Conor McGregor feels that he might have upset some big names in Hollywood by turning down acting roles ahead of his film debut this year. The Irish UFC superstar is set to make his first appearance in film, featuring alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in a remake of the 1989 cult classic film Road House.
The film, which will be available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video from March 21, is set to follow an ex-UFC fighter named Dalton, played by Gyllenhaal, who takes a job as a bouncer at a Florida Keys roadhouse.
McGregor plays Dalton’s enemy Knox in the movie and claims it has made him the ‘highest-paid first-time actor of all time’. However, the Irishman fears that he might not get the film offers over the next few years after potentially upsetting people in the industry.
“I had turned down a good few roles in my time on the climb,” McGregor told Total Film. “I’ve had directors show up at fight camp, really beautiful directors doing really top-end movies… And over and over, they’d come to me, and I always turned them down.
“I’d leave people a little high and dry. I probably have a few enemies out there that I don’t really know of because I had said, ‘I might do it’.”
After breaking his leg during a trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier in July 2021, McGregor finally had the chance to film his first scenes as an actor, which he decided to take up.
He said: “I was just in awe of it all, to be honest with you, the whole process. I didn’t know how I was going to take to it. I didn’t know whether I was going to like it, to be honest.
“I’m a fighting man that’s my bread and butter. It’s where I come from. I’m not an actor, but I’m show business. That was my vibe to it. I felt that. I enjoyed every second of it.”
