One of UFC’s biggest stars, Conor McGregor, made his movie debut with Jake Gyllenhaal-led Doug Liman’s action thriller Road House. The remake of Rowdy Herrington’s original movie of the same name starring Patrick Swayze and Sam Elliott, the new movie has something interesting— integration of UFC fight.
McGregor plays Knox, a maniac fighter, with remarkable screen presence. However, reports indicate that the Gyllenhaal-starrer movie had a different plan for the former UFC champ, which would not be what he appears to be on screen.
Road House Makers Had Different Intentions For Conor McGregor
What to do with Conor McGregor? The cinematic debut from the legacy of Squared Circle has not always been smooth for everyone, as most talents are deemed in a light of typecast, mostly villains without significance, which can be confusing. McGregor’s character in the movie almost met a similar fate as it was intended to be a bugbear, perhaps just to use him as a tool to instill fear without having no potential meaning to the mainline narrative. Following a leg injury after a 2021 match, McGregor found out on a Zoom call with the director that he would be quickly eaten by a crocodile.
“I’m splashing in and out of the water. Maybe after that, he said, ‘No, that’s not for him,’” McGregor told USA Today.
Jake Gyllenhaal was worried about getting into the fight scene with the UFC champion, “You’re about to go head-to-head with Conor McGregor and it’s not like you’re in an acting scene, you’re about to do a fight scene,” he told the outlet. But the process, the actor said, was fun, as Road House is not the first movie where he had to fight.
A Learning Curve For Conor McGregor
Gyllenhaal’s initial scare was legit, McGregor was not familiar with almost anything about filmmaking. “Two times in a row, he just came at me and kicked me with a roundhouse,” Gyllenhaal candidly recalled (via USA Today).
“I had to be like, ‘We’re not on camera. You know that?’ And he’d be like, ‘Oh, sorry! I didn’t know!’ There was a learning curve.”
Injuries are also inhabitable when it comes to a real UFC fighter on board. Gyllenhaal revealed that there were “lots of little injuries” however, “nothing too serious.” Sure, it’s not serious that McGregor got a staph infection after letting his hand go wild through the glass. Also, McGregor “cracked a few of the stunt guys” but that’s not all. He even got his face smacked by a truck door.
“I had a black eye and everything from it. Liman was like, ‘Do it again! It wasn’t real enough.’ I was like, I have … a big welt on my eye now. We had a great time filming, a lot of fun,” McGregor added.
The remake of the 1989 action movie appears to be promising. The 2024 movie also stars Daniela Melchior, Billy Magnussen, Jessica Williams, Joaquim de Almeida, and Austin Post (Post Malone). Road House had its world premiere at South By Southwest on 8 March and had mixed responses from critics.
Road House is currently streaming on Prime Video.
