Rise Of The Guardian

Dave Bautista, opens up about stealing cars, building self-confidence in the gym, chasing wrestling dreams, and gunning for actor street cred

- Shawn Donnelly

THE BALLAD OF BAUTISTA, PART I:

AWKWARDNESS

HE WAS GANGLY. No, really, the guy you see on these pages — the man who now plays the hulking, lovable character Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 — was a gangly teen. Tall and skinny. Lanky. Shy. Super shy. Awkward. Painfully awkward. Didn’t feel like he fit in. Almost ever.

But the one place he wasn’t awkward, the one place where he always fit in, was the gym. It was his safe haven, his sanctuary, his nest. Growing up in Washington DC, USA, in the 80s, Dave Bautista always felt at home in the weight room. Like he belonged.

“I was a gym rat”, says Bautista. “I was a really shy, skinny, gangly, unhealthy kid. Working out helped me build confidence. I really wanted to look more muscular and not so lanky.”

At 15, the half-Filipino, half-Greek kid started messing around with his dad’s plastic weight set, doing bench presses and curls. Two years later, after his dad kicked him out of the house to make room for a baby he was having with his second wife, Bautista would cut class to lift weights. Well, sometimes he would cut class to steal cars, taking them for joyrides and selling off their wheels and radios, but usually he would cut class to lift weights. “I went to school when I felt like going to school, and most of the time I didn’t”, says Bautista, who ended up renting a room at a friend’s place for his final two years of high school. “By 17, I didn’t have to answer to anybody. I was on my own.”