and read the internet rumours, such as that Jason Momoa got the role. I wanted it so badly.
“One day I was on my way to the gym and I got the call from my agent,” he continued. “Then he said, ‘Hold on for a moment’. I was freaking out! I knew it was about Guardians, and I thought they were going to tell me that I didn’t get the role.”
Instead he got the opposite news. “I literally pulled my car over and broke down,” Bautista said. “I started screaming. I was in shock. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I wanted that role. I needed that role.
“And I’ve been working ever since.” Bautista grew up in Washington, where his father worked as a hairdresser.
“I was real shy growing up, because I was different — I had asthma,” he recalled. “My mom wouldn’t let me go out and play, because it was dangerous to me. I might have an asthma attack. So instead she would sit me in front of the TV, where I became a big fan of superheroes. I couldn’t wait for Batman each day. I was that kid who would sit in front of the TV for hours.”
When he got a bit older, Bautista found another release.
“My salvation during tough times was in the gym,” he said. “It was always a sanctuary for me and gave me peace. It was my outlet.” Bautista followed his fitness dream to the wrestling ring, ignoring an early setback when the WCW Power Plant gave him a tryout and then told him that he’d never make it in the wrestling business.
He proved them wrong, starting his career in Ohio Valley Wrestling, a WWE developmental territory. He wrestled there from 2000-02, calling himself Leviathan. Then Bautista joined the WWE as a bodyguard to Devon Hughes under the Smackdown brand and, later, on Raw. He also joined Ric Flair, Triple H and Randy Orton in a popular team called Evolution.
Bautista’s signature finishing moves were the Bautista Bomb and the Double Leg Spinebuster.
His years of wrestling paid big dividends, Bautista said.
“You develop a strong work ethic,” he explained. “You work your [tail] off and make a living. Or they’ll bring in the next guy.”
The next step was natural: acting. Bautista made his television debut as Aldar, an alien who sucks the bones out of people, on Smallville (2006).
He’s best known for his four outings as Drax, of course, but Bautista also has been seen in The Man With
The Iron Fists (2012), Riddick (2013), Spectre (2015), Heist (2015), Marauders (2016), Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and Hotel Artemis (2018).
That pace isn’t slowing. Bautista will star in Zack Snyder’s Army Of The Dead, in which a zombie outbreak destroys Las Vegas and a group of mercenaries enters the quarantine zone to pull off a heist. He’ll also be seen with Josh Brolin, Timothee Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa and Zendaya in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, a new version of Frank Herbert’s classic science-fiction novel.
Then, of course, there’s Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3, which is in preproduction. Naturally Bautista has been sworn to silence about the details of the story.
“I could say something,” the actor said with a smile, “but I won’t.”
He feels that he’s improved with each appearance as Drax. “I’ve really learned on the job,” Bautista said.
“It has been an education with each film. Sure, I’ve done a few paycheck roles, but for the most part I’m really particular, because I’m a student of acting. I want to learn from the best. More than anything, I want to learn to be a better actor.”
He also wants to learn to be a better movie star, which is a whole different thing.
“I get a little nervous,” Bautista admitted. “Talking to large crowds can be terrifying. Red carpets can be strange. Sometimes I just want to escape, because everyone looks so cool and I’m so big and gangly.”
He’s more comfortable with the kids who come up to ask questions about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Recently, for example, one asked: “What other Marvel character would you like to be?”
“Easy,” Bautista said. “Black Panther. He has the badass suit, and I love his fighting style.”
He has such a warm energy. I just loved being around him