Dave Bautista has opened up about the real reason he trains so hard at the gym.

In a new interview, the former wrestler-turned-actor, 52, also discussed how his hulking appearance affects people’s perception of him and makes people think he is “just a meathead”.

“I realise what I look like,” the six six-foot-three star told Men’s Health. “I joke and say I look like I got out of prison yesterday. But I do. I’m very aware of that.

“So that’s why I’ll take an extra minute with somebody to show them I’m just not that guy. I may look like that guy, but I’m not that guy.”

Bautista, who next stars in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, also said that he thinks people wrongly assume the reason he trains so much is to enhance his image.

“I think a lot of people think I’m just a meathead and that I live my life lifting weights,” he continued. “And I actually don’t. I do live my life training, but I think people think that I train because I want to look like a bodybuilder or a big musclehead. And it’s not at all the case.”

Bautista said that he trains so much as he finds it therapeutic.

“Me looking the way I do is really just kind of a by-product of that. I’m not consumed about like, ‘Oh, I can bench, like, 500 pounds; I can deadlift 800 pounds.’ I’m not that guy at all. I’d rather watch someone else deadlift than do it myself.”

Bautista, who plays Drax the Destroyer in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, has also appeared in the films Army of the Dead and Stuber.