Dave Bautista is one of the few iconic WWE stars who have transitioned into Hollywood quite perfectly. While Bautista started off in the industry via an uncredited cameo in Relative Strangers way back in 2006, it is his stints in multiple major franchises that have led to him becoming a part of the mainstream.
This includes franchises such as Guardians of the Galaxy, Blade Runner, and most recently, Dennis Villeneuve’s Dune. Dying at the hands of fellow MCU star Josh Brolin’s Gurney Halleck. However, while his Dune journey might have come to an end, the movie in itself included another scene in which Bautista claims exposed the kind of layers his character had.
During a recent interview, the 55-year-old went into detail over the kind of mindset that he was in, when he first read the scene.
Dave Bautista’s most fulfilling scene in Dune 2 revealed
The character of Rabban, which Bautista played, was shown as a menacing presence in Dune 1, and the face of the atrocities that the Fremen had faced for years at the hands of the Harkonnen. The nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Rabban ended up being killed in Gurney Halleck, although in the movies it was the Fremen who killed him.
Regardless, Dune 2 also included a scene in which Rabban is humiliated by Austin Butler’s Feyd-Ratha, who is his youngest nephew and is given control of the Fremen by the Harkonnen emperor. This scene, according to Bautista, exposed to viewers the true essence of his character and shows him in a different light. Dave Bautista claimed in an interview with IGN that most other actors would have refused to do the scene:
Most actors might look at that scene and be like, ‘I don’t want to do that’. And I read that scene and I was like, ‘Man, that’s great.’ Because that’s when you get to see the layers of the character and that’s when you get to see who Rabban really is.
However, Bautista instead thought that the scene was crucial to depict exactly who Rabban was, and allowed viewers to unpeel a character that had been utterly menacing for the Fremen until then. Of course, Bautista gave due credit to the director, who he claimed had the utmost faith in his skills.
Dave Bautista credits Dennis Villeneuve for recognizing his acting talent
Of course, as epic as the movie turned out to be, there were simply innumerable elements that made Dune 2 the success that we know as today. That in itself included the way in which the director was able to portray the various layers of a variety of characters, including Rabban.
Bautista went further in the same interview and claimed that while any actor could have played the role of the menacing brute that Rabban was shown as, Villeneuve choosing him meant that he recognized the former WWE star’s acting talent, and how he was perfectly capable of pulling off the role, and the particular scene:
Any big, tough guy could play this big, menacing, ominous brute. But when you add the layers to him, especially in that moment, that’s a performer’s dream. That’s my dream. And that’s what I love: that I have that confidence from Denis where he knows that I could pull off that moment, because it just validates me. I’ve always said that I want to be an actor, I want to be a movie star. And it’s moments like that where I get to say, I told you, you know? I get to prove my point.
Hence, while Bautista might not be seen in Dune 3, he is perfectly content with how his character arc ended. This is because Dune 2 gave him plenty of opportunities to prove his acting mettle, which most prominently included the scene talked about above.
Dune 2 is currently available to be rented/bought on multiple platforms such as Apple TV and Amazon Prime.
