Jake Gyllenhaal’s Tattoos In ‘Road House’ Aren’t Real—But They Do Honor Patrick Swayze

No, Jake Gyllenhaal’s tattoos in Road House—a 2024 remake of the 1989 action movie that was released on Amazon Prime today—are not real. But that doesn’t make them any less meaningful.

“I have a couple of different tattoos in honor of Patrick [Swayze],” Gyllenhaal told Decider in a recent Zoom interview. “When I put them on in the morning, I’d be reminded of the history of this piece.”

Swayze, who died in 2009 of pancreatic cancer when he was just 57, originated the role of James Dalton, a professional “cooler,” whose job is to break up bar fights at a rowdy club in Missouri. The new Road House put a spin on that classic role, casting Gyllenhaal as a former UFC fighter hired as a bouncer at a bar in the Florida Keys. Gyllenhaal declined to share which tattoos were meant to honor Swayze, but advises viewers to “press pause and look. You’ll find them.”

For added realism, director Doug Liman (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Edge of Tomorrow) cast real-life UFC champion Conor McGregor to play the movie’s antagonist, Knox. Gyllenhaal—who trained for over year with professional trainer Jason Walsh, as well as a nutritionist and chef—takes his fair share of punches from the Irish fighter in the movie. That included at least one real (accidental) hit, Gyllenhaal says. Decider spoke to Gyllenhaal about those fights with McGregor, the few stray blows that got by, and his (fake) Patrick Swayze tattoos.

Conor said in an interview recently that you guys were both throwing real punches on set. Can you talk a little bit about filming these chaotic fight scenes making it look so real—while making sure no one got too hurt?

Doug Liman really wanted to shoot a lot of these takes in long takes—so 8 to 10 combinations at a time. We had this four pass process, which is a new way of shooting fight sequences, which required the Hollywood pass; then a pass with pads of like hitting a pad and then getting hit with the pads, you could get the impact from both sides; and then a slow motion version. So each one of these takes had to do these passes. We’d have to lay down the take that worked, and then do the passes. So we go back to the monitor, and we look. And oftentimes Conor would give me instructions and say, “Oh, this punch didn’t really work that way. Maybe throw your arm a bit forward more. You got to step into it more, you got to really turn your body on that next combination.” He’d give me all these directions.

Did either of you get any unexpected stray blows while training or filming?

Well, that’s inevitable. Yeah, I mean, and there was a moment—at one point, [Conor’s] talking to me by the monitor—and we shot a lot of these fights at night. Inevitably, it’s late, and we’re all talking, we’re all kind of delirious, and he’s like, [imitates Irish accent] “Okay, so when you throw that left, make sure you come at me real hard with that right!” And he just pow, by mistake, hit me in the face! For all this time, shooting all these takes where we were not hitting each other at all. He was like, “Oh, I’m so sorry!” That was the one time.

Then the other time, I have to hit it with a door over and over again. But it was all a matter of measurement—inches. Sometimes he’d move his face, and I hit him on the eye, actually, on the side of his eye. He got a black eye from that. But, generally, given the amount of fighting we did on this movie, I’m surprised that we didn’t actually make contact more often. The irony is you’re working with a professional fighter, and their measurement of distance is wholly different than anybody who’s a non-professional. It’s advantageous, because he knows the difference in millimeters of how to make it look real and not [actually hit you.]

I saw that CT Tamburello, who just won Season Two of the reality show The Traitors, worked on this movie in the stunt department. What was it like working with him on the stunt team?

The whole the whole stunt crew on this show—you can’t really talk about one without talking about all of them, like Garrett Warren, Steve Brown, who are the stunt coordinator and fight coordinator respectively. And everyone who came in and out—because in a stunt world, what happens is like, schedule changes happen, and they are so needed all over the place. You could be choreographing a scene with one person, and then they could switch out. They’d have to jump over to another movie. That world—they work so hard! Everyone was so lovely and so kind.

You look great in the movie, and your ink, especially, looked great. I loved the neck tattoos. Are any of those real, or were they added by makeup? And were any real tattoos covered up by make-up?

Connor had his covered up by makeup, I think due to copyright things. I don’t have any tattoos. But what was important to me, before we started was, you know, this role was originated by Patrick Swayze I knew Patrick—we did this film Donnie Darko together, and he was always so kind to me. I just wanted to honor him and bring him with me. So I have a couple of different tattoos [in the movie] in honor of Patrick. When I put them on in the morning, I’d be reminded of the history of this piece and the origins of it, which was which was good to remember every day.

Can you say specifically which tattoos?

The only reason why I can’t is because they’re supposed to be, like, Easter eggs. They’re like, “Oh, don’t say! Go look for them.” Press pause and look, you’ll find them. They’re just they’re just a little ode to him.