Dave Bautista recalls his nightmare audition for Guardians of the Galaxy

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Although Dave Bautista had several films under his belt by the time GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY came around, he didn't believe that he was nearly experienced enough to land the part of Drax the Destroyer. While speaking during a panel at the Denver Pop Culture Con several days ago, Bautista recalled his "nightmare" audition for the James Gunn film.

"Oh my God, it was a nightmare. I was terrified," Bautista said. "I was really desperate at the time, I had hardly worked in three years, and I had gone broke, I had lost all my money from wrestling and I was desperate to get a job. I finally got an agent, like, two weeks before I got the audition for ‘Guardians.’ My agent says ‘You know, I really had to fight to get you this audition. It was really hard to get, they didn’t really want to audition you. They didn’t want to see any pro wrestlers, so I don’t want to get your hopes up.'" That's a hell of a way to enter an audition. Bautista continued:

He built my hopes really low, so I went in with low expectations. I didn’t understand Drax. I called my acting coach and said ‘I don’t get this’ […] and he flipped out because he’s like the biggest fanboy. Anyway, he made me do a little research and I found one picture of Drax, and I said ‘That looks like me!’ He babied me through this whole process, my first and second auditions, my acting coach came with me, he was holding my hand like a little baby. I read for [casting director] Sarah Finn; she’s amazing. I read with her and she said ‘Don’t be nervous. Take your time, we can stay here all day.'

Afterwards Dave Bautista was asked to read for James Gunn himself and obviously got the gig, having gone on to play Drax in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2, AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, AVENGERS: ENDGAME, as well as the upcoming GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3. Bautista has come a long way since that "nightmare" audition, and now has many films just over the horizon, including STUBER on July 12, 2019, MY SPY on August 23, 2019, and Denis Villeneuve's DUNE, which is set for a November 20, 2020 release.