Dave Bautista rejected multi-million dollar role in Fast and Furious franchise

Dave Bautista once turned down the chance to be in the Fast and Furious franchise after taking some acting career advice from Dwayne Johnson's biggest rival in wrestling.

These days, Dave Bautista is a very well respected actor, having wrapped on his final Guardians of the Galaxy movie and not even having time to enjoy the moment with his castmates before jetting off to his next job.

He's a busy guy and very in-demand, and there are plenty of people who think that of the wrestling stars to embrace an acting career he's the most talented of them all.

It's an idea championed by Knives Out director Rian Johnson, who cast Bautista in a major role in his murder mystery sequel, Glass Onion, and revealed that he had a totally different idea of the character Duke in his head before casting.

Previously picturing 'a scrawny dude who’s trying to overcompensate', Johnson said he was 'instantly so smitten' once the idea of Bautista playing the role came up and called himself a 'very big fan of his dramatic chops as an actor'.

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While he's appeared in some mega-money franchises, most notably the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Bautista has also rejected the opportunity to be in the financial juggernaut that is the Fast and Furious movies.

He was offered a role in the franchise but passed on it because it just wasn't his thing and he wanted to play something in a Gears of War adaptation instead.

Bautista told Collider that he passed on the offer to do Fast and Furious as he wasn't really interested in it.

He said: "I don’t mean to offend anybody. I’m not putting down anything else, I’m just saying [Gears] is way more interesting to me.

"I don't want to pretend like I'm actually interested in something I'm not when there’s something I'm actually really excited about that you guys have under control. Would you consider me for that?"

"I don't think there’s any harm in that. I’m not trying to step on anybody else’s toes, I’m just saying like this is what I love and I’m seriously passionate about this. I can do a good job for you guys on this."

Lifestyle pictures / Alamy Stock Photo

Bautista has talked about receiving advice from fellow wrestler and longtime rival of Dwayne Johnson, Stone Cold Steve Austin.

He said he was warned by his fellow wrestler that he was 'going to get offers for horrible scripts' and 'the money will be tempting', but above all he should avoid getting 'caught in that trap'.

The advice seems to have paid off, with Bautista remembering that he was 'picky and choosy' about his movie roles even when he was struggling for money in his post-WWE days.

Looking at his career now it'd be difficult to say he was wrong in taking the advice.