Dave Bautista Takes on Unlikely Role in Post-Apocalyptic Film Afterburn

Dave Bautista doesn’t play the experienced badass you might expect in JJ Perry’s Afterburn, a new movie inspired by the wasteland worlds of some of the best-loved post-apocalyptic films of the modern era. Instead, he plays Jake, an ex-soldier-turned-treasure-hunter who finds himself in over his head more often than not.

The setting is post-apocalyptic Earth, an entire hemisphere of which has been ruined by a massive solar flare that devastated society and created a land of mutants and vagrants. Bautista (who took over for Gerard Butler) plays one of many treasure hunters who survive by tracking down real-world artifacts such as the Mona Lisa.

ScreenRant’s Joe Deckelmeier interviewed Afterburn’s Dave Bautista and JJ Perry about their take on the post-apocalypse. They discussed working with the movie’s other A-lister, Samuel L. Jackson, and revealed the inspirations behind the movie’s world. Afterburn comes to theaters on September 19.

Why Dave Bautista Isn’t Who You’d Expect In Afterburn

Many of Dave Bautista’s best-known characters–Guardians of the Galaxy’s Drax, Beast Rabbon Harkonnen from Dune, and Army of the Dead’s Scott Ward–are trained, experienced military men. Afterburn’s Jake may be an ex-soldier, but in Bautista’s words, “At one point we thought Jake was this really trained badass, and they just thought it would be more interesting if he just wasn’t.”

This presents itself in many ways throughout the film, including in the skydiving scene teased in the Afterburn trailer. “We thought it’d be funnier if they just [assumed] that he had done this before,” Bautista shared, “but you realize that no, he hadn’t done it; he didn’t realize what he signed up for.”

“We wanted to play with a lot of different circumstances like that [where] he was a little bit in over his head.”

Why Slovakia Made For The Perfect Post-Apocalypse

dave bautista and olga kurylenko in afterburn 2

When beginning to discuss the tone of Afterburn, director JJ Perry acknowledged two clear influences: “Mad Max and Book of Eli.” But he had one big distinction.

“This one, for me, [is] not necessarily like the other films where it’s fight-heavy,” he said. “There’s some fighting, but it’s more of an action-adventure than a full-on action movie, with treasure hunting [and] problem-solving. We try to reach for it that way.”

And, apparently, the perfect location for such an adventure was Slovakia. “Here’s what happens,” Perry said, “you do a car chase in New York and they go, ‘Oh, yeah, Times Square again.’ You do a boat chase in London, they go, ‘Yeah, look, the Tower Bridge again.’”

“Nobody’s filmed in Slovakia for 22 years.”

According to Perry, the last movie that filmed there was 2001’s Enemy at the Gates. “I mean, I filmed a little second unit on the border in 2013, but nobody’s filmed a movie that was more than a million bucks there since Enemy at the Gates,” he said. “So, everywhere you look, it was something you haven’t seen before.”

“We went a little bit farther out of town where all these dilapidated buildings [are,] so it fit in,” Perry continued. “There’s a lot of plants and places that have been run down, so for us, it worked really well.”

Samuel L. Jackson Is “Exactly Like You’d Expect”

Afterburn features an exciting cast rounded out by Olga Kurylenko, Daniel Bernhardt, and the legendary Samuel L. Jackson. According to Bautista, Jackson lives up to that legend, and the star is “exactly like you would expect him to be. He is no nonsense. He’s funny as f***.”

Bautista and Perry also offered insights into what Jackson was like on set. “He wants to be efficient,” Bautista said, “He doesn’t have time to waste, and he’ll let you know, motherf***er.”

“He rode me like a rented mule the whole time,” Perry added, “God bless him.”

Dave Bautista Praises His Afterburn Director

Dave Bautista has worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including James Gunn and Zack Snyder. But his experience working with JJ Perry was seemingly one of his best. “I love the way he interacts with his cast and his crew,” Bautista said. “I’ve never met someone so supportive.”

“He’s really good at gauging energy,” the star continued, saying, “He knows when to drive people. He knows when to pull back.” Bautista also called Perry “the most efficient director I’ve ever worked with.”

“I wish there was a whole kind of behind the scenes thing … about just how creative he had to be,” Bautista shared. “There were a lot of challenges on this film, and JJ had to be very creative and very efficient to make this work.”

“We had a lot of scenes that were written very big, and we just didn’t have a budget for it.”

Perry himself reflected on that process. “We had six weeks to prep it, so we didn’t have a lot of time to prep,” he said, “[and] we had 42 days to shoot it … we had to be very clever on how we did things and the way we lit things.”

“We filmed a lot of things in the same place,” Perry said, “So, I would film one scene here looking left to right, and then I would film the next scene a week [or] two weeks later, but I’d be looking right to left. [I was] trying to be super-efficient.”

Afterburn comes to theaters on September 19.