Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery director Rian Johnson agrees that Dave Bautista is the greatest wrestler-turned-actor ever.
Johnson discussed working with the former WWE Champion during an interview with The Atlantic. "Dave Bautista," the director said when asked which Glass Onion actor surprised him the most. "When I was writing [his character, a men's-rights streamer named Duke Cody], I was picturing a scrawny dude who's trying to overcompensate. When Bautista was brought up, I was instantly so smitten by the idea. I've been a very big fan of his dramatic chops as an actor."
When interviewer David Sims described Bautista as "[l]ow-key the greatest wrestler-to-actor ever," Johnson wholeheartedly agreed. "I absolutely 100 percent agree," the director said. "And I think somebody like [Paul Thomas Anderson] is going to give him a real part and is gonna look like a genius. As a person, Bautista is genuinely, immediately vulnerable when you meet him, and that's what I was excited about. This is someone who has the physical trappings of someone who would play it big, but he actually brings sensitivity to the role."
Glass Onion's Dave Bautista Was a WWE Mega-Star
Bautista began his professional wrestling career in 1999, signing a contract with WWE (then still known as the WWF) in 2000. Upon inking his deal, Bautista started performing for Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) -- a WWE developmental territory at the time -- under the name Leviathan. He was called up to WWE's main roster in 2002, debuting on the SmackDown brand under the name Deacon Batista, acting as an enforcer to ECW alum D-Von Dudley, who was performing under his Reverend D-Von gimmick at the time.
In late 2002, Deacon Batista officially split from D-Von. He then moved to WWE's Raw brand, at which point his ring name was shortened to simply Batista. He joined forces with Ric Flair, Triple H and Randy Orton to form the Evolution stable in early 2003, which proved to be the start of Batista's meteoric rise in the company. Amid the break-up off Evolution, Batista had his crowning moment at WrestleMania 21 in 2005, defeating Triple H to become World Heavyweight Champion.
All in all, Batista's original run on WWE's main roster lasted from 2002 to 2010, with The Animal picking up a number of other accolades along the way, including three more reigns with the World Heavyweight Championship, plus two reigns with the WWE Championship. Following his initial departure from the company, he returned for a short run from 2013 to 2014, and another from 2018 to 2019. However, the real-life Dave Bautista was putting most of his time and attention into acting by that point.
As such, it was in 2019 that Bautista officially announced his retirement from in-ring competition. He was originally slated to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2020. The 2020 ceremony was, of course, canceled due to the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The Class of 2020 would be inducted alongside the Class of 2021 the following year. That said, Bautista was ultimately removed from the ceremony altogether, owing to previous obligations that rendered him unable to attend. WWE honored Bautista's request to induct him at a later date.
Dave Bautista Had Made His Mark on Hollywood
Bautista's acting career initially began in 2006, with the actor/wrestler appearing in an episode of Smallville and making an uncredited cameo in the film Relative Strangers. In the early 2010s, he landed more prominent roles in films like Wrong Side of Town, House of the Rising Sun, The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption and The Man with the Iron Fists. However, Bautista had his breakout role in 2014, starring as Drax the Destroyer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Guardians of the Galaxy. He has reprised the role multiple times since, with his final appearance as Drax expected to take place in 2023's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
In addition to his many MCU outings, Bautista has also appeared in such films as Spectre, Blade Runner 2049, Stuber, Army of the Dead, Dune and, of course, Glass Onion (a standalone sequel to 2019's Knives Out), among several others. He isn't the first former WWE Champion to make it big in Hollywood, with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson essentially writing the blueprint for such a transition, and John Cena recently making waves in major franchises as well. Another WWE star who seems poised to take Hollywood by storm is Becky Lynch, who reportedly impressed Marvel Studios via her unused cameo in the 2021 film Eternals.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is currently streaming on Netflix.
Source: The Atlantic, via UNILAD