Conor McGregor decided to bare it all for his feature film debut.
The UFC superstar previously passed on numerous offers in Hollywood over the years. But he ultimately decided to work with director Doug Liman for a starring role opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in the Road House remake, which drops on Prime Video on March 21.
In the film, McGregor plays a hired mercenary named Knox, but the former two-division champion isn’t just getting in fights or wrecking bars for his role. He also decided to show off some skin as part of the role, which was noted during the Q&A with the cast following the film’s debut at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.
McGregor addressed the scene in question, which was compared to a similar moment from Patrick Swayze in the original film from 1989.
“It was a little too much ass,” he said with a laugh. “Just a little too much. The last shot was not necessary. Could have just been the back. The back was solid. I’m just here to perform.”
Of course, McGregor rarely blushes at the chance to show off his physique. One quick look at his social media will show that he loves to flex in front of the cameras. Doing that in a feature film is totally different, however, especially with a broader audience of fans watching a movie that will live on in immortality.
McGregor says his decision to do nudity in Road House was partially thanks to a friendship he struck with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who also dropped his clothes for the infamous opening scene in the 1984 classic The Terminator.
“Arnold Schwarzenegger, who’s a good friend of mine, his lady Heather is my physical therapist, [she] has helped me throughout my career, helped me from my world title from 2013 on, I became real close with Arnold,” McGregor explained when speaking to Backstage. “Arnold’s first debut into the movie game was very similar.
“Boom, lands down, solid as a rock [in The Terminator], if Arnie done it, and f****** look at his career, I said maybe I’m onto something. I just rocked with it, and I channeled the inner Arnie, the inner Terminator there and just rocked on.”
So far Road House has received overwhelmingly positive reviews on the updated version of the cult classic from the 80s.
While his personal focus remains on fighting and making his return to the UFC, McGregor said he definitely learned that acting is much harder than it looks, but he enjoyed his first foray into Hollywood.
“It’s very hard work for sure,” he said. “All the characters, when I saw them come to life on the screen, I thought to myself as I was watching the movie, ‘I’m going to f*** this up, I’m going to ruin [the movie], I’m no actor.’
“But what I do when I’m looking [at the movie] with the crowd, I have a lot more to give. I feel I have a lot more.”
