Batista reflects on getting into acting and shares some important advice Steve Austin gave him.
Throughout the 2000s, Batista was one of WWE's top stars. He won six world titles, and he also won the Royal Rumble in 2005. By 2010, Batista was still a main-eventer, but he decided to leave the company following his feud with John Cena. Batista later returned to WWE in 2014, and he won the Royal Rumble match. He then headlined WrestleMania XXX in a Triple Threat Match against Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan. Following a brief run with Orton and Triple H as the reformed Evolution, Batista left the company again. He returned for again in 2019, and he retired after he lost to Triple H at WrestleMania 35.
Speaking with GQ, Batista looked back on the end of his first run with WWE. He recalled how both he and John Cena were headlining shows, but they weren't being treated equally, as Cena was clearly the face of the company. Batista made it clear that he wanted more, particularly when it came to getting opportunities outside of wrestling.
“John Cena and I were both headlining shows. “I was [the face of] SmackDown. He was Raw. But he was being used in [WWE-produced] films and television commercials and magazines, and I was just headlining shows. In fact, there was one point where he was off making a film and I was headlining both sets of shows and the pay-per-views. It was just a feeling of, ‘We’re not getting equal opportunities,'" Batista said.
Batista then noted that, prior to his exit from WWE, he "couldn't have cared less" about acting, as he was coming into his own as a wrestler, but he decided to move in a new direction when it became clear that he and Cena weren't getting equal opportunities. The article notes that Batista's decision to bet on himself didn't initially pay off, as he says he "lost everything" during these early struggles. He then described how WWE legend Steve Austin gave him some advice before he left the company, and it shaped his approach to acting.
“Before I left WWE, Stone Cold Steve Austin pulled me aside and said, ‘You’re going to get offers for horrible scripts. The money will be tempting. Don’t get caught in that trap,'" Batista said.
This lesson led to Batista being picky with the roles he took on, as he wanted to carefully craft his portfolio as an actor. It eventually worked out, as he landed his first major breakout role as Drax the Destroyer in Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy. Since then, he has starred in a number of Marvel movies, and he has also earned several other substantial roles. He has appeared in Dune, Glass Onion" A Knives Out Mystery", "Army of the Dead", and "Spectre", among other examples.
In 2023, Batista will star in "Knock at the Cabin", "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3", and "Dune: Part Two".
Rian Johnson recently agreed that Bautista is the best wrestler-to-actor. Check out his comments here.
Batista was recently spotted backstage at WWE SmackDown. More information is available here.
