Jake Gyllenhaal Responds To 'Jacked Gyllenhaal' Memes That Dropped When He Broke The Internet With His Road House Physique

It’s been over 30 years since Patrick Swayze’s Road House; it was only a matter of time before the beloved ‘80s movie was going to get a remake, wasn’t it? The Hollywood star leading the action movie this time around is Jake Gyllenhaal, who recently showed off his ripped physique for Road House while filming a scene and earned the title “Jacked Gyllenhaal.” Now that the internet has lost its mind about his transformation, the actor has responded to the nickname. 

Last month, Jake Gyllenhaal and UFC icon and his Road House co-star Conor McGregor showed up at UFC 285’s weigh-in ceremony to film a scene for the upcoming movie. There, Gyllenhaal revealed his super jacked body, and, as it turns out, he doesn’t mind his new title, as he revealed in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. In the actor’s words: 

That's a wonderful nickname. It's been an incredible experience and it is [amazing] working with actual real fighters, working with the UFC, reimagining a classic. There's been a lot of the physical [work].

Jake Gyllenhaal is currently promoting his 2023 new movie release, The Covenant, which is hitting theaters this Friday. When he debuted his Road House body last month, the reactions on the internet ranged from fans asking him to “break” them to all around serious support for him becoming a “monster” for the role. 

Now, this isn’t the actor’s first rodeo when it comes to really working out for a role. Jake Gyllenhaal was absolutely jacked for 2010’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and he also played a champion boxer in 2015’s Southpaw. Even so, fans are absolutely taking notice of his ripped physique ahead of Road House and the actor sounds perfectly OK with the nickname he’s earned as of late.

It was first announced Jake Gyllenhaal was making a Road House remake in August 2022, with Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow, Mr. and Mrs. Smith) helming the project. The movie also got its cameras rolling over the summer in the Dominican Republic. From what we know about the Road House remake, this movie will follow a former UFC fighter who somehow gets a job at a Florida roadhouse that’s plenty rowdy.

Also among the Road House cast is Daniela Melchior of The Suicide Squad and the upcoming Fast X, Billy Magnussen, Lukas Gage and Broad City’s Arturo Castro. No release date has been announced, but while we wait, what we’ve seen from Jake Gyllenhaal is getting people excited about the movie.

The actor’s latest film, The Covenant is directed by Guy Ritchie and follows Jake Gyllenhaal as a U.S. Army Sergeant and Afghan interpreter during a mission during the War in Afghanistan. It’ll be playing exclusively in theaters this weekend.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.