Dave Bautista Says Working With RDJ On Avengers: Infinity War Was A Dream Come True

Beneath the hulking and tattooed exterior of Dave Bautista’s Drax the Destroyer is a Robert Downey Jr. fanboy.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 actor is all set to cross paths with Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark/Iron Man in Avengers: Infinity War, and Bautista couldn’t be more excited. While speaking to Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview, the former MMA fighter touched base on Joe and Anthony Russo’s 2018 sequel and revealed that it was a surreal experience getting to share scenes with RDJ.

It was a particularly special moment for Bautista, too, as he’s consistently name-dropped Robert Downey Jr. as a huge inspiration both career-wise and on a personal level, and here, the actor says that getting to work with him was a dream come true.

“It was pretty surreal, man, it was pretty surreal,” said Bautista. “I’ve been a fan of Robert Downey Jr. since I was very young, and watched him perform my whole life, growing up. Working with him was a surreal dream come true.”

Blending the sarcasm and aloof snark of Iron Man with the very literal Drax is surely a recipe for success, and when GMA quizzed Bautista about their chemistry on the Infinity War set a while back, the Guardians star revealed that the two clicked “immediately.”

Immediately. Here’s the thing is that, I went to the premiere in London of Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Robert went out of his way to come and meet me and say how much he loved me in the first [Guardians] film. That meant the world to me, so it put me at kind of an automatic comfort level with him, so as soon as we hit the stage man, there was no pressure or walls there, I just felt like, ‘This guy is very supportive of me.’ I think that’s just him, he’s a very giving actor across the board. But for me personally, I just felt totally at ease with him, and it makes for good chemistry when you’re comfortable with someone.

Packed to the rafters with scene-stealing chemistry and “intense surprises,” Avengers: Infinity War is now less than a year away and will launch into theaters on May 4th, 2018. The fourth, so-far untitled Avengers film will then release in May of 2019, by which point viewers will be acquainted with Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers and her ’90s-set origin story. March 8th, 2019 is the date for your diaries for that one.