SPECTRE will be the twenty-fourth James Bond film produced by Eon Productions. It will feature Daniel Craig in his fourth performance as James Bond, Christoph Waltz as Franz Oberhauser, the film's antagonist and Dave Bautista as Mr. Hinx, an assassin and a high-ranking member of SPECTRE. It was directed by Sam Mendes as his second James Bond film following Skyfall, and was written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan and Jez Butterworth. The story features James Bond's first encounter with the global criminal agency known as SPECTRE, marking the organization's first appearance in an Eon Productions film since 1971's Diamonds Are Forever. When a franchise like the James Bond series reaches a certain age, your hits are somewhat measured against your flops. Ask any James Bond fan what their favorite Bond film was, and they'll most certainly tell you what their least favorite was as well. Thankfully, Sam Mendes didn't receive such rage with his 50th anniversary spectacular known as Skyfall, and judging by the remarks of his SPECTRE collaborators, Sam might be keeping his job for more years to come.

Entertainment Affair had the opportunity to sit down with Dave Bautista to talk a little bit about SPECTRE and his role as Mr. Hinx.

Entertainment Affair: How do you feel being part of the James Bond mythologies?
Dave Bautista: It's hard to explain because I grew up watching everybody. It's just an iconic film, you know, iconic legacy, a part of that. It was so funny though, when my agent ... Excuse my language on this, but it's my true reaction. My agent called me. He goes, "How would you feel about being in a Bond film?" I said, "Fuck yeah. Are you serious? Are you seriously asking me?" He said, "No. I knew what your answer would be like. I wanted to call you just to tell you this is a possibility." I auditioned for it. Still, it's just so weird."

EA: How was the process of the audition and everything?
DB: Actually, it wasn't bad. They sent me the sides to audition. It was really to recreate a scene from a past Bond film. I did the audition. I did it on tape. At first I struggled with it because the character that I was imitating, it was a bad imitation. I just felt unnatural so I called my acting coach and was like "Man, this just doesn't feel right." He said, "What are you doing?" I said, "I am trying to recreate this scene." He said, "Well are you trying to do it like that. I understand." I said, "Yeah." He said, "Why don't you just do it like yourself?". So, I did it like myself, which was totally opposite of the way he did it. It was a torture scene though. It was Casino, yeah Casino. So, then I just did it like me, very nonchalant. I sent it in. So Sam Mendes kept going back to it, he just kept going back to it, and he liked it. I went over to meet him.

EA: So, you play the superhero in Guardians of the Galaxy and now you are in the Bond movie. What else is on your bucket list of dream roles?
DB: Oh. Dream roles? Man, across the board, It would be easier to tell you my director bucket list. There are guys I really want to work with, Guy Ritchie, who I got to meet recently. I am a huge fan and I love his stuff. That is the kind of stuff I like, dialogue stuff.  They do great dialogue stuff. Quentin Tarantino, Scorsese, all of those guys.  I just love all of their back and forth dialogue between really good, dark, great characters. That is the kind of stuff I really love. I really am open to anything. I am a geek at heart. I want to do the Sci-Fi and superhero stuff and the vampire stuff. The kind of stuff I want to do is the fan boy all that stuff.

EA: Do you have a favorite Bond movie?
DB: You know it really is a toss up.  I mean it when I say this, it is between Goldfinger and Skyfall. After reading the script and after seeing some of the stuff they've shot, I really think that this is going to be something special. The reason I think that I love Skyfall so much was it just felt like it had a nostalgic feel to it. It felt like they tapped into that old school Bond feel, the old Sean Connery feel in a new, updated way. It is a faster pace, more serious pace, more believable pace, but they did tap into something, Sam did. I don't know what he did, essentially I never asked him but I felt like he realized that he did tap into something and then he just multiplied that for this film. That is why I think that this film is going to be something really special.

EA: You don't just want to be the muscle in this film.  How do you think that this role has changed since that time of that iconic Bond henchman genre?
DB: I always say that. Oddjob, he was just my favorite henchman. He was just my favorite. When you look back at them, you take away the hat and everything, he was more of a servant. He was more of a butler. He was more of a chauffeur. Now they can take a character like Hinx or put him in the same category of henchman, but there is nothing subservient about him. He is a bad ass man. He is a man on a mission of his own. I don't know, it is just different levels, I guess. It is just an updated, bad ass, kick ass version of a very methodical, very intelligent, well-dressed bad ass henchman. It is hard to label him as a henchman, but I guess at the end of the day he would be a very iconic Bond henchman, which is kind of a special title in itself.

EA: Right. Do you have any challenges? I am expecting you to have some kicking ass moments in this film. Was there any challenges in training or anything?
DB: I think it was a physical challenge, but I am the type of guy who loves that type of stuff. That is what I do. It is my therapy, the training stuff. Yeah, physically it was rough. The challenges of this film that I never experienced before was not so much the physical stuff, it was the logistic stuff, like moving from country to country to country. It was kind of crazy to pack your bags up because I had only done films, big films, Guardians was a huge film, but we shot most of it on set in London. We weren't traveling to different countries. It was kind of a weird thing. You are on the same film but you are literally packing your bags and you are moving to this country. Not only in those countries, you are moving to different locations in those countries and that is something that makes Bond special. It has such an international feel to it. They all have. They all have that feel to it, but it is not an easy chore to achieve.

EA: Because the film is set globally, including Mexico, do you have a favorite place you guys visited?
DB: I love Mexico. That is the funny thing because there was a lot of people from London, a London cast, a London crew who had never gone to Mexico City and they had been told bad things. I have said I've been there a million times I never once had a bad experience, trust me. They were all hyped up. There is areas, just like in other cities, you don't want to be caught in at night. Yeah, you can have a great time. I love Mexico, but I had never really spent as much time before as I did in Rome. Rome, I tell ya, is an awesome city. I love it. I fell in love with it. I spent a lot of time there. That was really good times and the history and stuff and I am really a fan of it. It is always intriguing, the history of cities. Rome has so much history. It is amazing.

EA: Anywhere in Rome particular that you visited?
DB: The Colosseum, I hate to sound generic, but when you walk into the Coliseum. It is a special place and you just think about stuff that went on there. It is insane to think about that the stuff that did actually happened and you are standing in the place. You have only seen it in movies and The History Channel. When you actually are standing there and seeing it and thinking all of this stuff actually happened. It is just a different feeling.

EA: Would you have volunteered to be in the Coliseum? Would you have been that guy? [Laughs]
DB: [Laughs] No. Hell no, no no. That is something else man. If I had a choice to stay home with my family and live or go and fight and possibly die, I would stay home. They had animals involved too. They were killing animals and I am not into that stuff.

EA: Was there a day in particular during the shoot that you had to pinch yourself and go "Oh my God, I am in a Bond movie. This is crazy."
DB: I think it was the first time, and it wasn't during filming, it was the first time I met Daniel. It is one of those weird things, you just turn around and there he is. It was just weird man. I try to explain to people. I think some people lose sight that I haven't been in films all that long. I really have not been in many big films. This is all still very new to me. Seeing all of these movie stars up close and personal is still very weird to me. I went to this studio gym, 8711,  I don't know what the title actually is. I went there, I am sorry, I didn't realize it was going to be a full blown gym for all of these stunt guys and trainers so I asked them to show me around. I am in there geeking out because it is all the kind of stuff I love. Then all of a sudden Keanu Reeves pops out between the bags. I turn around and there is Keanu Reeves. I was like "Where the fuck did you come from?" That is weird, but that kind of stuff is very new to  me, very surreal.

EA: That is exactly how I feel right now. You said you went to Mexico, were you able to walk around the city? Did the people recognize you?
DB: Yeah. Yeah, because wrestling was huge and tied in to Mexico City. It's got such a long history there and so most people could give a rats about me being in films, they recognize me from wrestling, which is great for me you know.

EA: Earlier you spoke about the Bond villains, like 3 years from now, your character in SPECTRE, what are people going to be saying they like about it?
DB: It's hard for me to answer that without giving away details and spoiling it.

SPECTRE is scheduled to be released on October 26 in the United Kingdom on the same night as the world premiere in London, followed by the worldwide release on November 6.