Dave Bautista has revealed that he had a tattoo related to Manny Pacquiao covered up following comments the boxer made about gay people.
Bautista is currently turning heads with his performance in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery after he revealed he wants to take on more serious acting roles.
Speaking to GQ, the actor also revealed that he is leaving the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where he plays Drax the Destroyer in the Guardians of the Galaxy series.
The 53-year-old stated he has "a lot of love" for Drax but he wants to turn his attention to more serious roles and not have his legacy as the comedic relief in the Marvel universe.
Before taking to the big screen, Bautista was a WWE star who rubbed shoulders with some of the best-known fighters in the world.
He was part of a "team" with professional boxer Manny Pacquiao and even got some permanent ink that displayed the team's logo, per PEOPLE.
However, after Pacquiao made some homophobic comments on Filipino station TV5 in 2016, stating that gay people are "worse than animals," Bautista cut all ties.
"The animals are better. They know how to distinguish male from female," Pacquiao said to the station via PEOPLE. "If we approve [of] male on male, female on female, then man is worse than animals."
Bautista has long been a supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community, and so, he chose to have the tattoo covered in roder to further show that the boxer's comments did not represent him.
"I was part of a team of a person I considered a friend and someone I really looked up to. And then, he later came out publicly with some anti-gay statements and turned out to be an extreme homophobe," Bautista told GQ.
"I had a huge issue with it. It's a personal issue with me, my mom's a lesbian. I just could no longer call him a friend. So, I had it covered up with this," he continued while showing the updated ink of a woman with a skull face painting.
Bautista has also shown his support for the LGBTQIA+ community by posting an image of himself wearing a t-shirt with a rainbow design that states: "Be You."
Bautista is quickly becoming one of our favorite actors both on and off the screen!
