Dave Bautista described his emotional reaction to hearing the casting news for his role of Drax the Destroyer in "Guardians of the Galaxy."
The Marvel movie's press tour stopped at Singapore to promote the film. Bautista described his reaction to a phone call he received from his manager after going through multiple rounds of auditions.
"I was on the way to the gym and my manager called me," Bautista told the reporters, according to ComicBook.com. "And he said, hold on for a second, and he wouldn't tell me until he got my agent on the phone, and he said, 'Congratulations, Mr. Drax.' And I literally just broke down. I drove home, I was just a mess...
"It was a big deal to me and I can never explain to people how big this was for me. It was a life-changing thing for me. It was hard for me to leave behind wrestling but I worked and struggled and worked and struggled and auditioned and auditioned and finally got the dream role of a lifetime."
Bautista isn't the only person with an emotional investment with the film. "Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn took to his official Facebook page to express his feelings on have to wrap the production after working on the film for two years.
"I'm starting to get very sad every time I think of how I'm going to miss all of the people I've been working with side-by-side for the past two years," Gunn wrote. "And - to show you how strange I really am - I get teary-eyed when I think of how I won't be working with Rocket (at least for a little while). He's been the center of my life for a long time now, and I've come to love the little son-of-a-b***h. Really."
"Guardians of the Galaxy" will premiere in theaters on Aug. 1.
