He may have made his name in James Gunn's 'Guardians of the Galaxy' franchise, but it seems that Dave Bautista is more than ready to leave that role in the past.
With his performance in the likes of 'Knives Out: Glass Onion' taking him down a route that offers more 'serious' characters - soon to be follow-up with a big part in M. Night Shyamalan's 'Knock at the Cabin' and Denis Villeneuve's 'Dune' sequel - former WWE wrestler Bautista has dismissed the role of Drax in a new interview.
He told GQ magazine that he was happy to be leaving the comic book character - who features in multiple films across the MCU, including 'Avengers: Endgame' and 'Thor: Love and Thunder' - behind after ten years of playing him.
"I'm so grateful for Drax. I love him. But there’s a relief [that it’s over],” he said. "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."
Despite his burgeoning career, Bautista also claimed that he was not interested in being a 'movie star'. "Honestly, I could give a fuck,” he said. “I don’t live a great big glamorous life. I live here in Tampa. I don’t care about the spotlight, I don’t care about fame. I just want to be a better actor. I want respect from my peers. I don’t need accolades — I really don’t, man. It’s about the experience, about knowing that I accomplished something."
Bautista had previously been critical of Marvel and their unwillingness to develop the character of Drax in a 2021 interview with Collider. "I really wished they would have invested more in Drax, personally,” he said. “Because I think Drax has more of a story to tell. I think Drax has a really interesting backstory, which they dropped the ball on. That’s no dig on Marvel. They had their slate, I know what they’re focused on, that’s what they have [it] slated out. But man, I think they really missed the ball on Drax. He has such a great backstory."
