To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Read the full story » Jake Gyllenhaal ’s powerful turn as an ex-UFC fighter in
Amazon Prime’s remake of Patrick Swayze ’s 1980s action-fest Road House involved plenty of brutal physical moments – but the star found himself fighting an unpleasant bacterial infection, too. The Oscar nominee and Spider-Man : Far from Home star, 43, entered a tough physical regimen to get himself in peak shape for the film, which sees his character Dalton attempting to restore peace and order to a rowdy
Florida Keys bar. The imaginatively named roadhouse hangout (literally: The Road House) is owned by the enterprising Frankie (comedian and Shrinking star Jessica Williams), who tempts Dalton down south to be her bouncer with the promise of a big fat payday. As he’s living in his car, it doesn’t take Dalton long to accept the job. Soon enough he is efficiently – and with excellent humour – teaching the local thugs a lesson or two in how to conduct themselves appropriately. That is, until wild ex-con Knox (real-life UFC star Conor McGregor in his film debut) is sent to scare him away . If the initial fights, including scenes of Gyllenhaal filmed at UFC 285 last March in Nevada, were scrappy and brutal, they step up a bone-crunching gear between him and McGregor. Discussing the mishaps and injuries on set, Gyllenhaal initially kept it light as he told Metro.co.uk he ‘knocked over a glass of water or two’, before getting into the nitty-gritty of the toll the movie took on his body, which also included a horrendous infection. ‘I mean inevitably with these types of movies you do get [injuries]. I took a couple like punches for real,’ he revealed. ‘We’re not fighting in a ring, you’re not fighting in an octagon or a
boxing ring, so you have elements – like you’re in a bar, you have edges of things, you have glass, you have other people all around, there are chairs, things break… ‘I got glass in my hand; I got a staph infection from grappling at some point.’ Staph infections are caused by bacteria called staphylococcus that most often affect the skin and can result in painful lumps or bumps, sores, crusts or blisters and swelling as it did with Gyllenhaal, whose whole arm became swollen. However, he reckons it could have been much worse. ‘I, really gratefully, worked very hard to try and keep my body in place where it was functional, mobile, and flexible, so I didn’t sustain any long-term injuries – but a lot of bruises. ‘We all at one time or another misjudged distance and got hit or hits by mistake. I think I slapped J.D. [Pardo] at one point – in the second part of the fight, I, by mistake, clipped him in the chin. It’s really funny in a way because you’re all trying not to – like in the movies, it’s all “We’re all doing it!” and then [when you do for real] you’re like, “Oh I’m sorry! Are you okay??”’ To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Read the full story » Gyllenhaal was also attracted by both the wild, over-the-top nature of the film and the physical challenge it presented. ‘I’ve talked to Doug [Liman, director] about many movies over the past 20 some odd years, I’ve been
Friends with him for that long. When he mentioned it to me, the first thing that came out of my mouth almost wasn’t like me. I said, “That sounds crazy. Let’s do that!” And then I realised, you know, it involved a whole other physical thing – and that’s fun. I like that stuff.’ He wasn’t daunted by the effort he had to put into preparing to play Dalton either. ‘It’s nice. It gives you a goal, it gives you something to work at and work through – and it’s a pretty incredible
Job that I have, and so when you have a team of people helping you get into shape, it’s cool.’ Co-star Daniela Melchior , who plays female lead Ellie, a local doctor and love interest for Dalton, was also super-keen to get stuck into the physical parts of her role. ‘I couldn’t wait to get on the plane and go to the Dominican Republic [standing in for the fictional Glass Key, Florida] and start learning the skills that I needed to learn for the movie! I was just ready, at that moment,’ she enthused to Metro.co.uk. For McGregor, he is of course used to fighting in real life thanks to his MMA and boxing skills that have made him a multi-time UFC champion. In Road Houe he appears to be having an absolute ball as Knox, a self-confident and vicious character with real swagger – who also treats the audience to lingering shots of his bare backside. What was it like for Gyllenhaal to work with a fighting novice but an acting pro? ‘He was actually very humble in his approach to this process. The first thing that he said to me was, “I’m a white belt in making movies and acting, and I’m here to learn.” And he brought that with him to set every day.’ That’s not to say that his explosive movie debut’s momentum and power didn’t spill over into real life though. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Read the full story » ‘Obviously, the character is packed with energy and when you’re in the scene with another
Actor and that energy, and the other actor happens to be a real fighter who’s never fake fought before or sold a fight in that way, you do have to remind them to not hit you in the face!’ laughs Gyllenhaal, who also recalls their first scene together being quite an introduction. ‘You’re like, “Oh, God!” He was a real professional in that space. But inevitably, his character is wild and full of energy, so that first scene where he walks up to me and he headbutts me, and I’m sitting there across from him, and I’m like, “Here we go!” That was the first thing we ever shot together.’ The Brokeback Mountain star is very happy to admit he was intimidated by the prospect of working with real UFC athletes too. Inside the £3,500,000 'Doomsday-ready' mansion that has its own weapons room I flew 10 hours to the 'world’s leading lifestyle destination' – here's my verdict Warning to ‘dodgy’ Amazon Firestick users after
police crackdown Mum's twisted mugshot after 'trying to sell her toddler for $500 at tax business' ‘Of course I was! I worked with Conor the majority of time, but we also worked with Michael Chandler a little bit, and they’re actually fighting in June. It was so interesting to watch them learn how to not take a hit, but fake a hit.’ He calls watching the process ‘absurd’. ‘To watch somebody who is a professional fighter go like, “I have to sell this and fake it”, was funny. You’d throw a fake punch and he wouldn’t do anything because he’d be waiting! And you’d be like, “No, you have to…” And he’d be like, “I’m trying to keep myself ready for it” and we’d be like, “No, no, you have to pretend like it hits you!” It was really interesting.’ McGregor, for his part, insisted to Metro.co.uk at the Road House
London premiere that there was ‘no acting’ involved. ‘I just went with it – it was a fight. We were fighting each other, that was it,’ he revealed. ‘There was no acting – there was [sic.] no pulled punches. We were taking hits and we were giving hits, and you’re going to see it in the movie!’ The Suicide Squad
Actress Melchior, 27, although generally playing the grown-up in Road House who is not getting herself involved in bar brawls, did get to embrace some fun stunt work and throw a couple of punches herself. ‘I had a little bit of fight training for Fast X that I ended up not using for anything, so as soon as I read that I was supposed to fight it on this one, I was super-excited,’ she shares. ‘And then I found that I could actually do a lot of my own stunts and with Billy [Magnussen, co-star], I was like, “Okay, I can’t wait to start!” It was amazing. Billy was very open and ready to do it with me because it could have been easy for him to say like, “Oh no, she’s a girl. I don’t want to be risky or to hurt her – just let the stunt actors do it.” But no, he was really ready to do it with me.’ Her and Magnussen’s moment together includes a fight on a boat, which Gyllenhaal enthusiastically praises as ‘great’, but Melchior reveals the hardest thing for her to sell was smoothly driving a boat. (This, naturally, seems a pre-requisite for all the Floridian locals in the movie.) ‘For me, the most difficult scene was the part when I get to Dalton’s boat to pick him up, and to do that while I’m just like, “Yeah, this is easy” – but it’s not! I was so afraid of hitting the other boat.’ Gyllenhaal jumps in: ‘Docking the boat is so hard. And she had a lake boat, it wasn’t an ocean boat, so it doesn’t have the same rudder – so you’re sort of sliding around when you’re trying to [dock]. She had to learn at the highest, most difficult [level].’ ‘I remember that I was supposed to take the boat from one side and the camera was ready from the other. And I was like, “Guys, I would love to do whatever you need me to do, but the boat just has… it’s a lot of trouble.” Because all the time filming these things, it was like a surprise,’ Melchior laughs. She also insists boats should be added to the list of challenging co-stars like animals – but at the top, and she knows what she’s talking about. ‘With animals, for me it’s easier. I shot with a lot of rats for The Suicide Squad and with a snake for a soap opera that I did in Portugal.’ Road House is a film filled with entertaining if violent fights, so it’s going to be an easy sell for an audience into the more macho side of movies. But what else does it offer for audiences? ‘I think the movie is funny and absurd in a lovely way,’ says Gyllenhaal. ‘The thing that it does is it never takes itself too seriously, even when the moments get kind of darker towards the end, it always has that edge. That’s such a Doug Liman thing – he sits on that line of
comedy and drama and action in that space. And so that to me is really fun. I mean, yes, the fighting is one thing, but I think we also have a really funny cast. When we saw it in the theatre where it premiered in in Austin, there were so many laughs!’ ‘Arturo [Castro] is so good!’ chimes in Melchior, as the pair chuckle over their co-star, who plays a rather reluctant, If chatty, member of a local gang and delivers some fun one-liners alongside Gyllenhaal. ‘I think it’s just fun and playful – even the fighting is fun and playful. There’s all this great stuff and so I think there’s something in it for everyone,’ adds the star. For a final question, given the film’s setting, I quiz them on the popular ‘Florida man’ headline trope that news articles gift to the world most days, regaling wacky and often violent happenings in the sunshine state. Although neither is aware of the phenomenon, they agree that Road House’s fictional Florida probably feeds into it. ‘Well, obviously we have our crocodile in it who, you know, in the movie eats the dock master’s Pomeranian… and then somebody else…’ teases Gyllenhaal. So yes, there’s lots for audiences to enjoy outside the fights in the film. Road House releases exclusively on Prime Video on Thursday, March 21. Got a story? If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you. MORE : Conor McGregor shows off bare backside in explosive film debut with – he insists – ‘no acting’ MORE :
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