Dave Bautista was clearly very excited to get involved with Netflix’s Army of the Dead, after the actor revealed that he’d turned down the opportunity to play Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad, a role written specifically for him by James Gunn, because he really wanted to work with Zack Snyder and take top billing in one of the filmmaker’s big budget and hugely stylish blockbusters.
Not only that, but a lot of stars don’t tend to watch their own movies ever again once production wraps, yet the former professional wrestler also admitted that he’d seen the apocalyptic heist thriller five times and was absolutely obsessed with the ending. However, Bautista isn’t 100% thrilled about Army of the Dead, which has nothing to do with the content of the film itself, but rather one of his co-stars that he would’ve loved to have worked with directly.
“What really bothers me, when I watch this film, it bothers me that I don’t know Tig Notaro. I feel like I should know her. I want to meet her, and I want to hug her and tell her how amazing she was in the film. I’ve been able to do that with all my other co-stars, and I haven’t been able to do it with Tig because I haven’t met her yet. I think she’s amazing and is incredible in the film.”
It’s a very strange situation to say the least, with Netflix spending millions of dollars to insert Notaro’s Marianne Peters into Army of the Dead months after principal photography had finished, and she still went on to steal her fair share of scenes. Peters and Bautista’s Scott Ward have plenty of interactions throughout the running time, too, especially during the third act when they team up to mount a last-ditch rescue operation, which makes it even stranger to think that they’ve never met before.
Unless something drastic changes, we won’t see it happen in the sequel, either, even if the leading man has already been touted for a potential return to the world of zombie killing. Adding Notaro into Army of the Dead worked out fantastically for all involved, though, and she’s certainly a highlight in a film full of them.