Jake Gyllenhaal & Conor McGregor Have an Epic Conversation | One on One | GQ Sports

- I like to say Jake has had 75 movie shots,

or 76, I think, but we've had 75, 76 bar fights.

So we kind of blended it together

and we bounced off each other, and we made a classic.

[dramatic rock music]

This is New York City boxing.

[dramatic rock music]

[graphic whooshing]

[dramatic rock music]

- I used to, literally right there, I used to,

for "Eight Mile", just watch people spar.

- [Producer] It's a great place to start.

You would train here.

- Well, Conor would train here,

probably more importantly-

- I trained here a few times-

- But I trained out of-

- I'm not a New Yorker now, so I would just,

on my travels, I've been here for work and for business,

you know, or a fight upcoming.

I had my double world title here

against Eddie Alvarez in New York,

the first UFC event legalized in New York,

we had it here in Madison Square Garden.

I trained here for periods in the lead up to it.

- [Jake] Crazy.

- And then you trained here as well, Jake, yeah?-

- I trained for two months, pretty much,

training for "Southpaw".

- I feel like if you're in New York City

and you're looking to train at a real boxing gym,

you can't get any more real than this.

We're like four floors down underground,

It's almost like a bombproof gym-

- And the people here too, it's-

- [Conor] Yeah, it's amazing.

- It's so inspiring.

- And there's a martial arts spot at the back of it also,

which has mats that you can go barefoot in.

- I remember I had a meeting in the back

when we were training with Antoine Fuqua and 50 Cent-

- No way.

- Before 50 decided to go do the movie.

- [Conor] Wow.

- Came here, came down-

- What movie was this?

- "Southpaw".

- Oh he was in "Southpaw"?

- Yeah, he plays my character's manager-

- Wow, wow.

- I was back there and I was like, "Oh, wait."

"Oh I remember that table."

- Did you actually train in this place for that movie?

- Yeah.

- Oh wow-

- Yeah.

- Deadly, yeah, really good.

Was it shot here in New York, or where was it shot?-

- No, we shot in Pittsburgh.

- Pittsburgh-

- Yeah.

- That's a real boxing town as well-

- [Jake] Yeah.

- Pittsburgh.

- I was here, so we found here, and they're great here.

And they had, I'd come every day, I did two a days here-

- Yeah they look after you, did you, yeah?

- Yeah.

- Deadly.

What was your boxing experience like before the movie?

None?

- Zero.

- Zero, not even a jab?

- I mean, you know, like-

- I mean, you've done some fight scenes

and that before, right?

And, you know, jab-

- Yeah, yeah.

- But not in a boxing, you wanna be crisp with your shots.

- Don't have, I had no idea-

- [Conor] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- I had no idea the art of it at all-

- And this is where you came to train boxing?

Well done.

You know, credit to your craft,

you immerse yourself in your roles and, you know,

that's impressive.

It's a trait I've taken from working with you,

for my own self going forward.

- Ooh, but also like watching your documentary,

watching that and seeing how much you put into your,

I mean obviously fighting is a completely different game,

but the things you've done to your body

to get yourself to that place, not only in training,

but also to get yourself to weight and stuff.

- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- That was what made me think about

the psychology of all that.

- [Conor] Yeah.

- Because that's a different world.

Then you have to enter a different,

you enter a different world.

- Yeah.

- You know, of all the things, that's the most admirable,

that's really-

- It an intense game for sure.

It is a very intense game, a very difficult game to achieve

even a fraction of success.

- Mhm.

- All it took me, Jake,

was every single waking second of my life.

[Jake laughing]

And my thinking-

- That's it.

- Eat, sleep, that's it-

- That's it?

- That's a all it took.

- Okay.

- And then voila.

And then voila, I got a launchpad to get to somewhere else.

I didn't even get it off of that, do you get me?

- I feel you.

- So we relate so much to the fight game

and to the combatants in the game.

And, you know, that's why I'm fully immersed in it.

You know, with my companies and my brands,

I support many fights.

There's an up, you know, up and coming gyms

and I know what it takes in this business

and it's not an easy business whatsoever.

- Yeah, but your energy, you have so much energy.

You're always up to things, doing things, your businesses,

your physicality, all of it.

To me, working with you, like when you first came

to set on the very first day,

I've really never worked with anybody

where when you came to set, there was like a crowd.

Like everybody was like craning their necks.

- Ah.

- Yeah, "Oh God, is he coming?"

"Ooh, is he?"

You have this incredible charisma, it shows in the movie.

As soon as your character comes in, it's like, get a shot-

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- You know, the movie's sort of like,

"Oh, it's so fun, so fun, okay what's gonna happen?"

Whoa, then the whole thing takes off.

- Yeah.

- It's so cool.

- Grew legs for sure.

It wasn't, you know, a cameo in and out type of vibe.

And then as I got in, it certainly grew legs,

I don't know remember exactly how it started.

- They wanted an interview-

- I know the location was different,

it was supposed to be Hong Kong, then it was Italy.

So I was gonna be landing, I was in gonna be in Hong Kong,

and I dunno whether I was bouncing out of an apartment or-

- I just-

- [Conor] I was bouncing out of something.

- Something, but I just remember that

they wanted you to have a good intro.

I remember, 'cause you didn't have an that kind of intro-

- No, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, they gave me a good one and I'm happy with it.

You know.

- And an outro too.

- An outro as well.

[Jake and Conor laughing]

- It's good.

The first idea of getting Connor, I was like, "Good luck."

You know?

- [Conor] Mhm.

- And then slowly it started to become reality

and I thought, "No way."

"It can't, no way."

And then I remember where I was,

I was biking, I was on a bike in France-

- Were you, yeah?

- It was like 1:00 AM,

and I was coming home from a dinner.

- Right.

- I was biking home, and I got a phone call,

and it was like, "Conor's in."-

- [Conor] Yeah.

- And I was like, "Oh!"

I was like, "No way."-

- [Conor] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- And then I was like, "Oh shit, we have to fight."

- It would've been a hard no for me,

it was always a yes to work with yourself, you know,

I've always been a fan of your work,

and always an admirer your work.

Especially Doug Liman as well, a phenomenal director-

- Yeah, yes.

- Joel Silver, the producer, he was

action man Joel is in the industry.

And, you know, then you think about the story itself

and the movie itself.

You know, the "Road House", the fights, it just,

all of it hit home and I was always gonna do it.

- You're a huge fan of the original "Road House", right?

- Oh, huge fan of the original-

- Yeah.

- Sure, yeah.

So maybe I wanted to get in there

to make sure it was gonna be looked after, you know,

and I'm happy with it.

I think, you know, I know there's a lot of people

that are gonna be out with a magnifying glass, you know,

want to be cynical and want,

you don't wanna punch something.

But I believe everyone fans,

especially fans of the past one, are gonna love this one.

And it's, you know, it's a new addition for them.

- A question everybody asks me

is whether or not someone's gonna

get their throat ripped out.

- [Conor] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- That's a big question.

- Yeah there was load of things, you know,

if you think about the amount of things

that we could've done-

- I know.

- And that can be done.

- I know.

- You know, and who knows what happens in the future,

but could have been a bit more homage to-

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- But it's a re-imagination, it's not the same story.

- [Jake] Yeah.

- It's a trope off of the story.

- [Jake] You can't match it-

- The UFC, and I absolutely love, fight fans and myself,

a fighter, when the intro on the crowd,

that was so, so worth it

to make that trip to Las Vegas-

- So worth it.

- To lock down the UFC.

We timed walk-ins, in between walk-ins, you know,

so we're using the real crowd.

We went to the weigh ins,

Jake had a weigh in against

a former UFC fighter, Jake Hieron-

- That's right.

- They squared off against each other.

And I was in the crowd getting the crowd hyped up for this.

So I was a fan.

But, you know, when it all came together in the movie,

it was all so worth it.

- [Producer] And I remember real fight fans being like,

"What is going on here?"

Jake Gyllenhaal looking shredded at the weigh-in.

- Yeah, 'cause that would've been

the first time they'd seen-

- I know, right?

- There was no messing about in the preparation of our show,

there was a lot of really intense work for preparation,

and then on set was no less intense.

It was hard work.

- [Producer] How did that all come about?

Whose idea was that, and what was the logistics involved

in like making that happen?

- Well, it was important from the very beginning

that we have the UFC involved,

because obviously my character was written

as a character who was an ex-UFC fighter.

And it was just essential to the whole thing-

- It was hit miss at times, wasn't it?

- It was.

- It was gonna be maybe XFC or something like that.

- Mhm, but also-

- 'Cause obviously Dalton's history,

the story is he's killed somebody,

and the UFC didn't really want that.

I was like, "Hold on, well maybe let's veer away from that."

But no, that had to be the story,

so we got there in the end, but it was almost lost,

the UFC was like,

the partnership almost fell through then in the end.

But thankfully we got there because

everyone knows the optic on that walk, it's iconic-

- [Jake] Yeah.

- And it just, it livens it,

the movie just comes to life there, you know what I mean?

That the way I felt it.

- We shot the movie and we had had all these

supposed flashbacks scenes, we hadn't shot them yet,

Actually, we prepared a month after to go to the UFC,

I think it was 283, the night before I got COVID.

And so we had to scrap the plan to go back to Vegas for 285.

It ended up being an incredible night, 285, that was-

- That was the Jon Jones, was it?

- Yeah, yeah.

- It was a great night.

- It was like.

- Yeah.

- The energy was so incredible, it was like,

everything worked in the right way.

And, you know, it takes a village to do something like that

because essentially all we had was,

we were told by UFC we had either anything between

45 seconds to seven and a half minutes,

depending on how far the other fights went-

- This is in cage?

- In cage-

- In the cage, yeah.

- Because depending on how long the fights went-

- Yeah.

- How far they went, we wouldn't know.

- [Producer] Yeah.

- So like you could have 45 seconds,

so we had to design three plans.

- How did you feel going into the octagon with the crowds?

Nervous, you must have been,

you've never fucking done it before

and you're in the actual live place.

There was a real fight before you

and there was a real fight after you.

- Yeah that was, I was high for four days after.

- Were you, yeah?

- Oh my gosh, I was-

- That's what happens.

I don't sleep for about 48 hours at least-

- I can believe it.

- Even probably more.

- I can believe it.

- You're just full of adrenaline,

and it's a mad, post fight is a mad experience.

- Jay said to me, Jay Hieron, and he said,

before we went in there, and we could feel the crowd,

we could feel the crowd going, he goes,

"Let's make it real, you can hit me for real if you want."

- [Conor] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- You know, it was like everything switched, you know?

Everything switched-

- Yeah he probably would've liked that,

he probably would've wanted a smack,

but you pretty much did.

[Jake laughing]

You cracked him with a good knee, you know-

- Yeah.

- They were watching, their shots were good,

you came through, you represented the sport,

you represented the movie and, you know, fair played, yeah.

- Thanks, man, that means a lot coming from you.

It's, again, the thing I think often,

I'm sitting here with Conor McGregor, like,

I remember watching him fight and come up

and then become a phenom.

And then all of a sudden, thanks to like

this incredible job I have,

all of a sudden I'm sitting across from him-

- Yeah.

- And we've done something together, you know, it's like-

- Same, exact same, likewise, my man.

- It sort of blows your mind.

It's interesting circle in that I trained here,

and then I remember in a similar way

was like when I met Eminem, like when I met Marshall,

when we were doing promotion for that movie-

- Yeah.

- And I met him before that a little bit,

but really when we were doing promotion.

I was like, "My God, I've been such a fan for so many years"

"and now I'm sitting across someone who I idolize"

"and who's so incredible at their job."

This sport has brought so many people together

of all different levels, of all different skillsets.

And that's what's incredible about this gym is like,

you look around when you're here and they're beginners

and they're kids-

- Yeah.

- And then they're experts-

- Yeah.

- And then they're retired pros and-

- Yeah.

- Everybody's a community here.

- Can you imagine the people that have walked

through these doors over the years?

- No, and I remember walking one day, you know,

you walk any given day, and this is probably,

but I remember walking down the halls here

and there was just blood all over the floor.

You know what I mean?

You know, this is a place-

- [Conor] Yeah.

- That has great history, great history.

- So you both were familiar with each other

before working with each other, fans of each other even.

- [Jake] Mhm.

- [Producer] How did expectations versus reality meet up?

- This guy's great-

- Above and beyond, for sure, above and beyond.

I needed a bit of support, I'm you know,

a novice at this game, at his game, the acting game.

So Jake was able to gimme tips and pointers,

and, you know, Jake and everyone on cast,

they were very patient with me.

So it meant a lot to me, and, you know, for sure.

- One of the things I was so, so impressed by

was the first thing he ever said to me was, he said,

you said, "Jake, I'm a white belt in this."

- Yeah.

- "And I'm here to learn."

- Yeah.

- And from somebody who is in your position to say that,

I thought, again, referencing MMA,

I think Mixed Martial Arts

brings out a humility as well-

- For sure.

- Takes profound confidence-

- 100 percent.

- And a big ego-

- 100 percent.

- And all those things,

but I think within the space, there's this humility,

and I was really moved by that, and I think so was Doug,

I remember talking to him

after he spoke to you for the first time,

and I was just, that's exactly the attitude I think-

- Yeah.

- To come in and try and make something great-

- Yeah.

- And you absolutely did.

I learned a lot,

and I was a fan of his for many years before.

What's your biggest challenge as a new actor and?

- Oh, jeez, I mean a new actor, I came in right at the top.

I got in right beside yourself.

I got, you know, guidance from Doug Liman,

onto Joel Silver, you know what I mean?

I was looked after, you know, I got right in there.

So as far as like challenges,

what a normal rising actor would get, it's not comparison.

For me it was almost the shock of the workload of it.

You know, you're talking 15 hour days, even 18 hour days,

and then you've got a few hours rest now, back in.

- Mm.

- That just took me by surprise, you know.

But I was very blessed, man, very lucky.

I don't know what it is and how I got in here

and, you know, I just made some smart moves

and, you know, committed myself and let's see how it goes.

That final fight scene is a great scene, isn't it?-

- So good.

- When we were shooting it and I was like,

'cause the first one is so good, you know,

coming in with the thing, and then we go around

and it's just, that's such a great scene.

And then when we were doing the next one,

or the the last one, not the next one, the last one.

I was thinking, "Maybe the other one, the first,"

"the early one's better."

But then when you see it, no-

- It's great.

- Oh, it's cinema magic it is, yeah?

That's a hats off the Garrett Warren.

- Absolutely.

- Those guys, those stunt guys were unbelievable-

- Garrett and Steve, yeah.

Unbelievable.

- All across the board, we had great backing,

great support, great team.

- Garrett Warren and Steve Brown, who our fight coordinator,

our stunt coordinator and fight coordinator, respectively.

They choreographed a lot of these fights.

But then what they're so great at

is that they allowed us to put our own spin on things-

- Yeah.

- Because when I, like for instance, the first slap fight

was first a punch fight, and then I had this idea that,

oh it'd be kind of funny if it was a slap fight-

- Yeah, that was great, it was brilliant.

- And they were like-

- [Conor] Way better.

- "Oh, that's a great idea."

- Yeah, and that was great about them-

- [Jake] Yes.

- That they were very, yeah, you know, accommodating.

So they'd come up with a, you know, concept,

and then we'd say, "Well, this feels nice."

And then it'd be like, "Yes, that's it, yeah."

And then we'd all be just one team in unison.

- But you would constantly,

the thing that was incredible about having Connor was that,

you know, he would come up with something, he'd go,

"Ah, I don't believe that."

"Nah, fight fans aren't gonna like that."-

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, or it would've been peculiar about that,

that would've been my thing,

I would've been peculiar about that-

- Yeah, but you also like, you guide me through things too-

- Yeah.

- Like when we were grappling I remember you telling me-

- Yeah just like body talk, talk in the body,

and just to make the shot more realistic,

the way the body mechanics would be.

And it worked, it absolutely worked.

- So do you, like when you watch movies, fight movies,

or just movies generally where there's action,

do you notice when it's bad?

Do you notice that?-

- I mean, you would, I'm more,

I go into it a imaginative state, you know,

I don't really, I wouldn't critique it so much,

I would just enjoy it for what it is.

- Yeah.

- But, you know, being involved in it personally,

you know, knowing the history of the "Road House",

the classic that it is, the cult classic that it is.

And knowing now the UFC is involved, you know?

- Yeah.

- I was for sure picky with it.

You know, little details on a punch, on certain punches.

Jake knows how to throw a backhand,

knows how to throw a jab, knows how to throw shots.

- Yeah, yeah.

- But, you know, sometimes you just need a little,

just a little reminder of,

and then you're able to do it and then, boom-

- But also it's-

- Makes the shot look way more.

- We were shooting things like in-

- [Conor] Slow motion.

- Slow motion, but like long takes.

- [Conor] Yeah, yeah.

- So it wasn't like we could go and focus on

one punch or two punches.

A lot of times there were

eight, nine, 10 combinations at a time-

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- And so you'd get six of 'em,

but then you'd miss two in the middle,

and then you'd get the last two-

- You have to go, yeah.

- And so for me, my mind didn't work that way,

we shot a lot of those things at night too-

- Yeah.

- A lot of those fights were at night-

- Yeah, that's right, yeah.

- 3:00 in the morning or something.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And your brain starts to go like.

- Yeah, you're a bit delirious.

- Yeah.

- What I will say is I've never seen a movie like it,

as far as absorbing shots.

- Yeah.

- And fight scenes, I've never seen it, it was,

the methods, like looking, when I get close to you,

don't let no one get this close-

- I know.

- And then bang him with my head.

That's like I've given you a full smack of my head.

- I know.

- You know what I mean, and the methods we've done-

- Do you remember, wait but do you remember

when we were shooting it, and I remember you,

you were like, looking at it you were like,

"Is it really making contact?"

"Is it really?"-

- Yeah.

- Then we did the four pass process,

and you were still like, "I don't really."

And I was like, "It's gonna look cool."

Remember that?-

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- That was so interesting to me because-

- So talk to them on the four pass project.

- Four pass is him faking hitting me

and me responding to it,

being really close and him going like that

and me hitting back.

And the second pass was, the pad was replacing me,

and then Connor would-

- I'm smacking the pad, yeah.

- Head but the pad.

And then the next pass was he was the pad,

and then it would hit me.

- Yeah.

- And then the last pass was slow motion

where Connor was just going.

[Conor and Jake imitating whooshing]

- I loved that part-

- Into my head, I go.

- I loved it, it was like we were kids, then.

- Yeah like kids, yeah yeah-

- Felt like we're kids.

Three of 'em, what an experience.

The scene where I burst through the road house

and the fucking car, I got a hold of a vehicle-

- Oh yeah.

- And go through the car, and then I'm stuck in the car,

I can't get it out.

And just as I'm about to get out,

Jake runs over, slams it into me, bang.

And we had to just repeat it 'cause Doug was like,

"No it's not believable."

Now we were supposed to practice it, I was,

my first time on set, right, my first time doing this role,

so some of the times I might've, you know,

I was a little off on a day, you know,

just it was an overwhelming one at times, right.

And one of the days we were supposed

to practice before we done it, and I didn't show for it.

And they weren't happy, no one was happy.

You know, I wasn't even happy myself, I was just,

I was only supposed, whatever,

I won't get into the politics about it, but,

[Jake laughing]

I was there, I should have been there a little bit earlier,

I wasn't, yeah, and they weren't happy with me.

But I'm getting the door smacked off me, right,

and it's over and, bang.

And Doug is the director, Doug saying,

"No, it's not real enough."

"You should have been here, we were practicing."

And I said, what?

And then I have a fucking black eye,

the door was actually-

- He did have a black eye.

- Smacking me in the fucking,

I was actually getting full whacks of the door.

I'm saying, "What do you mean it's not real enough?"

"I'm actually getting hit with the door here."

It's a real car door-

- Not, but it-

- It was as real as it gets, man.

I was holding, we're not fighting on a little dinghy,

not a dinghy, what's it called?

Pontiac, what it's called-

- Yeah, a dinghy, a dinghy, yeah, yeah.

- A dingy, and it, the boat goes like that,

I'm holding through the water-

- Under the water.

- Crazy, crazy stuff on me first one.

But, you know, we a mess, we done it, we fucking roasted-

- You remember the rope that was connected to the door?

And I had to slam the door,

but there was a rope that was connected to it-