Lukas Gage opened up about how a traumatic life experience fueled his performance in Road House.
The new film centers around Dalton, an ex-UFC fighter played by Jake, who takes on work as a bouncer at a Florida Keys roadhouse. Before the job descends into chaos, Dalton trains up several other bouncers working at the venue — including a character named Billy, who Lukas plays.
As you’d expect, the role involved a number of fight scenes, and while speaking at the film’s premiere on March 19, Lukas opened up about how he was able to channel the right energy for the scenes after being “jumped” earlier in his life.
“I got beat up in a fight,” the 28-year-old told Page Six on the red carpet before explaining that the terrifying situation came about when he was at “the wrong party at the wrong time.”
Talking about Road House, Lukas said that he’s by no means “a fighter” but could definitely “draw on [his] fear” of “not wanting to get [his] ass kicked” while shooting the fight scenes.
“We always smile and make light of the things that are most disturbing and traumatic for us,” he said, attempting to see the bright side of it all. “I have to say it with a smile, but that was actually the most intense, horrible experience, but I made it out.”
Of course, with Conor McGregor as a costar, Lukas wasn’t the only actor in the movie drawing from real-life experience. And the MMA fighter even said that some of his and Jake’s intense scenes occasionally got a little too real.
“It wasn’t fake fighting,” Conor said at the same premiere. “As a man who fights for a living, it was very, very real. Very much real. There were real shots landed.”
For what it’s worth, Jake seemed to corroborate this, saying during an appearance on The Tonight Show that he definitely took a few hits on set.