Dave Bautista may soon get his "full-on rom-com" after all

Congratulations are in order for the starry-eyed Cupid inside Dave Bautista. Last year, the wrestler-turned-actor lamented the fact that he’d never been cast as a romantic lead. “I look in the mirror and… I ask myself, ‘Am I that unattractive? Is there something that unappealing about me that excludes me from these parts?'” he said to Page Six, breaking hearts across the nation. 

It’s also the exact type of pain a cute love interest could heal over coffee, a donut, and the type of conversation that makes you appreciate what really matters in life. A bunch of rom-com producers thought so, at least. “I said that and started getting calls immediately. So we’ve got a couple [rom-coms] that we’re developing that are actually really funny,” Bautista recently told The Hollywood Reporter. He’s now “making my way there, like a full-on rom-com. Not like an action rom-com, a full-on rom-com.”

In the meantime, he has his new film The Killer’s Game, which marks his first time ever acting with a love interest (played by Sofia Boutella). The premise of the film is awesome, by the way; Bautista plays an assassin who takes out a hit on himself after being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, only to find out he was misdiagnosed and now needs to single-handedly fight off an army of hit men. 

“It was nerve-wracking for me; I’m hoping people receive it well, still a little self-conscious about it. It was a challenge that I wanted, I accepted,” Bautista said of taking on the role. “It was a couple of years ago where I said to myself I need to stop taking so many supporting roles, and I need to seek out lead roles, even if I have to create lead roles for myself.”

He certainly deserves it. In a 2023 essay titled “It’s time we admit it: Dave Bautista is our best wrestler-turned-actor, and it’s not even close,” The A.V. Club‘s Matt Schimkowitz wrote, “Bautista… feels like the first to take acting seriously as something other than a brand extension, revealing new layers of talent with each of his performances.” He clearly loves what he’s doing, and is already taking on the classic “one for them, one for me” mindset. “It’s funny, I want to be a bigger star so I can make smaller films, that’s my goal. Those are the films I love,” he told THR. “But the fastest route to that is being a commodity; if you’re a big star, you’re a commodity… People are willing to listen to you, they’re willing to hear you out if you can bring something to the table, and you bring something to the table when you’re a big star. So, I’m hoping that I can grow my name and become enough of a star where I can make smaller independent films.”

The Killer’s Game premieres in theaters this Friday.