Dave Bautista is about to show another different side of himself in M Night Shyamalan's Knock at the Cabin, but it's a testament to his character and approach to acting that he's still not sure he got the role right.
The new thriller sees Bautista play Leonard, the leader of a group of people who break into a remote cabin and hold the family living there hostage. They're not doing it out of malice – they're doing it because they believe that unless one family member willingly sacrifices another, the world will end.
And while the star isn't totally convinced he nailed the role of Leonard, Shyamalan has no such issues and compared the casting to Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense or James McAvoy in Split.
"I just felt like this was the film gods giving me exactly the thing that was written," Shyamalan told Digital Spy. "I can't believe this: this person actually exists, a giant who can do 30 pages of dialogue and that intricacy of it.
"He's coming from the right place because he wants to respect himself and he wants to respect what he is known for. I think I found him at just the right time in his life where he's like, 'I've done all that stuff, I want to look in the mirror and feel proud.'
"I had no doubt, you know, and when Dave was nervous and worried that he wasn't gonna be able to pull this off, I was like, 'Dave, it's almost no way you can't because you're coming from the right place from the character and everything you say is working'."
Ahead of the release of Knock at the Cabin, Digital Spy sat down with Dave Bautista to talk about the challenges of the role, whether he pays any attention to the reaction to the movie and Shyamalan's filmmaking approach.
Congratulations on the movie. Have you paid attention to a lot of the first reactions to the movie? It's been extremely well-received.
Dave Bautista: No, this will be my second day of press, and I've just started getting feedback since yesterday. You know, I love it. I love all the positive feedback. But I'm waiting for the negative feedback, too. There's always going to be that.
I've always believed that I don't want to get wrapped up in the negative feedback. But in order to do that, I can't get wrapped up in the positive feedback either. So I just don't let it get ahead of myself.
I just want people to love this film. I really want this message to kind of seep through. I really want this to be a conversational film. I think that's what makes a classic film – if people are still watching the film five or 10 years from now, still having conversations about them. That's what makes a film great.
I try not to let myself get wrapped up in all the hype, whether it be positive or negative.
Related: M Night Shyamalan explains Knock at the Cabin's lack of explicit violence
That's what makes these kind of thrillers so good, because it's a concept where you can't help putting yourself into the situation...
It's such a dark place to go. Even to have the conversation out loud…
But, you know, the messages in general, if you take them out of this context, and put them into a much simpler context, it's still the messages of sacrifice, and love, and what love looks like, and those types of messages and how they're relevant to today's times.
I think they're great messages. You know, they're things that can be talked about in conversations that don't have to be apocalyptic [laughs].
You've already said that this was a really big challenge for you as an actor. You think Leonard's going to be this brute, but there's a vulnerability and an emotional side to him. Was that balance the biggest challenge?
It was a challenge, and it's a challenge that I sought after. This is why when the first time I read the script, I was blown away. And not only blown away by the script itself, but by the opportunity, selfishly, as an actor, as a performer – because roles like this just don't come my way.
I've never had a role of this magnitude come my way. I've had smaller dramatic roles that have opened the door to roles like this. But when I read this, I was blown away by this character, the pureness of Leonard.
Like you said, he's this big, hulking, intimidating person, but really he's the most gentle, kind person you'll ever want to meet in your life. But that's what I loved about him. That's why I wanted this role so bad. It was such a massive opportunity for me.
You've worked with distinctive filmmakers before like Denis Villeneuve and James Gunn, but how did working with Night compare?
It's hard to make a comparison, because I've never worked with James or Denis to this extent. You know, I've never been a lead role in their films. Whereas with Night, not only were we having conversations before the film, but every day on the film, we spent so much time together, literally just having conversations about the characters and about emotions.
And this is what I love about Night: he really challenged me, in a way, to perform with these layers of emotions. He never came to me and gave me one simple note like, "Can you say something this way? Can you look that way?" Nothing was a simple note. Everything was a full-on conversation.
He'd come, and he'd open up his notebook. He'd have the pages there, and we'd go over certain beats. We'd talk about thought processes and trauma and emotion, and also fighting and holding back certain emotions because you're dealing with other responsibilities on top of those emotions.
So everything was like this long, philosophical conversation. He challenged me every day, when I was very unsure of myself. I was having a lot of self-doubt. And I just completely trusted in him, and I relied on him.
And every day, I would say, "Are you happy with it?" and he'd say, "Yeah, I'm happy. We've got it. Trust me, we've got it." I'd say, "If you're happy, I'm happy," but there were a lot of nights when I went home thinking, "I felt like I was off. I could have done better."
I questioned myself, and I doubted myself. But I knew that that film was going to make me a stronger actor. It also proved something, because I've said a lot that I wanted to be an actor – a respected actor – and now this was kind of like: Put up or shut up. [laughs]
Was there a moment when you were filming, and you were like, "Right, I get Leonard now"? Or is it still a case that you're still not quite sure?
No, I'm still not sure [laughs]. Night's been hitting me up, because he started his press tour long before I started mine, and he's been hitting me up along the way, just telling me every time he watches it, how fortunate he was to work with this cast.
So, again, he's just been trying to reassure me, because he knows I still have self-doubt, and still feel like I could have done things differently; I could have done things better. There was just so much to process.
But again, I know that at the end of the day, no matter what, this made me a better actor. That's why I'm in this. That's why I search for these roles: I want to be great at this. I can't find out how great I can be unless I have roles like Leonard.
There are a lot of really intense close-ups and long takes. Were you aware when you were shooting that this was exactly how he was going to film it? And did that change your approach to the performance?
It definitely didn't change my approach. No matter where the camera is and how long the takes are, I'm always fully immersed in it.
I was familiar with his style, and I knew that this was going to happen. But what I didn't know – I didn't know that he was going to shoot it on film [laughs]. That became another layer of intimidation.
But again, this was the challenge that I wanted, and I loved it. I knew it was going to be challenging, and it was. This wasn't easy. It was a very hard role for me. And remembering this dialogue – Night was really particular about his dialogue. He writes in a certain way, and he wants it performed that way.
So this was something that was challenging but in the best way – the best possible way.
Related: Knock at the Cabin review: A taut and compelling M Night Shyamalan thriller
Was there a particular thing that you learned on this film that you feel will come back in future roles?
I did. It's a struggle. I don't know if I could do this again without being directed this way. A lot of times when you're performing, and you're sucked into a moment, you're in that moment. You're living that moment. You're feeling a certain way.
But Night constantly reminded me that although I was feeling a certain way, I still had a responsibility to be in charge, to be guidance. I had other people that I'm responsible for. So even if I'm being tortured inside, and what I'm doing is just impossible for me to do, I still have to give an appearance that I'm in control. I'm in charge, and everybody's OK.
So that was a real struggle. That was like juggling emotions. It was something I'd never been asked to do before. But I know that I can, I think I accomplished that. And I only know that because I've been reassured by Night that I did accomplish it [laughs].
Every day, I was asking him, "Are you sure I've got it?". Because I wasn't really sure of what I was doing. But I know that if I'm asked to do that in the future, then I'm at least familiar with what that requires.
Knock at the Cabin is released in cinemas on February 3.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
