After Dave Bautista spent many years on top of the wrestling world, he decided to bet on his ability to become a movie star. Fortunately for Bautista, he wound up being cast as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Drax which allowed him to have many opportunities.
Thanks to Bautista's MCU stardom, he built a relationship with his co-stars including Chris Pratt and he has landed more challenging roles. Bautista has also revealed that starring in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies allowed him to recover after he went completely broke.
How Did Dave Bautista Go Broke Before The MCU?
Long before the masses ever heard the name Dave Bautista, the man who would become a big star grew up in the Washington D.C. area. In the past, a book about Bautista was published in cooperation with the WWE titled "Batista Unleashed".
In that book, Bautista revealed that he had a difficult childhood that was full of money problems and that he was surrounded by violence and even death as a kid. As Bautista grew into his teenage years, he started engaging in petty crime before he worked as a bouncer and eventually became a WWE wrestler.
At the height of Bautista's wrestling career, he main-evented a slew of pay-per-views, won many championships, and fans bought lots of his merchandise. Unsurprisingly, all of that success allowed Bautista to make lots of money for himself and his family.
After working for the WWE for many years, Bautista decided to walk away, so he could launch an acting career. These days, it is pretty common for wrestlers to land notable acting roles, but that hasn't always been the case.
Unfortunately for Bautista, after he left the WWE in 2010, Hollywood definitely didn't come calling much. Between 2010 and 2013, Bautista only appeared in four movies. Sadly, those four roles did next to nothing for Bautista's bank account as he either starred in tiny movies or had small roles in larger films.
In 2021, Bautista was interviewed by IGN, and he talked about what his career had been like up until that point. What Bautista proceeded to explain to IGN likely surprised a lot of readers. What nobody but Bautista knew before that interview is how bad things got for the former wrestler before he was cast in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Bautista started by explaining how big the gamble he took on his acting career was and why he didn't go back to the WWE.
"For people to really understand how much my life has changed, they would have to understand where I came from, what I went through when I was in wrestling, what I left behind to take a chance on going into acting."
Bautista continued, "And when I got the role of Drax in Guardians, I barely worked in three years. So I'd really left wrestling behind and I could have gone back with my tail between my legs, but I still [would] have been just stuck in a place that I never would have gone any further, but I just took a chance.
Bautista then went to talk about what his finances were like before James Gunn hired him to star as Drax. According to Bautista, he'd gone completely broke by the time the MCU came calling.
"And then when I got [cast], not only because I was broke, [everything changed]. When I say broke, my house was foreclosed, I had nothing, man. I sold all my stuff. I sold everything that I made from [when] I was wrestling. I had issues with the IRS. I was just lost in everything."
As revealing as that quote about Bautista being foreclosed on and being in trouble with the IRS was, the interview became more revealing.
Of course, it seems extremely safe to assume that Bautista was enjoying a great lifestyle when he was a wrestler. As a result, when Bautista talks about being in trouble with the IRS, many people think that simply left him living like most people.
Later in Bautista's IGN interview, he revealed something that shows how desperate things were for him. According to Bautista, he was so broke before he joined the MCU that he had to borrow from people to give his kids Christmas presents.
"So Drax didn't just change my career. It literally changed the trajectory of my life. My life just got better and I just became more successful. And that's when things really just started to seem like surreal. It wasn't many years [earlier] when I was just like borrowing money to pay for food, pay for rent. Borrow money to buy my kids Christmas presents."
Why Dave Bautista Almost Quit The MCU
Before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was released, fans learned that it marked the end of Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, and James Gunn's involvement with the MCU. All three of those people argued that the movie left things in a way that let them walk away from the franchise naturally.
As long-time fans of the MCU and Bautista will likely already know, however, the Drax actor almost left the franchise many years earlier. Considering that being cast in the MCU dramatically changed Bautista's life for the better, it took something really dramatic for him to consider leaving the franchise.
When Bautista was hired to portray Drax on the big screen, a big portion of the reason he got that opportunity is James Gunn believed in him. Bautista has proven to be an intensely loyal guy many times in the past and that is what almost led to him quitting the MCU.
In 2018, extremely controversial jokes that Gunn posted on Twitter between 2008 and 2012 resurfaced. The resulting backlash led to the decision for the MCU to cut ties with Gunn who had already written the script for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 with plans to direct the film.
When it was announced that Gunn had been shown the door, Bautista stated he would only continue to star in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 because he was contractually obligated. That said, Bautista pledged that if Marvel decided to not use Gunn's script, he would demand to be let out of his contract.
“Where I’m at right now is that if [Marvel] don’t use that script, then I’m going to ask them to release me from my contract, cut me out or recast me. I’d be doing James a disservice if I didn’t.”
Fortunately for Bautista Marvel Studios decided to move forward with Gunn's script. Furthermore, Gunn was rehired to direct once the controversy around his previous tweets calmed down.
