The latest season of Running Wild with Bear Grylls has been packed with pop culture talent. Former WWE superstar and current Guardians of the Galaxy mainstay Dave Bautista makes his debut on the show later tonight and National Geographic has provided ComicBook.com an exclusive clip of his appearance. In the clip, which you can see above, Bautista has a chat with Grylls, explaining his humble beginnings as an actor.
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“I hired an acting coach and I did a couple of small films that led to a bigger film and I got my first big break in a film called The Man with the Iron Fists,” Bautista recalls. “I didn’t work for about another year and I did a film called Riddick and I didn’t work for a while again. Now I’m committed because I dug in and I’m fighting it because I was hurting for money.”
Bautista then talks about his financial hell that eventually led to troubles with the IRS and foreclosing on his house. “It was a terrible time, I went broke within three years — not only did I go broke because I didn’t have money coming in and had a lot of bills to pay, but I got hit by the IRS,” the actor continues. “So I was upside down with my house but I couldn’t sell it because the IRS put a lien on it, so I had to do a voluntary foreclosure on my home and this is all after I had made millions in WWE wrestling but I went broke again. I pretty much lost everything and I was struggling to work.”
Then, as Bautista puts it, he got the call to audition for Guardians of the Galaxy and well, the rest is history.
Bautista’s Running Wild with Bear Grylls episode airs tonight at 10/9 p.m. Central. You can find the episode and series synopses below.
“Airing December 10th at 10/9c, Bear Grylls takes former WWE world champion and action star Dave Bautista on a super-sized adventure in the Arizona desert. Navigating through perilous canyon descents, brutal falls and the raging Colorado River is no easy task. With Bear as his tag-team partner, Dave is up for the challenge to see if he still has that fight inside, but Mother Nature could prove to be his toughest opponent yet in this match of a lifetime!”
“The boldest season of the hit outdoor adventure series RUNNING WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLS finds its new home on Nat Geo with bigger action and wilder destinations than ever before when world-renowned survivalist Bear Grylls returns to the wild with some of Hollywood’s most beloved celebrities. From a Marvel superhero to award-winning entertainers, a new guest joins Bear each week for a no-holds-barred journey through some of the most extreme environments in the world. Together, they must rely on bush-craft techniques to survive each dangerous location while pushing through both mental and physical limits to brave even the most challenging obstacles. It’s going to be a bear of a season!”
