Dave Bautista: I'm a professional wrestler at heart, and I miss it.

Money Talks. Chocolate Sings.

Dave Bautista

money-talks chocolate

I don't think there's a certain part of a character I take with me. There's a certain part of me I leave with each character, though.

Dave Bautista

certain character thinking

For some reason, I struggle seeing myself as a leading man.

Dave Bautista

struggle reason men

I didn't want to be a movie star, I wanted to be an actor. Because acting is what I fell in love with, and acting is what is still challenging for me.

Dave Bautista

acting stars challenges

I'm not afraid to go up to people and pick their brains and ask for advice. To me, that's how you get better. That's how I've gotten better at everything I've ever done. Don't be too proud to ask for help.

Dave Bautista

brain advice people

I'm a poor kid from the streets. What I've been able to achieve has really just been through hard work and not letting anyone tell me that I couldn't do something. I always try to encourage people to just pursue your dreams.

Dave Bautista

hard-work dream kids

I'm more a fan of old-school films with really interesting stories and good performances. That's what I'd like to do.

Dave Bautista

old-school fans interesting

Basketballs dont hold grudges!

Dave Bautista

wwe basketball funny

If you're pursuing something that you love and you're learning something new, every day, that's the key to youth [staying young].

Dave Bautista

learning-something-new youth keys

People look at me, and they have a certain perception, and they slap a label on me. The guy you saw in a wrestling ring is not who I am.

Dave Bautista

who-i-am wrestling people

I'm not a big guy. I'm not a menacing guy. I'm not an intimidating guy. I may look that way, but just spend two seconds talking to me, and you know that's not who I am - not as a person, as a character. It's not who I intend to be.

Dave Bautista

who-i-am talking character

It's much easier when you have your co-workers who are just, they're there in the moment. If you were out of the moment, you would feel odd.

Dave Bautista

easier odd moments

Nothing can motivate me any more than I'm motivated.

Dave Bautista

motivated

In wrestling there are so many people inside and outside the ring, and it's so live, and it's this whole adrenaline thing. Whereas you move it into this more intimate thing, everything gets all quiet, someone says action, and you have to say the lines and make the words your own. It couldn't be any more different and it's weird sometimes trying to explain that to people. When I tell people that acting is much more terrifying to me than going out in front of ten thousand people, they don't quite believe it because for some reason that intimacy is just terrifying to me.

Dave Bautista

wrestling believe moving

If I could get myself to a place where I felt secure and I wouldn't have to kind of worry about money and I know my family would be secure, then I would leave the big studios so I could continue to make smaller films, and hopefully get to direct a few of them, too.

Dave Bautista

kind would-be worry

Kissing babies and hugging fat girls.

Dave Bautista

girl baby funny

I spent my whole life being very shy and introverted and I kind of found my release and therapy in the gym. I became this big, menacing physical stature of a man but internally I'm still kind of insecure. Warm, fuzzy and gooey.

Dave Bautista

fuzzy insecure men

I'm creating my niche. My niche is going to be "shirtless guy."

Dave Bautista

niche creating guy

I was an amateur wrestler, which I loved. It was my passion, but I started really late; I was a junior in high school when I began.

Dave Bautista

juniors passion school

I'm not a leading man. I'm a character actor. That's what I want to be.

Dave Bautista

actors character men