In the Jake Gyllenhaal-led Road House remake, Lukas Gage gets to flex some new muscles.
In Doug Liman’s remake of the 1989 Good-Bad classic, the ascendant star — whose eclectic resume includes The White Lotus, Assassination Nation, American Vandal, Euphoria, and How to Blow up a Pipeline — plays Billy, a timid bouncer at the bar that hires Jake Gyllenhaal’s ex-UFC fighter Dalton for increased protection.
As Billy bonds with Dalton over the course of the Florida Keys-set crowd-pleaser, he learns how to stand up for himself — and discovers an ass-kicking side he didn’t know he had in him.
ClutchPoints spoke with Lukas Gage ahead of the release of Road House, which hits Prime on Thursday. Gage — who once worked as a bouncer but says he’s the last guy to pick a fight — dished on acting with Jake Gyllenhaal, fighting with Conor McGregor, and the hilarious reason why his golf swing looked so terrible in Fargo.
Lukas Gage-Road House interview
ClutchPoints: I'm an aspiring golfer, so I was a fan of your work in Fargo.
Lukas Gage: Oh, God. The worst golf swing of all time. They used the first take when I —anyway, they thought it was funny that I did a bad swing. I promise I'm better than that.
It was the worst swing of my life, but they thought it was funny. But yeah, we'll go hit up the course sometime. [smiles]
CP: Are you somebody who picks fights in real life? Was that you in high school?
LG: No, no, absolutely not.
I got my a*s kicked in high school, I don't want to fight, and I just have a punchable face that finds [itself] getting hit sometimes. But I don't like to, at all. No.
CP: So you didn't go method for this one?
LG: Did not go method. But I do feel like I learned some self-defense on this, you know? I feel like I can protect myself a little bit better with the fight training we had.
CP: What's your relationship with stunt work after Road House? That was a big thing at the Oscars was like, should there be a category for Best Stunts?
LG: One hundred percent there should be. I have so much respect for the stunt coordinator everywhere, but on our film, we got really close with Garrett Warren and Steve Brown. They worked on Avatar and they're just complete legends and it was hard work and you're doing it over and over and over all day long.
It was really cool to hear from Conor McGregor, you know, [a] professional fighter being exhausted and saying it was harder than doing any of his fights because he had to do it for 12 consecutive hours.
CP: How much are you thinking about your character when you're in a fight scene?
LG: I kind of like to do all the character's work beforehand and have him live in me somewhere. And during those moments it's really fight or flight, your instincts of what you would actually do in a fight. I think I'm similar to Billy in a lot of ways where I don't want to escalate a fight, but if I want to protect myself or I see people that I love getting messed with, I will jump in and be that protector.
But I think in the middle of a physical fight scene, you're acting off instincts and trying not to get punched in the face.
CP: How much are you kind of imparting a backstory onto Billy?
LG: You know, I think there wasn't too much. I mean, of course, I always do a backstory for my characters and get to know them and where they grew up and what triggers them and all [those] things.
But I think for me, there [were] just so many similarities. Like, I was a fan of Jake Gyllenhaal and my character's a fan of Dalton. I have worked at a bar before and had to break up fights before. So, I think a lot of it came really naturally for me and there was a lot of it that lived organically in who I am, Lukas, as a person.
CP: Roadhouse is a remake — do you have characters you've played in the past that you think would work for a spin-off or a sequel that you'd like to see more of that character's story?
LG: I mean, I think Dylan from The White Lotus, like, you could throw him in there and be like, Oh, yeah, of course he works here, too. They both work by the water. I'm sure they both surf in between their lunch breaks and go back to work and continue serving and [are] just chill, laid-back guys that just want to get through their shift and get back to their life.
CP: Is there anything you learned from either Jake Gyllenhaal or Doug Liman on the Road House set that you really took to heart and kind of a tip that you got about acting or performing that you're gonna carry with you?
LG: Yeah, I think both of them taught me a lot. I think Jake taught me to just be open to discoveries and open to finding things on the day. He told me something that stuck with me — he just said, “Treat every take like a rehearsal, and then there's our there's gonna be no mistakes.”
I think that was something that really stuck with me after filming. It's such a simple thing to say but so beautifully said. And Doug is the same way. He has such a vision and perspective of how he sees the film and that could change by any second just based on his impulses and trusting them.
So I learned a lot about just letting go and trust and surrendering to the moment from them.
Road House is streaming on Prime Video now.
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