Jake Gyllenhaal on Being Punched for Real for Road House and Doing Broadway with Denzel Washington

-Jake, welcome back to the show. -Wow, that was so cute. -That was good. We have a great... They love you. -That was very nice. -We love you. Yes. -I felt like Billie Eilish or something like that. -No Yes. Welcome back to the show. We were talking backstage because you've been on our show. We've been

doing

"The Tonight Show" for ten years, which seems like yesterday when we started. But even before that, we were

doing

"Late Night" and you were doing some stuff with us. -Yeah. -Thank you for

being

a great guest and a good friend of the program.

We love you, brother. You know, I was thinking about it, now that you're fully certified and you're a legend in that sense, you know, it's great to be there with you at the beginning of it all. I mean, even when you were on "SNL" and stuff. -That's how it is. That's how it is. -Your first year. -Actually we've known each other for a long time, right? Yes. I want to talk to you about this. I think you're good with live audiences. Are you OK. You love these applause. It works well together. And here's why: You're coming back to B

road

way.

By the way. This is a big problem. -Am. -This is a big business. You like live theater. This is... -Oh, I mean, I love it. I mean, it's like, at the same time, empowering and amazing and terrifying at the same time. So it's great. -Yeah. There is no safety net. -Nothing. -You're coming back in a big way. You're going to star in Shakespeare's "Othello." Are you kidding me? With none other than Denzel Washington. Come on! -Yeah. -How wonderful is that? -I know. I know. So sweet. What a great crowd! This is... I know, it's fun. Good?

I mean, let's, first of all, do "Othello" on B

road

way. I know, it's... it's crazy. Well, first of all, yes, it's Shakespeare, which is one thing, and then it's Denzel Washington, which is another thing. - So, you like it a lot... You like the pressure. You are adding this to your life. You are choosing this. -Yeah. I mean, in a way, you have to go into a situation, particularly on stage or when you're going to delve into something for so long that you know you're going to learn, you know, you want to learn. And I don't know if there are two better people to learn from than Shakespeare and Denzel Washington. -Yeah.

Are you intimidated or just excited? -Yes Yes. -I mean, maybe he's intimidated too. I mean, I think you're... -Ehhh... -No, yeah, I mean, I see this as a giant... This is going to be a lot of fun. -I have to tell you. Yes. No, it

real

ly is a dream. I mean, obviously I've thought: he's been an idol of mine. I have admired him for years. So to be able to be on stage with someone like that is just a dream come true. And Kenny Leon too, who directs it, is also incredible. -It's going to be fantastic. -And William Shakespeare, who I went to high school with, is just... -No, I love Billy.

Billy Shakespeare. -Billy, Billy. -Billy Shakespeare is... -He

real

ly is. He's a great guy. -He's going somewhere. -Yes, I'm sorry...-he would lose the necklace thing, but besides that. -Yes, but like... -That's like... -But I feel like he's getting there and that he's really a talent. -Yes Yes. He is something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know, it's just... -It's really... So, anyway, I'm excited for him because... -Me too. Hopefully it works. If not, it will be a tragedy. Aha, thank you very much. Please please. No standing ovations. -No. Oh my God, stopped... No, thank you very much.

This is how you do it. We just arrived... And we have to go to the commercial. Oh my God. Oh, how bad, how bad. -I think I have laughed here more than I have spoken here over the years. I've laughed at this desk more than I've talked. You make me laugh. -Good. That's how it should. That's the way it should be. But what a fantastic and fun job we have. But you can also do "Othello," you can do Shakespeare on Broadway, but also "Road House." I mean, that's really fun. -Yeah. -Wait until you see this. It is fun.

It's exactly what I wanted to do. But how can you possibly say "oh, let's remake 'Road House'"? -Well, Doug Liman, who directed the movie, has been my friend... -I love Doug Liman. -He is the best. We've been friends for over 15 years, maybe longer than we've been friends. -Yeah. -And we have been trying to find a movie to make all that time. And we tried, but it didn't really work. And then one night we were having dinner and talking about something else, and he said, "I read this draft of this reinvention of 'Road House.'" And before he could finish the word "

house

," I said, "That sounds crazy.

Let's do it." - Yes. - I thought, "That's a terrible idea. Let's do it." -It looks great. -And yeah, and it was like something about making a movie with your friend, something about, you know,

being

in that world. You know, I met Patrick Swayze when we did "Donnie Darko" with your amazing wife, Nancy, who produced that movie. -That's how it is. That's all. -Yeah. -Look at you and Patrick Swayze. -Yeah. -What was he like? -I mean, he was just the kindest, the most… I mean, he supported me from very early on. I mean, him and his wife Lisa, so sweet, always there and...-I mean, in every movie.

I mean, come on... "Dirty Dancing"... -"Point Break." -"Breaking point"! -"Ghost." I mean, it's like, yeah. -It crushes him. -So yes. So, you know, I love the original movie, and the idea of ​​remaking it sounded like a lot of fun. -Yeah. Do you think he would love this? I think you would love this. -I think he would. -It's really... If you liked "Road House", you're going to love this. But they kidnapped you. I've seen you kidnapped before. I've seen you in very good shape. You were the boxer... -Yes, yes. -But this is the next level. -Well, you know, I... -Look at this.

Is this CGI or what? What am I looking at? -That's, um... The photo... Oh! The photo got an "oww!" -But. -Yes, that's the review. All the reviews are like "Ouch!" But, friend... -That's all you need. -But this is... I've never seen anyone have 13 abs. I mean, what... how is that possible? I mean, the training that goes into this. -There was a lot of training, but when I found out about it, because Conor McGregor is in the movie with me, and when I found out that he was going to do it, I was super excited because they went after him. for a long time to play the role.

But then I got completely terrified and thought, "Oh, God, I actually have to pretend to fight this guy, and I have to look like I can." So we trained for... I mean, I stay in pretty good shape, but we trained for two months pretty hard: wrestling and a lot of MMA. And then I also like to get in shape, you know? -Then you appeared at a UFC fight to film a scene. -Yeah. -It was a scene like announcing that you were actually going to get into the ring and blah, blah, blah, and no one knew you were going to be there. -No Yes. -That would make me nervous. -Yes, that was quite stressful.

They had never allowed anyone who wasn't a wrestler into the ring. And I, you know, I had that picture, like I'm wearing UFC shorts and it has my character's name on it and stuff like that. -Did anyone know what was happening? -No, we surprised an audience of 15,000 people before... after the cards, before the main event. They gave us a certain amount of time to film this sequence, this little part of a fight sequence. And I walked in and everyone was like, "Who is this person?" And then they understood that we were pretending to fight, but they were still clapping, you know.

They'd, like... I'd fake punch them and they'd go crazy, like 15,000 people. It was cr... it was crazy. -They are acting in the movie with you. -Yes Yes Yes. -But you are in the octagon. I mean, I... again, I get nervous just watching this. -So serious, so serious. -Another "ouch!" - -And Conor McGregor is fantastic, by the way. -Oh yeah. It's so... I mean, it's like... -It's perfect. He's fine. -It's crazy. -I went out with him once on the program. We went to something and he had something with his whiskey. We went to a bar and I was scared because you never know when all of a sudden something is like... he doesn't understand a joke or something, and he's like, "What?" and then he just knocks you unconscious.

Dude, I don't want any of this. -Everything is a possibility. Yes. -Did you get closer, like when you were fighting and stuff? -Yeah. Yes Yes Yes. In fact, by mistake, he

punched

me in the face, but I just... We were... We'd do a take where we were fighting and pretending to fight, pretending to fight, and then we'd go watch. the monitor to look at it again, to see what worked. And he was always great to me. He would show me, tell me to do things, and say, "Oh, you know, turn your head, move a little more in this direction to try to make it look more real." And it was late, because we filmed a lot of these fight scenes at night, so it was like 3 a.m. and he was talking to me very close and said, "Yeah, that left hook looks good.

But then when you do it." It's like, boom!" - like that, and he hit me by mistake. It was almost like... And I was like, "Oh!" And he was like, "Oh!" - "I'm bleeding! I'm an actor!" -I was like, "My face!" - "I am an actor!" "I'm on Broadway! Don't touch! This is the money!" - "Face!" -That is. -But I, by mistake, closed his face with a car door. And he said, he just... -He says, that's funny. - Like, legit. He

punched

her in the face and said, "Pfft." Yeah, he said, "That tickled me." It tickled me, yeah." -And Post Malone, by the way, a little... -Yeah, yeah.

He's so cool. -A little bit of acting. -There's good music in this. It's just a fun ride. Action, but it's also fun. You know what it is. I mean, do we have to set it up? - I mean, yeah, it's a lot of fun. You want to see a lot of laughs, see big fights, big action. , see Conor McGregor in his film debut. -Yeah, that's... I don't know. -I want to show you a clip. -Here's Jake Gyllenhaal in "Road House." Dalton! -It's about time! Here, just for you. -What? You brought all your friends with you? -I thought you'd miss having an audience. -Well, I guess I'm going to lose. -Ahh!

Don't be like that, I have some advice for you. -Oh! Come on! Jake Gyllenhaal, everyone! "Road House" starts streaming this Thursday on Prime Video. Everyone stay.