Dave Bautista Is Finally Getting His Own Romantic Comedy After Viral Comments

After Dave Bautista’s public comments last year, wondering why he was never offered a romantic comedy, it seems the tide is finally turning.

In January 2023, Bautista said Page Six He would have loved to play a romantic comedy but had never had the chance. He wondered: “Am I so unattractive? Is there something so unattractive about me that excludes me from these roles?”

At the Los Angeles premiere of his new film The Killer Game On Monday, Bautista said The Hollywood Reporter that those viral comments “sparked a real conversation, but I started getting a lot of phone calls after that.”

“I said that and I immediately started getting calls. So we have a couple of projects in development that are really funny,” he said, noting that he’s “moving toward this now, like, a full-fledged romantic comedy. Not like an action romantic comedy, a full-fledged romantic comedy.”

Bautista made his first entry into this territory with The Killer Gamein which he plays an assassin with a fatal illness who decides to kill himself, only to discover that he has been misdiagnosed and must fight an army of hitmen. His character also has a love affair with a woman played by Sofia Boutella, marking his first appearance in a leading role with a love story.

“It was nerve-wracking for me. I hope people will take it well, but I’m still a little embarrassed by the choice. It was a challenge that I wanted to take on, and I accepted it,” Bautista said of his role. “A few years ago, I told myself that I had to stop taking so many supporting roles and that I had to go after leading roles, even if I had to create leading roles for myself. I heard Mahershala Ali say years ago that that’s what he was doing. He said, look, he had to start turning down supporting roles if he ever wanted to be a leading role. And I want to be a leading role, that’s how you grow in this business, and you don’t grow if you’re constantly taking supporting roles. You’re not going to become a bigger star, and my goal is to become a bigger star.”

He continued: “It’s funny, I want to become a bigger star so I can make smaller movies, that’s my goal. Those are the movies I love. But the quickest way to get there is to become a commodity. If you’re a big star, you’re a commodity. So that’s the thing: people are willing to listen to you, they’re willing to hear you if you can bring something to the table, and you bring something to the table when you’re a big star. So I hope I can get out there and become a big enough star that I can make smaller independent movies.”

Boutella, who had already worked with Bautista on Artemis Hotelsaid of her friend’s transformation into a romantic lead: “I think it’s relevant, and why not? He’s good at it, I found him very touching in the film.” Pom Klementieff, who previously teamed with Bautista for the film Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, added that the new film allows audiences to “see so many colors of his acting palette… It’s beautiful to see a softer side of him and something sweeter and more emotional and more beautiful like that.”

The Killer Game hits theaters Friday.