LOS ANGELES, March 5 (UPI) -- Dave Bautista says In the Lost Lands writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson sold him on making his character cool and sexy. Bautista plays Boyce, a hunter hired by the witch Gray Alys (Milla Jovovich) to guide her through a post-apocalyptic realm of creatures and magic.
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Bautista recalled Anderson's enthusiasm for his appearance. The film opens Friday in theaters.
"I'd never heard that from a director before," Bautista laughed. "Nobody had ever looked at me and thought, 'Sexy.' When he said that, he was serious about it too."
Anderson, a filmmaker known for the Resident Evil franchise and sci-fi films Death Race and Alien vs. Predator, confirmed his approach to Bautista.
"I'm such a sweet talker," Anderson joked.
The director said he saw Boyce as a '60s and '70s hero like Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson. He specifically referenced Eastwood's westerns For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and The Ugly and Two Mules for Sister Sara.
"They weren't traditional romantic leads but they were great male leads that were very, very attractive to women," Anderson said. "I really felt like Dave was cut from that same kind of mold."
Boyce is modeled after cowboys in westerns, wearing a hat and overcoat riding through the Lost Lands on his horse.
"It was very important to him how the overcoat flowed on me," Bautista said. "There were certain scenes we shot where he had me pose a certain way. He wanted to see my silhouette. He would just be so excited about the way it looked."
Jovovich's appearance in the film is unique as well. The actress has played action heroines in films like The Fifth Element and Anderson's Resident Evil franchise, but in Lost Lands Gray Alys is covered in body art of Icelandic runes.
"They actually spelled all the names of the crew members on my body," Jovovich said. "If you take a screenshot or if you pause, you can actually translate it and you'll see all the names of the people in the crew."
Jovovich, who married Anderson in 2009 and also starred in his Three Musketeers and Monster Hunter, said Lost Lands is the first love story he's written for her. What begins as a job for Boyce becomes a bond in which he and Gray Alys discover they have both emotional and magical traits in common.
"It's a very painful, tormented love story," Jovovich said. "It's a dark fairy tale action movie and a love story, a story about two extraordinary people that are incredibly lonely that need to feel companionship for maybe the first times in their lives, to be understood, to be seen, to be heard. I think that's something everyone can relate to."
In the Lost Lands also draws upon Bautista and Jovovich's strengths in fight scenes. Boyce and Gray Alys fight off pursuers on a school bus converted into a cable car overhanging a deep chasm.
For Jovovich, Gray Alys' magic powers were new territory.
"It was nice to be able to play a character that really was organically a magical entity and not something produced in a lab," she said, referencing characters like Resident Evil's Alice, The Fifth Element's Leeloo and Ultraviolet's Violet. "It very much resonated with me to be able to play a character that had that mystery about her being someone who has lived so many lives, that's come from so many different realms."
Gray Alys' journey reminded her of Greek mythology, Jovovich said. The film is based on the George R.R. Martin short story and supported by mythology he developed.
"She's still trying to figure out who she is through it all which actually makes her so relatable," she said. "Much like the gods in Greek mythology who are these super powerful beings but actually are very relatable and very much like humans."
In addition to newfound sex appeal, Bautista has also seen his career expand to include drama. In last year's The Last Showgirl, he played a producer of a Las Vegas show closing after decades.
This sort of variety is what Bautista wanted from the beginning, he said. However, coming from WWE, it was challenging to get Hollywood to see him beyond Guardians of the Galaxy's deadpan alien Drax or villains in Spectre and Kickboxer: Vengeance.
"I didn't lie to people," Bautista said. "I told people straight up that I just didn't want to pursue these action roles that I felt like they were going to put me in a box. I needed to pursue legit acting roles."
Bautista said he does not need to win any awards for his acting. However, it would mean a lot to him to be in the same conversations as his acclaimed costars.
"I want that type of respect," he said. "I don't need a trophy but I do want people to have conversations with me saying, 'Yeah, he definitely deserves a trophy.'"
