WWE superstars are no strangers to performing, and some of sports entertainment's best and
brightest have been known to leap from the squared circle to the silver screen. As anyone
who's seen Hulk Hogan's turn as Thunderlips in Rocky III or "Rowdy" Roddy Piper's 1988
cult classic They Live, this isn't a new phenomenon.
"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum."
However, few have been able to turn their wrestling fame to Hollywood success as well
as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Dave Bautista. The two giants of the entertainment industry
once held WWE championship belts, and today, they hold something that's arguably even more
valuable: The ability to sell movie tickets.
Johnson broke through in Hollywood as the villainous Scorpion King in 2001's The Mummy
Returns and its prologue-slash-spin-off The Scorpion King. This established him as a fine
action-adventure leading man, setting him on a path that he's walked ever since. Meanwhile,
Bautista's first major movie role was a slightly less successful action turn in the direct-to-DVD
feature Wrong Side of Town, released in 2010. As he worked through villain roles in movies
like The Man with the Iron Fists and, as luck would have it, The Scorpion King 3: Battle
for Redemption, Bautista realized how difficult it was to transition from a WWE wrestler to
an actor. He soon hired an agent, who helped him score an audition for the role of Drax
the Destroyer in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy. The rest, as they say, is history...Weird,
uncomfortable, socially awkward history.
"I am hideous?"
"You are horrifying to look at, yes. But that's a good thing."
"Oh?"
"When you're ugly and someone loves you, you know they love you for who you are."
One might expect these two successful veterans of the ring and the movie set to have nothing
but respect for one another. While that's mostly true, Bautista actually took a huge
shot at Johnson in a recent interview.
It's true that Bautista and Johnson both come from a wrestling background, but this doesn't
necessarily mean that they're on the same page when it comes to the art of acting. Speaking
to The Tampa Bay Times in September 2020 about his role in Denis Villeneuve's highly anticipated
sci-fi epic Dune, Bautista shared that he and Johnson have some significant differences
when it comes to their thespian careers and, specifically, their level of talent. In fact,
it appears Bautista sees Johnson as just a blockbuster movie star as opposed to a true
actor.
Bautista said:
"[Johnson and fellow wrestler-turned-actor John Cena] are wrestlers who became movie
stars. I'm something else. I was a wrestler. Now, I'm an actor."
To be fair, Bautista did share that Johnson has a certain star quality that justifies
his A-list status. He admitted:
"There is something about him that's really special. I'd never take that away from him."
However, when it comes to sheer acting talent, the Guardians of the Galaxy star didn't mince
words:
"Would I consider him a great actor? F--- no."
"You must be so embarrassed! Ahahahahaha!!"
Regardless of any fallout that Bautista's comments may incite, it's interesting to note
that there may be a wild card in the equation. Apart from Johnson, Bautista also took a shot
at John Cena, whose Hollywood star has been on the rise for a while now.
"I will enter you!"
"You're gonna, you're gonna enter me? You hear what he said?"
"What are you talking about right now?"
"I'm just trying to intimidate him."
Incidentally, Cena seems to be following both Bautista's and Johnson's career paths. In
his role as the character Peacemaker in the upcoming film The Suicide Squad, he appears
to take a page from Bautista's playbook by playing a goofy superhero in a James Gunn-directed
blockbuster based on a comic book universe. Cena's evidently also following Johnson's
footsteps by joining the Fast & Furious franchise as Jakob Toretto, the possible villain of
the upcoming Fast & Furious 9. It'll be interesting to see which man's career path Cena ultimately
goes for.
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