Army of the Dead's Dave Bautista "Wasn't Interested" in Zack Snyder's Zombie Heist Movie Right Away

Dave Bautista reveals how a taste for more dramatic roles meant he "wasn't interested" in leading Zack Snyder's zombie heist movie Army of the Dead, and why he changed his mind about sinking his teeth into a juicy role as action hero Scott Ward. A zombie war hero-turned-burger-flipping cook, Ward accepts an offer from casino boss Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada) to break into a quarantined zone in zombie-plagued Las Vegas to retrieve a nine-figure payday. Partnered with a ragtag team of experts, Ward has just 32 hours before what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas: Ward's crew must get in, survive, and get out before the government nukes Sin City.

"Initially when I heard about the film, I thought it sounded interesting," Bautista told CinemaBlend. "But as a performer, I wasn't interested in the project because I was really looking for roles that would afford me the opportunity to perform and be an actor and do some dramatic stuff. I wanted to showcase my range as an actor, and a lot of times you just can't do it when you're playing an action hero."

Following roles as the muscle-bound Drax the Destroyer in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and the assassin Hinx in James Bond sequel Spectre, Bautista won acclaim for a more dramatic turn as Sapper Morton in the Denis Villeneuve-directed Blade Runner 2049. When Bautista took a closer look at Army's script and the relationship between Ward and his daughter Kate (Ella Purnell), Bautista realized there was something deeper to Snyder's Vegas-set zombie actioner.

"I was asked to read the script and I did, and I started looking at it differently. And I started looking at the character of Scott Ward differently because I realized that everything else — the zombie apocalypse, the heist aspect — that was all kind of backdrop to the real heart of the story, which was a redemption story between Scott Ward and his daughter," Bautista said. "So I looked at it like that and I focused on that, and I had the conversation with Zack about diving in deeper to this character and making it even richer and making him even more emotional and giving him even more depth. Zack said he would allow me the freedom to do that, and he actually welcomed it, which is why he wanted me to play the role. I was like, 'Man, sign me up because that's what I'm after.'"

For Bautista, who passed up a role in Guardians director James Gunn's upcoming DC movie The Suicide Squad to join Army, playing Ward means he gets "to be that badass, but I also get to be an emotional guy and an unpredictable action hero, which you don't see a lot."

"You usually know what you're gonna get with an action guy," Bautista explained, "but if you give him some heart and him some depth and think outside of the box, think if this guy is a human, then you get people to invest in him emotionally. Then people get invested in the film emotionally because they're invested in the story."

Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead is now streaming on Netflix. Read ComicBook.com's spoiler-free review.