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Jake Gyllenhaal fully committed to his starring role on the new Prime Video film Road House.
Appearing on the Thursday, March 21, broadcast of This Morning, the 43-year-old sat down with anchor Sian Welby to share a glimpse inside the intense lifestyle change he underwent in preparation for his portrayal of Elwood Dalton, a former UFC fighter who becomes a bouncer at a dive bar in the Florida Keys.
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Ahead of the film, Gyllenhaal — who stars alongside UFC fighter Conor McGregor, 35 — had a diet regimen so strict he wouldn’t even allow himself to have "one chip" in an effort to maintain chiseled abs and a tight torso for the action-packed movie.
During his talk show appearance on Thursday, the award-winning actor described a specific scene from the film — a reboot of the 1989 cult classic starring the late Patrick Swayze — in which his character is supposed to be indulging in some grub.
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"If you really look. I don't eat the tacos. You see me take the plate and I say thank you and then the scene cuts you never actually see me take a mouthful," Gyllenhaal explained of how intense the diet truly was.
"I was on a strict regimen — one chip would have done the whole thing," he revealed.
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Aside from limiting his food intake, Gyllenhaal also had to worry about staying in shape muscle wise, as his body type needed to look realistic next to McGregor, a former Ultimate Fighting Championship Featherweight and Lightweight Champion.
"I was like this is really cool but I was also just totally terrified. I was teaching professional fighters, who could really kick my a--, how to kick my a-- so that people really buy it," he explained.
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Gyllenhaal continued: "Their ability to judge distance is unlike anyone else, [so] to be working with someone who can do that, there's a safety to that too."
The Brokeback Mountain actor further dished on what it was like to act out a fight against McGregor during a guest appearance on The Tonight Show earlier this week.
"There was a lot of training," he told host Jimmy Fallon. "Conor McGregor's in the movie with me and when I got word that he was gonna be doing it, I was super psyched cause they chased him for a long time to play the part. But then I got totally terrified and I thought, 'Oh god, I actually have to fake fight this guy and I gotta look like I can.'"
"I stayed in pretty good shape, but we trained for two months, pretty hard grappling, a lot of MMA and then also just like getting in shape, you know?" Gyllenhaal concluded regarding how he prepared like a real-life fighter ahead of the film.