Knock at the Cabin star Dave Bautista explains why he struggled while filming M. Night Shyamalan’s new thriller. After rising to prominence with movies like The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, Shyamalan is now widely known as one of the most unpredictable filmmakers working today. Based on a novel by Paul Tremblay, Knock at the Cabin follows a young girl and her parents as they are held hostage and forced to make an impossible choice to avert the apocalypse. Bautista stars as Leonard, one of the home intruders, alongside other stars including Rupert Grint, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abby Quinn, and Kristen Cui.
In a recent interview with CinemaBlend, Bautista explains that he faced a particular struggle while filming Knock at the Cabin. The actor reveals that his major challenge stemmed from Leonard’s own headspace in terms of how he carries himself and how he interacts with his companions. Instead of letting Leonard’s emotions come to the surface, the enormity of the character’s task – preventing the end of the world – meant that he has to constantly try to maintain an aura of control even when things are falling apart. Check out Bautista’s full comment below:
“That was what I struggled with, because sometimes my instinct said to go more emotional, or to be more vocal, be more aggressive, or to break down a little bit. And he would always remind me to remember that Leonard feels this responsibility that he has to be in charge. He has to be, he’s responsible for all these people. He’s in charge of making sure that this goes right, that these people really believe that he’s there out of sincerity, and he really means what he says, he believes in what he says, so he can’t fall apart. So that was kind of my struggle.”
How Leonard Is Different From Other Dave Bautista Characters
Bautista, a former WWE wrestler, has proven in the last decade or so that he really has some impressive acting chops, taking on a variety of characters in a variety of different projects. After appearing in some smaller B movies and some direct-to-video action offerings, Bautista appears as a secondary antagonist in Riddick in 2013. The actor’s biggest break, however, came in 2014 with Guardians of the Galaxy. His role as Drax was much more comedic and it introduced him to a broader audience, but it was arguably his small role in Blade Runner 2049 that showed off just how much range he has as an actor.
While continuing his stint in the MCU and also taking on some action-heavy roles like in Army of the Dead or comedic roles like Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the actor hadn’t yet taken tackled a truly complicated and mysterious antagonist. Bautista has previously played a villain in movies like Sam Mendes Spectre, in which he plays Mr. Hinx, and in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, in which he plays Glossu Rabban, but Mr. Hinx is a fairly one-note henchman and Glossu doesn’t really get that much screen time. One of the key things that actors, screenwriters, and directors touch on when describing what makes an effective antagonist is that the villain doesn’t actually believe he or she is a villain.
Leonard in Knock at the Cabin appears to be the epitome of this idea, with the character truly believing that he is saving the entire human race. Although to Groff and Aldridge’s characters Leonard is a dangerous madman holding them hostage, Leonard is very much the hero of his own story. Whether Leonard is actually telling the truth is very much at the crux of Knock at the Cabin, but Bautista’s complex, challenging, and unpredictable role is hopefully a sign of things to come in the actor’s career.
Source: CinemaBlend