Dave Bautista’s experiencing the John Cena effect, going from the WWE to taking his pick of major movies after appearing in Guardians Of The Galaxy and starring recently in Zack Snyder’s Army Of The Dead. He’s also set to appear in Knives Out 2, alongsider nearly every famous actor to ever exist. He could play any tough guy he wants. But Bautista’s dream role is, uh, very different from anything you’d envision him playing.
In an interview with Polygon, the former wrestler was asked what his ideal role would be, and he responded saying, “I’ve given a lot of thought to inspirational stories I could play, interesting stories I could play. And the one that seems to keep coming back to me is Ernest Hemingway.” Yeah, it’s quite the head scratcher. The Greek-Filipino actor looks absolutely nothing like pale, red-cheeked, white-bearded Hemingway. The late author wasn’t the buffest guy, either. But that’s not stopping Bautista from thinking he could do a great job. “I think I could do him justice. I think he’s so interesting, everything about his life, and the way he lived, and also the way he died. It’s just very intriguing, his ideas are intriguing to me,” he explains.
But he also mentions another dream role that sounds a bit more fitting. “I’ve also been very vocal lately about playing Bane in the DC Universe, and I still feel very strongly that I could do that character justice.So fiction vs. non-fiction, that would be Bane or Ernest Hemingway.”
Hey, Cate Blanchett played Bob Dylan successfully and Charlize Theron transformed herself into the real-life scary-looking serial killer Aileen Wuornos. If someone wants to take on the challenge of making Bautista look like Hemingway, then why not? Stranger casting decisions have happened. Now all we need is for someone to actually make this Hemingway biopic.
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He would slay as Bane and could also have done a good Eddie Brock.
He could break Bane’s back…while Bane was breaking Batman’s back
Only if he’s allowed to wear the tiniest glasses
Thanks, now I want him to play Virgil the bookish super-mutant from Fallout 4.
Yeah, he’s in way too good of shape to be Hemingway (at any stage of Hemingway’s life). And doesn’t look much like him otherwise. But… I just saw Army of the Dead which was pedestrian but watchable, and Bautista was really good in it. I don’t doubt he could play Hemingway. Clive Owen played him, as did Dominick West and Chris O Donnell. Bautista could do fine.
Corey Stoll also played Hem. Bautista could do it. It’s more about attitude than looking like him.
Let’s be honest here, he’s north of 50, he wants a role where he can let himself go.
Dave Bautista is… late stage Marlon Brando.
I definitely think he could have been a contender.Needs a beard, hes got the eyes. So a pipe, yellow shooting glasses, plus a comb over some cats and he should be right at home in Key West.
As did George C. Scott In Islands In The Stream, as a Hemingway manqué, backed up by a terrific performance from the underrated David Hemmings.
Well, since Bautista’s goal is to be is less good shape, that’s perfect.
No he was bad, he mumbled most of his lines
I mean, I always envisioned Hemingway to be some big strong, muscular guy. Guess not.
I’m sure he’d be fine, but we as a culture really don’t need to spend any more time dwelling on Hemingway.
One is reminded of Paul Mooney — upon noticing “The Mexican” starring Brad Pitt and “The Last Samurai” starring Tom Cruise — lamenting whether he could get his Tom Hanks screenplay produced.
Way to tell 14% of a joke.
LOL dying reading this comment
100%. I would love to see Dave Bautista play a broken paragon of post-war masculinity. I think he can do it.
Can’t say I’ve seen Bautista show any real acting chops in any of his movies (including Army of the Dead – woof, how does Zack Snyder keep getting money to make these turds?). He’s fine at playing generic action heroes but anyone who casts him as the lead in a movie that needs him to show any range whatsoever is going to have a bad time.
He generally just does a lot of fight choreography in everything I’ve seen but I feel like he’s capable of more range than he’s generally given credit, given the distinction between the goofy comic relief in Guardians of the Galaxy and I remember him being more placid in Blade Runner 2049.I get that being in his 50s he’d probably like to be considered for less physically intensive roles and there probably aren’t as many biopic subjects with his exact heritage— so why not incept the idea he wants to do other things? There’s at least one picture of older Hemingway with shorter hair that’s more plausible than I’d have expected.
I loved him in Blade Runner 2049, but it’s a mostly silent role. I’ll be curious to see how he is in Dune. He’s playing Rabban.
He knows how to play a great silent, gentle, yet physically strong character. I guess a good comparison would be the late great Michael Clarke Duncan.
“I loved him in Blade Runner 2049, but it’s a mostly silent role.”
Which is a more difficult kind of role to play. Ask any actor.
“Can’t say I’ve seen Bautista show any real acting chops in any of his movies”
It’s too bad you can’t recognize talent.
He would be absolutely perfect for the Kurgan in the new Highlander film.
That would be interesting. If anyone can make Henry Cavill look small by comparison, you’d think it’s Bautista…
While Hemmingway was nowhere near “buff”, he led one of those lives where it really seems like he should’ve been. Dude was neck-deep in three separate damn wars. He was brought up on charges for violating the Geneva Convention in WW2 for being a correspondent who started commanding resistance troops in France.
So, yeah, I don’t mind Drax the Destroyer playing that guy.
Dude was neck-deep in three separate damn wars.As a non-combatant; not sure how that translates to “should’ve been” buff.
True, but he was a non-combatant in the most metal way possible as an ambulance driver and then a front-line correspondent. Who, as I said, violated the Geneva Convention by taking charge of a French resistance cell in WW2.
Hemingway is a stretch, but he’s a dead ringer for Faulkner, who practiced deadlifts while writing Absalom, Absalom!
Speaking of … anybody else disappointed (but not surprised by — thanks, Zack!) by the ending of Army of the Dead?
In what way?
If you just mean disappointed because it’s a downer, I mean, I figured that was a given. It’s a zombie movie, ending with a bummer is about as on-point as a romcom ending with the mismatched attractive people finally getting together.
I like the hint at a Mexico City sequel, but — and call me a sentimental sap — but I would have liked to have seen that father/daughter food truck.
Yeah, the only surprising thing to me is that we didn’t see her running a food truck as part of an ending montage, preferably offering a combination of every idea her dad had.
Only the ending? More like 2 hours and 28 minutes of it.
Bane and Ernest Hemingway…even Meryl Streep doesn’t have that much range LOL
I think he could pull off Ernest Borgnine
A version of Borgnine that scares away any disaster that might approach!
‘Dave Bautista has a big request: Let him play Ernest Hemingway’ – at Jenga!
I’m glad he asked. I’ll think about it and get back to him.
Although it might be too similar to his version of Drax, he would absolutely crush it as the version of Bane that I fell in love with from Gail Simone’s Secret Six comic.
I love that last one, I remember it very clearly from when I read that comic years ago.
I’d have weigh in, if he wants to, go for it. Only one life. It would be a “movie”, ya know, those things that are made up? For fun? Not dumb ass political crap? Just fun. Chill
I now want him to have a long career playing artsy types. Hemingway. Poe. Shakespeare. Da Vinci. Andy Warhol.
Army was shite, but Bautista has clearly displayed potential with roles from Guardians, Blade Runner 2049, and the aforementioned Army, but someone at WB better cast him as Bane (he’s perfect) before he gets lured into prestige yet miscast roles for the cred.
I’ll let him play Hemingway but only in a film focus on actual Literature Wars, where authors from various time periods are forced to team up to face an evil alien empire that seeks to weaken and destroy humanity by removing the written word throughout history. With the aliens being frail physically but strong mentally and utilizing technology to turn their written word into reality.
Bautista can play a Hemingway who has been fighting the empire for over a decade using his prose.
Toss in Rinko Kikuchi as Murasaki Shikibu, Michael Shannon as Edgar Allen Poe, Tom Hardy as William Shakespeare, Viola Davis as Octavia Butler, and Oscar Isaacs as Pablo Neruda. Humanity picks out various authors from various time periods because the aliens can learn to counter single writing styles.
Don’t care what happens overall as long as the aliens win until the heroes get the aid of representatives of multiple cultures with oral storytelling traditions and dictation software.
Well , Dave Bautista probably IS the uber manly way Hemmingway saw himself , at least some of the time , so possibly it’d work with Hemmingway being a very unreliable narrator about his own life .( With Zach Galinifakis playing the ‘reality version of him)