Jake Gyllenhaal Got a Staph Infection While Shooting “Road House ”Fight Scene: ‘My Whole Arm Swelled Up’
The actor stars in the remake of the 1989 cult classic action movie
Jake Gyllenhaal got a harrowing infection while shooting his latest movie Road House.
While making an appearance on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast along with his Road House costar Conor McGregor, Gyllenhaal, 43, shared that during one fight scene, he cut his hand so badly that it resulted in a staph infection.
“We’re fighting on the floor, fighting around tables, we’re fighting around glass,” Gyllenhaal said, describing the stunts in the film.
Recalling the moment he got badly cut while filming a scene that takes place in a bar, the actor said he “put my hand on the bar” and placed it onto “f-----g straight glass.”
Related: Jake Gyllenhaal Says Getting in Shape for Shirtless Road House Scenes 'Took a Village' (Exclusive)
“I felt the glass going in my hand,” he said. “I remember the feeling [and] went, ‘That’s a lot of glass.’”
Because of the number of fight scenes and stunts throughout the film — which is a remake of the ‘80s action cult classic starring Patrick Swayze — the cast dealt with “stuff like that all the time,” including staph infections. Caused by bacteria coming into contact with open wounds, staph can result in skin rashes and swelling, and can even be deadly if not treated, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Although the cut on Gyllenhaal’s hand was severe, he still wasn’t sure which of his many scrapes and bruises caused his infection.
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“I thought it came from, remember that scene where you come with a piece of wood?” he said, asking the pro boxer about one of their many fight scenes. “I grabbed your arm and I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I’m injured.’ But my whole arm swelled up. It ended up being staph.”
“Gratefully, I was really, really trying to take care of everything that we did and my body while we were doing it. I didn’t sustain any major injuries,” he said, which was “a testament to the team I was working with.”
In the movie, the Gyllenhaal plays a former UFC fighter who becomes a bar bouncer at a roadhouse in the Florida Keys following the end of his fighting career, and his costars include McGregor, Jessica Williams, Post Malone and Daniela Melchior.
Related: Jake Gyllenhaal Looks Jacked in New Shirtless Photos from Road House Set
Gyllenhaal has been candid about the hard work and preparation needed for an action movie like Road House — on March 8, he spoke at South by Southwest (SXSW) about how it “took a village” for him to get in shape for his role as Elwood Dalton.
“I'll tell you that being where I am — 10 years ago I made Southpaw, which is another fight movie, and I was in a different place. My body was… I knew that I needed help with nutrition and I knew I needed to keep myself safe from injury and I needed to also be able to have the aesthetics of the whole role," Gyllenhaal said.
“So balancing all that took a group of people helping me all the time,” he added.
The Brokeback Mountain actor credited his "incredible" trainer Jason Walsh and "wonderful" chef Paulette Tejeda, as well as a nutritionist, with helping him achieve his physique.
Gyllenhaal added that he had “an incredible group of people constantly handing me food, making it happen, making sure there was flexibility.”
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