Dave Bautista Quotes

I didn't want to be a movie star, I wanted to be an actor. Because acting is what I fell in love with, and acting is what is still challenging for me.

If you do an indie film, where it's like, "We don't have a lot of money to give you, but we'll really give you a lot of freedom," that's really a luxury to have in this business. At least for myself, because I'm still kind of earning my acting credibility.

Honestly, I don't aspire to be a huge movie star. I really just fell in love with acting... Everything I do on-screen is very subtle.

It's much easier when you have your co-workers who are just, they're there in the moment. If you were out of the moment, you would feel odd.

I really feel like indie films are where I learn to be a better actor, especially because they always give you a bit more freedom to collaborate.

My ultimate goal is actually to direct and develop projects. I don't want them to be big projects with a lot of special effects because that's not really what appeals to me.

I'm more a fan of old-school films with really interesting stories and good performances. That's what I'd like to do.

The acting stuff is more important to me than actually being a big star.

I spent my whole life being very shy and introverted and I kind of found my release and therapy in the gym. I became this big, menacing physical stature of a man but internally I'm still kind of insecure. Warm, fuzzy and gooey.

The worst injury I have ever suffered in the ring was a torn triceps; they had to take a piece of my hamstring to repair the tear. It was brutal; I was out for 6 months.

I'm not a big guy. I'm not a menacing guy. I'm not an intimidating guy. I may look that way, but just spend two seconds talking to me, and you know that's not who I am - not as a person, as a character. It's not who I intend to be.

I never excelled at one sport or had a very strong passion for anything other than wrestling and bodybuilding.

I love playing different characters. I just do. I want to play even more quirky and interesting characters and just something that people wouldn't automatically think that I would be. I want to go against the grain a bit and I'm hoping people will be open-minded enough to cast me in stuff that's going against the grain.

I didn't want to take the typical action roles that everybody was expecting me to take, because I was going to get typecast as that guy, the action guy who didn't have anything really bright to say and who just kicked in doors and punched people in the face and shot people and drove off in a cool car. I didn't want to be that guy.

For some reason, I struggle seeing myself as a leading man.

I want to play the regular guy who's had a bit of a jaded past or a bit of a tortured soul because I think they're interesting.

Kissing babies and hugging fat girls.

I don't think there's a certain part of a character I take with me. There's a certain part of me I leave with each character, though.

Money Talks. Chocolate Sings.

Basketballs dont hold grudges!

People look at me, and they have a certain perception, and they slap a label on me. The guy you saw in a wrestling ring is not who I am.

In wrestling there are so many people inside and outside the ring, and it's so live, and it's this whole adrenaline thing. Whereas you move it into this more intimate thing, everything gets all quiet, someone says action, and you have to say the lines and make the words your own. It couldn't be any more different and it's weird sometimes trying to explain that to people. When I tell people that acting is much more terrifying to me than going out in front of ten thousand people, they don't quite believe it because for some reason that intimacy is just terrifying to me.

I was an amateur wrestler, which I loved. It was my passion, but I started really late; I was a junior in high school when I began.

Nothing can motivate me any more than I'm motivated.

I'm not a leading man. I'm a character actor. That's what I want to be.

If I could get myself to a place where I felt secure and I wouldn't have to kind of worry about money and I know my family would be secure, then I would leave the big studios so I could continue to make smaller films, and hopefully get to direct a few of them, too.

I'm creating my niche. My niche is going to be "shirtless guy."

It's really a great luxury to have, to be able to go from big films to indie films, too. Because I'm on the job learning as an actor, and independent films is where I'm learning to act.

It's never boring in makeup.