No doubt Jake Gyllenhaal took getting into ripped and shredded shape for the “Road House” remake very seriously.
“He definitely had a very strict diet going on he was very clear about,” Gyllenhaal’s castmate Hannah Love Lanier said at the film’s New York City premiere March 19. “I think one of the funniest times was when he was eating these rice paper wafer crackers. He was trying to convince everyone that they were delicious. They weren’t. They tasted like cardboard, but he was really trying to get everyone to think they were good.”
Lanier recalled watching Gyllenhaal take off his shirt when things got too hot during filming in the Dominican Republic. “There were a few times when Jake would have to take off his shirt to kind of get some of the sweat going away because you know the Dominican Republic is like a sauna out there,” she said, before adding with a laugh, “I think there was a little flexing going on when he was taking off his shirt.”
Rounding out the cast of director Doug Liman’s remake of the 1989 cult classic are UFC champ Conor McGregor, Daniela Melchior, Jessica Williams, Billy Magnussen and Lukas Gage along with Post Malone.
“How many times do you have a fight scene where you’re going toe-to-toe with the world’s best fighter and then one of the world’s biggest movie stars?” Gage, who plays a bouncer in training in the movie, told Variety. “I can say that I had a choreographed fight with Conor McGregor. How cool is that? And then Jake Gyllenhaal defended me. I mean, come on. That’s every girl’s dream.”
Then there was the wrap party. “We skinny dipped in the ocean,” Gage said, adding, “We got to live it up.”
The film marks McGregor’s acting debut. “I was so lucky to learn from Jake,” he said. “He has made an incredible amount of movies. You have to think of how hard this one was. It was hard work. It’s very hard work.”
“Road House” is available on Amazon Prime.