Let Beefy Himbos Like Dave Bautista Do Rom-Coms

Let’s be real – if guys like 6-foot-4-inch WWE champion and Marvel movie star Dave Bautista don’t have a chance to see themselves represented in romantic comedies, then it’s over for the rest of us.

Ahead of the release of M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller, the Knock at the Cabin star Bautista took a moment to lament the last door that has not yet opened for him in show business — rom-coms. Bautista is blunt about his apprehension toward being pigeon-holed into a specific character or genre and, in an interview with Page Six, he expressed his long-held desire to show his romantic side on-screen and wondered if he simply does not have the look to compete with the Matthew McConaugheys and the Hugh Grants of the rom-com leading-man world.

If tatted-up beefcakes like Bautista can’t have a comedic meet-cute with Jennifer Aniston in a mid-budget blockbuster, then the American Dream is truly dead.

“I know I’m not your typical rom-com lead,” Bautista mournfully told his interviewer. “I’m a little rough around the edges. But I always, you know, I look in the mirror and I say, I ask myself, ‘Am I that unattractive? Is there something that unappealing about me that excludes me from these parts?'” 

While Bautista originally made a name for himself as a hyper-masculine heel in the WWE, he considers himself a romantic at heart and worries if his exterior is too repellant for him to be a leading man. The Glass Onion star has long hoped that Hollywood would give him the chance to show his softer side, but those parts haven’t materialized yet. “I don’t know. It’s just never come my way. I’ve never had an offer to do a rom-com,” Bautista admitted. Despite the apparent reticence of moviemakers to cast him in the role of his dreams, he hasn’t given up yet, adding, “I still have high hopes. I’ll just keep searching.”

The wrestler-turned-actor also reflected on how his intimidating physique has steered his professional life — Bautista first started work as a bouncer at a bar when he was just 17, a profession he would stick with through his 20s and early 30s. Said Bautista, “There was always some drunk a–hole who wanted to test me,” omitting the part where said a–hole inevitably ended the night in a full body cast.

Though professional wrestling offered Bautista a way into entertainment, he called the WWE a “toxic environment” where he was forced to behave in a more aggressive or confrontational manner behind the scenes than what was comfortable to him. “I always felt like I had to posture up,” he explained, noting that, once he made the jump to Hollywood, “It was a relief that I never had to do that anymore.”

Now, Bautista is a household name for more than just his muscles — his performances in films like Glass Onion and Blade Runner 2049 have proved that he’s a talented and compelling actor in his own right and not just a grimacing giant who’s good for a few quips. At 54, he still has one more obstacle to Bautista Bomb: the prejudice of rom-com casting agents against enormous, physically intimidating but emotionally vulnerable leading men.

Hollywood, let beefcakes be romantic. We all know that the most important muscle is the heart.