It’s abundantly clear thatDave Bautistashines on screen in action-heavy set pieces, butZack Snyder’sArmy of the Deadgives him the opportunity to show off his dramatic chops as well and Bautista certainly runs with it.
He leads the film as Scott Ward. Scott was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism in the zombie war, but now that the undead are walled off and trapped in the Las Vegas Strip, he’s living a quieter life working as a diner cook who dreams of running his own food truck. However, things change when Scott’s offered an opportunity to head back into Vegas to try to pull off the ultimate heist. Scott accepts the challenge and puts together a crew, which winds up including his daughter Kate, played byElla Purnell.
WithArmy of the Deadnow available to stream on Netflix, I got the chance to chat with Bautista and opted to put the focus on his experience working with Snyder. He began by highlighting why he and Snyder click so well:
“What I love most about Zack is Zack is just super rough around the edges. So this is why I look for people like this [that] are just kind of rough around the edges because I am. I’m an athlete and I’d rather be punching something to workout rather than running. I’m that type of guy, and I think Zack is also that type of guy. He’s just all tatted up, he just likes getting dirty and sweaty and being out there and being in the grind. So I really connected with him in that way.”
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Bautista continued by pinpointing a rare quality that he sees in Snyder:
“Here’s a thing that is hard for me to find. I can find people all day long like that, other fighters, other wrestlers, other guys who are just super rough around the edges, but it’s really hard for me to find that guy who’s also an artist at heart and Zack is an artist at heart. He really is. And you look at him, you’d probably never think, but man, he can just look through a camera or he can see something and know that he wants to put that image on film in a beautiful way and that’s something that only comes from the eye and the heart of an artist. And I think that I have that as well. I’m very much a performance artist. I have the soul of an artist. But to look at me, I look like I just broke out of prison, you know? [Laughs] Nobody’s gonna look at me and say, ‘That guy’s an artist.’”
Looking for more from Bautista? Check out our full conversation at the top of this article to hear more about his experience filming the more emotional beats of the story with Purnell and also to find out Bautista’s own food truck of choice!
