David Bautista has made a big name for himself during his time in World Wrestling Entertainment where he became a six-time world champion. Like many major athletes he has since turned his attention to acting, and he gets one of his biggest roles to date in RZA’s “The Man with the Iron Fists.” In the movie he plays Brass Body, one of the main antagonists and a mercenary who can turn his body into metal. This makes him almost completely invulnerable; much like Bautista seemed like whenever he was in the ring.
While at a press conference for “The Man with the Iron Fists” which took place at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, Bautista talked about what it was like making the movie. Among the other actors in it is Cung Le who plays Bronze Lion and was also at one point a major kickboxing champion. Bautista was asked what it was like working with Le and if he had ever fought with him “in the cage.”
“I never fought with him, but we actually trained a lot together in China (where the movie was made),” Bautista said. “I wish we had some scenes together. I’m determined in my life to do a movie with Cung Le just so I can get that fight scene with him just because he’s so dynamic and so intense. So we never fought together but I picked up a lot of good things from him.”
Bautista said that he accepted the role of Brass Body without even reading the script and that the character originally only had one or two lines as it was more of a physical role. This soon changed once he was cast.
The biggest challenge for Bautista, however, was filming the fight scene between him and RZA. In addition to directing the movie, RZA also plays the Blacksmith who is “The Man with the Iron Fists.”
“The fight scene itself took days and days and it was just a pain in the ass,” Bautista said. “It was cold, it was brutal and RZA had those damn iron fists on and they were just killing my arms because he was hitting me. I had scratches and I was bleeding.”
“We actually started the fight scene a few days after I arrived in China, and then we had to go back to it at the end and finish it because it was so drawn out,” Bautista continued. “The two characters (the Blacksmith and Brass Body) were so strong and kind of invincible that we really didn’t know where to go with the fight scene. We really went without a plan and thought we could wing it and ad-lib and come up with stuff here and there, so that was really a challenge in itself.”
One of Brass Body’s other big scenes in the movie was when he viciously attacks one of the female characters, and Bautista said shooting it was “awkward.” He described himself as a “passive” person especially when it comes to women, and since this was essentially a “rape and murder scene,” it became very uncomfortable for him to do.
“I kept coming out of character because my first instinct was to tell the actress ‘are you okay?’ But she actually made it a lot of fun for me because I had this little thong on and I was freezing because the set wasn’t heated,” Bautista said. “Even when I picked her up I didn’t know where to touch her, so I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder and I’m trying not to grope her because I don’t want to make her uncomfortable. Then RZA stepped in and said ‘you gotta make it look more real. Grab her over her ass because it’ll help her out because it will cover some of her stuff up.”
The actress Bautista was working with thanked him for doing her that favor.
In addition to wrestling, Bautista is also a skilled mixed martial arts fighter. The first martial art he learned was Kali which comes from the Philippines and emphasizes weapons-based fighting with sticks, knives and other weapons. When asked if he tried to influence his fighting style in this movie, Bautista replied that he did to a certain extent but that it only went so far.
“The stuff that we were doing just didn’t translate as well as we thought it would on film, so we had to switch it up a lot and bring Corey Yuen (the movie’s fight choreographer) in to help us through this,” Bautista said. “We wanted this to look like a traditional kung fu fight movie especially with the characters being so strong, but I did utilize a little bit of my Kali.”
Those who have seen “The Man with the Iron Fists” can attest that Bautista is perfectly cast as Brass Body in that he comes off as a badass that cannot easily be defeated. When asked if he shares any similarities to his character and if he could offer advice to those of us who are not as athletically inclined as he is, Bautista’s response was actually quite surprising.
“I never felt like I was invincible,” Bautista said. “Throughout my whole life I always felt like I was an underdog. It’s kind of hard to relate to a kung fu action hero. I was trying to stay in character to where he (Brass Body) would always feel invincible and how he would react when he realized he wasn’t invincible and started to break down. I tried to get that in my head and I tried to make it come out on film, but not being the best actor made it kind of a challenge for me. I wouldn’t be the best person to give advice on how to be invincible because I’ve never felt that way. Everything’s a challenge for me, but I’m a hard worker.”
Up next for David Bautista is the untitled sequel to “Chronicles of Riddick” in which he will play the character of Diaz. Before he concluded his time, he was asked what his dream role is.
I hate to sound cliché but I’ve always wanted to do a vampire movie,” Bautista said. “Any kind of superhero stuff, that’s what I’m a fan of. I wouldn’t mind doing that, I just don’t see myself as a leading man type character. I like the drama, I just don’t know if I fit that type of role. But that’s the kind of stuff I like to watch though.”
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