Dave Bautista Calls Guardians of the Galaxy Audition a “Nightmare”

Just about a decade ago, Dave Bautista had left the WWE in hopes of pursuing an acting career in Hollywood. The actor initially had a rough go at it and eventually went broke from going jobless when audition after audition fell flat. Three years went by and he finally got his big break — his new agent had scored him a read with Marvel Studios casting maestro Sarah Finn. After striking out on auditions until Marvel came calling, Bautista called the auditioning process for his Guardians role a nightmare.

“Oh my God, it was a nightmare. I was terrified,” said Bautista about his audition during a panel at Denver Pop Culture Con earlier today. “I was really desperate at the time, I had hardly worked in three years, and I had gone broke 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 any pro wrestlers, so I don’t want to get your hopes up.’”

After going into the audition with low expectations, Bautista mentioned that by the end of the first read, he had already been invited back the very next day to read with Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn.

“He built my hopes really low, so I went in with low expectations. I called my acting coach and said ‘I don’t get this.’ and he flipped out because he’s like the biggest fanboy,” Bautista reflected. “Anyway, he made me do the research and I found one picture 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. I read for Sarah Finn, she’s amazing. I read with her and she said ‘Don’t be nervous. Take your time, we can be here all day.’”

“We did the audition and she said ‘Is there any way you can come back tomorrow and read for the director?’”

Who is your favorite member of the Guardians? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or by tweeting me at @AdamBarnhardt to chat all things cosmic Marvel!

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is currently on Netflix until June 5th while Captain Marvel is now available digitally ahead of a home media release on June 11th.