Bautista has made it clear that he’s struggled to get the type of roles he wants in Hollywood. This isn’t exactly a surprise — many other former or current WWE Superstars often find themselves doing stunt work or less-than-acclaimed action fare. There is certainly nothing wrong with either of these career paths, but for Bautista, they didn’t scratch an itch he had for meatier roles. And while he has had supporting roles in films like “Blade Runner 2049” and “Dune,” something about “Knock at the Cabin” felt different.
“When this came along, it was just so much of what I’ve been searching for,” he said, “not only to have this huge role with tons of dialogue and a lot of layers of emotion but also have a director, a monster director like M. Night Shyamalan.”
He also cited the fact that Shyamalan’s approach, to only shoot with one camera and to shoot on film rather than digitally, upped the stakes for him as a performer. Because of that way of working, the room for mistakes drastically dwindled:
“I’ve got a whole room full of cast mates who are also relying on me hitting my dialogue, nailing my dialogue, because we’re shooting on one camera with film, with one shots. If they nail their dialogue, they crush it, and put all this emotion and energy into their performances, and then the camera turns to me and I blow it, then their performances are completely wiped out and we’ve got to start all over again. It’s a massive amount of responsibility and weight on my shoulders for this one.”