In early March, Jake Gyllenhaal surprised MMA fans by showing up at UFC 285 to film scenes for his upcoming remake of the Patrick Swayze classic Road House. While weighing in for his fictitious scene, Gyllenhall looked noticeably jacked as the actor prepared to enter the ring with fellow actor Jay Hieron. Apparently, Gyllenhall’s take on Elwood Dalton will involve the barroom bouncer being an ex-UFC fighter in the reboot, and actual MMA champ Conor McGregor will be along for the ride.
You can see Gyllenhaal looking absolutely shredded as he filmed Road House scenes at the UFC event in Las Vegas below:
What makes Gyllenhaal’s buffed up look all the more surprising is the actor spent a good bit of 2022 touting his plant-based diet. During a May appearance on TODAY, the actor talked about his family’s long history with eating healthy and how that led him towards plants as the bulk of his nutrition:
“My father was already healthy going up and trying different things. he was the first person to introduce me to soy milk. He cooked things with tofu. When you have models like that, it influences you,” he said. “I think that’s been passed onto me.”
Today, Gyllenhaal said he eats mostly, but not exclusively, plant-based foods. The movement toward a plant-based diet was gradual, stemming from a combination of watching documentaries and simply tracking how he felt based on what he ate.
As for whether or not Gyllenhaal added meat to his diet to bulk up for Road House isn’t known yet. However, UFC president Dana White did crack a joke about where the actor may have got his muscles.
“Listen, what can I say? He looks good,” White told Insider. “I don’t think he’s been USADA tested, but he looks great.”
For those who don’t know, USADA stands for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. We’re going to go out on a limb here and assume that an all-natural guy like Gyllenhaal probably isn’t using steroids. Adding chickens to the mix Hugh Jackman-style? We can definitely see that.
(Via TODAY)
