Dave Bautista had to sweat off Guardians of the Galaxy makeup

Wrestler-turned-actor Dave Bautista had to spend an hour in a sauna every day after filming Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 to sweat off the makeup glued to his skin.

The star reprises his role as Drax the Destroyer in the new blockbuster, the sequel to 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy, and his character's topless appearance requires him to undergo a lengthy stint in the makeup chair before shoots to turn his skin green and decorate it with red tattoo-like designs.

Preparing for the follow-up was a much faster process than for the original movie, but getting it all off still required Dave to hit the sweat box with his assistants in tow.

"The great part about it is it (makeup) goes on (in) about an hour-and-a-half, which is great for me - the first film was like four to six hours," he explained. "The bad part is that it's very abrasive, it's like glue, so to get it off, I have to sit in a sauna for about an hour."

And the action man admits it's not the most pleasant of experiences.

"What we do is they rub shaving cream all over me because it helps to loosen up the makeup. It's really awful!" he cringed. "We've gotten some strange looks...! I get in the sauna for about 20 minutes by myself, and then about three guys join me and they start scrubbing this makeup off me. I'm sure we have some embarrassing (footage somewhere)."

Despite the lengthy makeup removal process, Bautista isn't about to quit the franchise anytime soon - the Guardians of the Galaxy characters all feature in the forthcoming Avengers: Infinity War, while filmmaker James Gunn has already signed on to write and direct a third installment of Guardians of the Galaxy, which is expected to star Dave and his fellow franchise castmates Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, and Vin Diesel.