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Professional wrestlers making a leap to Hollywood is, at this point, no uncommon move. With them being trained in drama and possessing an innate physicality (and physical attributes) that are an action director’s dream, the last few decades have seen stars made out of the likes of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and John Cena, with dozens of others appearing in scattered roles.
On one hand, it’s solid career planning. Professional wrestling beats your body up, and if you don’t want to be hobbling to the ring for your paycheck, it’s nice to have other streams of income. However, it also risks the chance of exposing your weaknesses. When Dave Bautista, the muscle-bound main eventer who dominated the WWE in the 2000s and early 2010s, decided to devote himself to acting, the biggest fear was that his in-ring charisma would not translate to onscreen adventures.
Instead, he proved all naysayers wrong and is (in my opinion,) perhaps the best wrestler-turned-actor of all time. And 2023 has been his finest year yet, a year that’s proved that he’s far more than the guy that used to powerbomb other gym goers into oblivion. Heck, it proved that he’s far more than Drax, the MCU role that affirmed his cinematic gifts and put him into the mainstream in 2014. No other actor in 2023 has had as interesting a year as him.
Knock on effects
It began with Knock at the Cabin, the latest film in the current M. Night Shyamalan-aissance, an era which has seen the thriller director reinvent himself with lower-budget films like The Visit, Split, and Old. In a way, he was the perfect director to handle what is Bautista’s most intriguing role yet – that of the hulking, soft-spoken Leonard, a man with visions of the apocalypse. The way Shyamalan has Leonard menacingly fill the frame (in some shots, he could be either six-feet-tall or sixteen-feet-tall) while also allowing him dramatic, empathetic close-up material invites a trust in his potential as an actor that’s honestly striking.
It's Bautista at his most fully realized, flipping our expectations of him as mere action flick fodder while delighting in our knowledge of his capacity for nailing violent characters. We wait for the explosion, the part where Bautista unleashes the animal inside (which aptly was his nickname in the WWE), but it’s a credit to both Shyamalan and Bautista himself that the bomb never quite goes off. Instead, we’re drawn into the peeling back of his layers, the man with the sweet, low voice who might just be right about wanting to save the world. It’s a downright graceful performance and the highlight of the film.
On the other hand, Bautista’s final turn as Drax in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is all comfort food, a performer that understands a character’s every oblivious glance and intense twitch. A goofball among goofballs, Drax has always been the go-to for a punchline, and GOTG 3 is no different. The moments that show off his softer side, such as when he interacts with children or reveals that he’s grown protective of his teammate Mantis, are really no surprise. We all love Drax, so why wouldn’t they? Instead, he’s the broad-shouldered support beam for the film’s bigger emotional swings and the character you can always count on to work.
His battle antics remain as refreshing as ever, especially in a film so heavily imbued with CGI effects. Drax’s fighting style mostly consists of punching, throwing, slamming, and stabbing and there’s something very viscerally satisfying about watching him go about his business in a sci-fi/fantasy universe. Bautista has spoken about the fact that it’s harder to maintain such a muscular physique as he gets older, so while Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is a swan song for that particular kind of character, Knock at the Cabin offers a viable new beginning.
Ensemble star
These two contrasting roles alone would make Bautista one of 2023's most entertaining performers, but he also showed up in two other films. The first is in Parachute, an independent drama in which he plays a bit part as the clueless manager of a dinner theater. Though the film is yet to get a release in the US outside of the South by Southwest Film Festival, it’s promising due to how highly the director speaks of Bautista’s kindness and willingness to try new roles. His cameo also speaks to his growing reliability as an actor – able to be a part of an ensemble rather than stick out as "Hey, it’s that pro wrestler playing that dude!"
Similarly, his voice acting role in Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film, The Boy and the Heron, also allows Bautista to fit nicely into a wider cast. As the Parakeet King, Bautista is bluster and cruelty in equal measure, and he joins a long legacy of fantastic vocal performances in dubs of Miyazaki films. Hopefully he’s given more chances in animated features – as with his baritone articulation in Knock at the Cabin, Bautista is an underrated talent here.
So far, Bautista is set to star in Dune: Part II in 2024, where he’ll reprise his role as the sadistic Glossu Rabban. He’s a standout among one of the best blockbuster casts in history, able to hold his own while going shoulder-to-shoulder with stars like Austin Butler and Stellan Skarsgard. And after that? Well, 2023 was a year of beginnings and ends for Dave Bautista, and one can only hope that the next decade of his career shows just as much growth as the last.
For more on our end of the year coverage, check out our guides to the best movies of 2023 and the best TV shows of 2023.
