Isha Sharma
Former WWE superstar and actor Dave Bautista has shared details of his intense weight loss journey, revealing that he’s “killing himself” to maintain a lean physique for his acting career.
Bautista, 55, opened up during an interview on the “Insight with Chris Van Vliet” podcast, where he discussed how staying slim is crucial for his roles.
The actor, who weighed around 315 pounds while filming Knock at the Cabin, has now slimmed down to 240 pounds, but admits the journey has been challenging.
Bautista emphasised that his dramatic transformation was necessary to avoid being “distracting” on screen next to other actors.
While he’s still a large presence at 6’4″, 240 pounds, he often feels that people who remember his muscular wrestling days think he looks “anorexic.”
Balancing Weight for Roles
Dave Bautista, born David Michael Bautista Jr. on January 18, 1969, is an American actor and retired professional wrestler. He is considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, gaining fame during his time with WWE from 2002 to 2019.
Bautista began his wrestling career in 1999 and joined WWE in 2000. Known as “Batista” in the ring, he became a key member of the group Evolution and went on to win several championships, including the WWE Championship twice and the World Heavyweight Championship four times.
He also won the 2005 and 2014 Royal Rumble matches and headlined major WWE events like WrestleMania 21 and WrestleMania XXX. He retired from wrestling in 2019 after WrestleMania 35.
As an actor, Bautista has appeared in several major films. Some of his notable roles include Drax the Destroyer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, parts in “Spectre” (2015), “Blade Runner 2049” (2017), “Dune” (2021), and its 2024 sequel. He also starred in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” (2022) and “Knock at the Cabin” (2023).
In addition to wrestling and acting, Bautista briefly competed in mixed martial arts in 2012. He holds a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Bautista revealed that he packed on extra weight while filming Knock at the Cabin, admitting that he overdid it in an attempt to meet the director’s request to appear like a “big guy” without looking like a powerlifter.
The result left him feeling uncomfortable and significantly larger than required, leading him to undergo intense training to shed the extra pounds.
Intense Training and Sacrifice
Bautista’s efforts to trim down involved intense training and practising Jiu-Jitsu. While he successfully lost over 50 pounds, he admits that it came at the cost of some muscle mass.
The actor mentioned that his current goal is to continue training hard to stay lean for his future roles, though he feels this pressure has made the journey even more demanding.
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