Last month, it was reported that the 2024 “Road House” remake could have avoided a streaming debut, but Amazon gave “the filmmakers and (star Jake) Gyllenhaal” a choice: $60 million budget and theatrical; $85 million and streaming. Ultimately, the team chose the latter. At the film’s premiere in New York City on March 19, we asked star Lukas Gage his thoughts about the film going straight to Amazon Prime.
“I obviously love watching in a movie theater. Of course, it’s a little bit of a bummer,” Gage told IndieWire. “But look, if it’s going to be anywhere, if it’s going to go to any streaming, I would love to go to Amazon. I love what they do. I love Amazon Prime. Everything is changing, the industry is changing, and we kind of have to adapt to it.”
We went on to talk about filming alongside lead Jake Gyllenhaal. “[Gyllenhaal] gave me a lot of really good advice,” Gage continued. “I think doing my first action film, I got in my head a lot. He was just like, ‘Dude, take it like a rehearsal, just treat it like that. Then you can’t make any mistakes. We’re not looking for perfect takes, we’re looking for useful moments.’ So thank you Jake.”
Conor McGregor, who makes his acting debut in the film, also weighed in about working with Gyllenhaal, as well as director Doug Liman. “Jake taught me many things about acting,” McGregor told IndieWire. “He was just so helpful, so patient. Liman, who I was taking my direction from, guided me on how he wanted the character. I made sure I gave a few different variations. I feel like I gave a few different versions of Knox. I, of course, was going to be unsure with which one they went with in the end, but when I saw the [final] movie and saw the choices, I understood what they wanted with the character. They are very happy with how Knox came out.”
As for seeing McGregor on screens again, he would love to pursue acting. “I’d love to do a rom-com,” he tells IndieWire, “to be friendly and nice, not just to be the bad guy.”
Daniela Melchior, who plays Gyllenhaal’s love interest in the film, is no stranger to the action genre, having appeared in “The Suicide Squad” and “Fast X.” But for “Road House,” it was different. “This was the first time that I got to be more physical, because all the characters that I’ve been playing in the action movies that I’ve done, they’re more calm, they don’t need to do a lot action-wise,” Melchior told IndieWire. “This was my first contact with action scenes with my character and I hope it’s the beginning of something for the future, action-wise.”
In an effort to break away from the genre, the Portuguese actress tells us where she could see herself going in the future. “Internationally, I would love to start doing more small, indie movies. I’ve been asking my agent and he’s been making fun of me, because he says that I’m the only actor that he knows that does the big studio movies, then wants to do the small.” As for directors that come to mind, she tells us that she would love to work with Pedro Almodóvar.
Lukas Gage will soon be seen in Parker Finn’s “Smile” sequel later this year. “We wrapped a couple of weeks ago,” Gage told IndieWire of the project. “Parker Finn is one of the best directors of horror, ever. I’ve never been so terrified on a set. I dry heaved a couple of days on set. I truly was like, this is the goriest movie ever, but a lot of cool cameos. It’s just ‘Smile’ on crack, bigger, it’s better, and more smiles [laughs].”
In our review of “Road House,” Christian Zilko writes that the remake “is a fitting update to its predecessor’s legacy. Anyone who streams it can enjoy the memories of a simpler time when we went out to watch these kinds of movies in theaters.”
