Drew McIntyre on Bad Guys Having More Fun in WWE, Acting with Dave Bautista and More

Drew McIntyre has officially taken the next step into super stardom by making his first-ever appearance on the silver screen.

The Killer's Game, now in theaters, sees McIntyre take on the role of Scottish brute Rory Mackenzie in a pursuit for a wanted assassin, played by former WWE champion Dave Bautista. The movie's release coincides with the culmination of his white-hot rivalry with fellow wrestler-turned-actor CM Punk inside Hell in a Cell at Bad Blood.

In other words, his stock has never higher.

McIntyre has been producing the strongest work of his entire career since undergoing his gradual character shift in the final few months of 2023. This year alone, he's reigned supreme inside Elimination Chamber, held the men's Money in the Bank briefcase, and won the World Heavyweight Championship—albeit briefly—at WrestleMania.

Despite all of that, he has plenty more he aims to accomplish, including continuing to conquer the acting scene.

The Scottish Warrior caught up with Bleacher Report to discuss The Killer's Game, working with Bautista, what went into his decision to re-sign with WWE, having more fun as a bad guy, and more.

Check out the complete video of the interview on the next slide and read on for the highlights.

Just as McIntyre was starting to get his feet wet on WWE's main roster in early 2010, Bautista departed the company to pursue other endeavors, namely acting. As a result, their paths never crossed inside the squared circle.

However, McIntyre credits Bautista for helping him get acclimated to the WWE environment early on in his run and telling him like it is.

"First of all, it was so much fun to reunite with Dave," McIntyre told B/R about working with The Animal in The Killer's Game. "He was so instrumental early in my career when I first arrived in WWE, being such a big star and helping guide me. When I did something wrong, no one else would tell me. He was one of the ones that told me, 'Here's some advice, here's some of the stuff you need to know.'

"Back then in 2007, there weren't as many people trying to help you, especially the top, top stars," he continued. "Fast forward years later, he's the one that makes the call and gets me involved in the project and is looking after me again. JJ, the director, was so unbelievable. Scott Adkins, who played my brother. The whole crew, everyone was unreal. I went not knowing what to expect and I came out saying, 'Wow, I had so much fun.' This is not a world I necessarily saw myself in, especially at the peak of my career, but now, I certainly can and I'm excited about it."

For as many similarities as the worlds of wrestling and acting share, the latter can be incredibly difficult for even the most proficient pro wrestlers to grasp. McIntyre, meanwhile, makes the most of his limited screen time in The Killer's Game.

McIntyre revealed that Bautista helped calm his nerves when it came time for them to shoot their scene together.

"I certainly never thought it would come easy to me," he said. "It was quite the opposite. 'Oh, man, this is going to be totally different and I don't know what to expect.' I guess most people would have the thought, 'I just hope I don't suck,' more than anything. But as soon as I got there, Dave was there right on the set asking me if I was nervous. I told him yes and he said he was nervous, which blew my mind after all the success he's had and all the diverse roles and big movies he's been part of, so that helped relax me initially."

The grandeur and bright lights of WWE prepared McIntyre for the pressure he'd be under while filming. He made the character of Rory Mackenzie his own by making it an exaggerated version of himself, not unlike what he's done in WWE throughout his career.

"When I got in front of that camera and saw that red light, my whole body just relaxed, basically growing up in front of the world on camera," McIntyre said. "That's my comfort zone. As soon as that red light went on, I just relaxed instantly. I had fun with the character. JJ was right there motivating me the whole time. Just like WWE, there was a lot of 'go for it' and be yourself and be the character: a Scottish brute that uses a lot of Scottish slang, a lot of swears. It isn't far off from the real me. It was so much fun to do."

McIntyre is one of the few WWE Superstars to have simultaneously filmed for a movie while barely missing time from television. He shot for the role of Rory Mackenzie in the buildup to SummerSlam 2023 and it was shortly afterward that he underwent the complete character transformation that led him to where he is today.

"It's not something I consciously thought about, but bringing it up to me right now, yeah, absolutely," McIntyre said about applying what he learned from acting to his WWE work and looking at things from a different perspective than before. "All the lessons I learned from JJ, Dave, Scott Adkins, and how they did things and discussed things and took a step back to look at things like, 'This is what we're doing, let's look at it from this angle.' I certainly do that."

McIntyre's change in approach goes hand-in-hand with the way WWE has altered its approach to virtually everything during the Triple H regime.

"It's across the board in WWE as well with the way the creative process is now," McIntyre added. "It's very much, 'This is what we're thinking, what do you think? Is there something different?' The way those guys think on set probably made me think more this way. 'Let me step over here and look at it, let me step over here and look at it. What if we did this? No one's going to see this coming.' And it's going to get an emotional reaction, which is the number one thing we want in our world but also in the movies, we want you to feel something."

McIntyre slowly embracing the dark side starting in late 2023 was a recurring highlight on Raw for several months and still is in many ways.

Turning heel alone wasn't what revived his stagnant character. Rather, it was that everything he said and did made sense, even if how he went about doing things wasn't always justified.

It was a breath of fresh air for a heel in WWE to have reason and logic for their turn. McIntyre feels he can relate to his role as Rory Mackenzie from The Killer's Game in that sense: Both characters are unapologetically themselves.

Exposing CM Punk as the "hypocrite" he believes he's been has been the basis of their entire storyline.

"They both live their truth, let's say," McIntyre said. "That's very important to me in any aspect of my life. I can see working on Killer's Game that I can inject some truth. Whatever project comes my way, I'll find something I can hang my hat on and that's my truth. For me, Drew McIntyre, it's all my truth. Everything I say, I 100 percent believe is based in fact.

"I defy anyone to say you lied here, you were a hypocrite here, you weren't justified there, or this wasn't caused my trauma there," he continued. "There's a logical explanation for what I do because I'm very particular about the character and very particular about telling the truth."

With Triple H, Nick Khan and the rest of the TKO team at the helm, it's a new day in WWE. Doors that were once closed are now open and management has seemingly been much more flexible with the talent.

That includes outside ventures such as taking on acting projects, something that may not have been possible during the previous regime.

The timing of being cast in The Killer's Game was interesting for McIntyre. He was in the midst of renegotiating his contract with the company (originally set to expire in the spring of 2024), and although one didn't have to do with the other, it was important for him for his new deal to encompass everything he wants in this stage of his career.

"I don't know if [the movie] necessarily played into things with the way things are now," he told B/R. "WWE is obviously very open to, 'Okay, what's the project? How does this help them and help us and grow the brand?' If everyone wins, they very much want to be part of it. This was a lay-up and I'll always be involved with lay-ups. I'll never do something that's going to hurt me or hurt the company. That never really factored into it.

"It's hilarious that my contract seemed to be the only contract that was on the internet every week for a year straight," McIntyre joked. "I was like, 'There's other people in this company with contracts, why is it always mine?' It got to a point where it was family. I need to take time off. I'd never taken time off. I've spoke about it publicly but my wife's sister passed and it was a very difficult time for our family."

Family is why McIntyre heavily considered taking time off from wrestling when his previous contract was set to expire, and family is why he ultimately stayed.

It would have been tough for fans to envision a world without McIntyre in a main-event position on Raw considering the roll he was on heading into WrestleMania 40 and the newfound feud he had with CM Punk.

His quick loss of the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania felt like a sign he was indeed nearing the end of his run, but The Rock revealed on Instagram in late April that the two-time WWE champion would be sticking around after all.

"As time passed, we got into the character transition and things were really clicking, and she and her mother are learning to live with the new normal," McIntyre said. "Even though I was very much of the mindset that I was going to take some time at least, it got the point where it was, 'Okay, let's revisit this.' My wife and I talked about it and she said now wasn't the time to be going anywhere. 'Let's figure things out.'

"Thankfully, Nick Khan and Triple H were amazing about it," he continued. "They were very understanding about the family aspect and what I need from the company right now, what I need for my family right now, what I need for outside projects right now. We figured everything out and everyone saw the video: The Rock sent a nice little sword to celebrate the signing and a nice little note as well."

Most wrestlers will prefer to portray a heel because it's more fun. McIntyre is no exception.

The creative freedom it tends to provide is what allows them to become a bigger fan favorite in the long run. McIntyre excelled as a babyface during the ThunderDome era, but he's been infinitely more interesting as a character since the turn.

He's barely scratched the surface of what he can do in the role, yet he's already become one of the most well-rounded performers in the entire company. Those skills will take him far beyond wrestling if he decides to pursue any outside opportunities that come his way.

"I wouldn't say I'm a bad guy, some people might want to call me a villain because of my methods but I never, ever lie," McIntyre told B/R. "But bad guys do have more fun and the truth is, in the role I was prior, I was a company guy. A top babyface, especially at the height of the pandemic. They expected certain things from their top good guys at the time. Smiling good guys, smiling no matter what even if they just lost the title. Somebody did something horrific to you or your friend and you just keep going out smiling. That's not the real me, that's not how I deal with things in real life or people in general deal with those situations.

"Now, being able to react like a human being would react and being able to tell these deep-layered stories. The Bloodline story showed that if you take the time to develop these stories and characters, you can have these deep-layered stories like you do on TV, except they have seasons. We're non-stop all year. If you truly know who you are and Creative know who you are, you can make these people feel happy, sad, pissed off. We can do it all. With McIntyre, the story—especially winning the title with nobody in attendance and losing in Cardiff because of The Bloodline—one thing after another it felt like for a period that I didn't understand or was upset with in real life and now I was able to channel into this character."

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.