At 6-foot-3 and a hulking 290 pounds, Dave Bautista was once the most feared wrestler in the WWE.
But that didn't stop 5-foot-3 Jodie Foster from cutting the actor down to size on the first day of their new thriller Hotel Artemis (opening Friday).
Bautista, 49, was already understandably nervous meeting two-time Oscar winner Foster, 55, for the film where he plays a hospital caretaker named Everest (you know, like the mountain).
Foster started right in with the verbal blows.
"So, she's studying me and she says, 'You’re not nearly as big as I thought you’d be,' " Bautista tells USA TODAY. "I was dying inside, but trying not to show it. I gave a nervous laugh. But she didn’t laugh at all. I wasn’t sure if she was messing with me."
The knocks continued as Foster started comparing Bautista to Liam Neeson, her co-star in the 1994 drama Nell.
"So we're reading and she lays it on even thicker," says Bautista. "She was like, 'Liam Neeson is much bigger than you.' I was getting self-conscious, terrified that she might be second-guessing me for this (Everest) role. Like, is it too late to replace me?"
To be fair, Neeson is 6'4" and slightly taller. But even Neeson wouldn't agree with any "much bigger" assessment, at least not to Bautista's face. Foster never let on that she was joking.
It was only when Bautista confided to co-star Sterling K. Brown about the discussion that the laughing Brown ensured him that Foster was just messing with his head.
"That put me at ease. Jodie Foster was needling me," says Bautista.
But Foster never let on — even when Bautista asked her about the comments after filming.
"She said she had never thought twice about it, she did giggle about it though," Bautista recalled. Then Foster told him: "But you know, Liam is much bigger than you."