Dave Bautista Talks Having Social Anxiety and Still Being ‘Unfulfilled’ as an Actor (Exclusive)

Dave Bautista is getting candid about his life and career. The 55-year-old actor and his My Spy: The Eternal City co-star, Chloe Coleman, interviewed each other for ET, and Bautista opened up about his professional hopes and personal struggles.

“I feel unfulfilled as an actor. I have goals onto certain spaces. I want to be an A to Z actor. I want to be in every genre,” Bautista told Coleman during their ET sit-down. “There’s still a few that I haven’t gotten into, a few boxes I haven’t checked. But also I haven’t gotten that role that is just that deep, dramatic moving role. [That’s what I’m] searching for, so I feel very unfulfilled.”

While Bautista noted that he’s “still very passionate about acting,” he said he’s “setting my sights on directing” in the near future.

“I’m a total control freak, so I want to direct,” he said. “I want to direct performances and I want to make my own film.”

Bautista didn’t always have the confidence he does today. In fact, back in high school, Bautista said he was “such a misfit” and “such an introvert.”

“I just didn’t know where I fit in,” he recalled. “I was naturally athletic, but I didn’t grow up with sports. I didn’t know how to play sports. I discovered wrestling when I was a junior in high school and… it happened to be good. But it’s a craft, it’s something you have to learn.”

Though he would up enjoying wrestling, Bautista said that he didn’t feel like a jock on the inside. “Inside I was a performer,” he said, before noting that his performance dreams were stymied by the fact that he was “such an introvert.”

“I couldn’t get out of my shell and perform,” Bautista said. “I was always mesmerized by the theater kids. I thought they were magical and I wanted to be one of those kids if I just wasn’t afraid. I wasn’t timid, but I was just introverted and shy and self-conscious… I think it was in my nature.”

It’s not that Bautista’s entire nature changed as he got older. Instead, he simply accepted his own feelings.

“When I was older I just became OK with it. I became alright,” he said. “I used to be embarrassed to say I had social anxiety. I was uncomfortable being close by a lot of people. As I was getting older I was OK with it. I wish I discovered that earlier. I wish I was OK with myself at a younger age.”

“I would love to say, ‘I’m not going to be self-conscious today. I’m gonna go to this red carpet premiere and I’m not going to have anxiety.’ It’s something that’s uncontrollable,” Bautista added. “… Now I know I’m gonna be uncomfortable and I own it. I just wish I could do that when I was younger.”

At only 15, Coleman is someone who’s stepping into her own at a young age. Bautista has seen the actress grow up right before his eyes, as she was only nine when they co-starred in the first My Spy movie years ago.

“The difference between being nine and 15 is that I’m a lot more conscious. My memory is better, so I really remembered the entire three months. I just have a better awareness and understanding of what’s happening,” Coleman told Bautista. “… Both the first film and the second film were individually special. I had such a great experience on the first one, and I think the second one came at a time where I really needed it.”

My Spy: The Eternal City is now streaming on Prime Video.

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