Swayze kicked me in the eye and cracked one of my sockets so I busted his ribs.. but we were good friends
Both of our arms, chest, sides, legs & backs were black & bruised MARSHALL TEAGUE ON FILMING ROAD HOUSE
MIXED martial arts champion Conor McGregor is making his acting debut alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in a big budget remake of 80s film Road House. Yet while fans will be awaiting the verdict from its world premiere tonight, the man who played Conor’s role in the original with the late Patrick Swayze is pulling no punches about what he thinks.
In fact, Marshall Teague is adamant: Conor and Patrick’s successor Jake don’t have a fighting chance of beating their iconic brawling scenes – as theirs were actually real. Just like the broken bones they gave each other.
The US Navy veteran-turned-actor, 70, said: “If you watch the film, we’re not pulling the punches.
“He kicked me in the eye and cracked one of my sockets with a spinning kick. So I busted his ribs. A log I broke across his ribs was not in the script, it was ad-libbed. I just picked it up and hit him and he really did grimace and collapse.”
The original Road House was released in 1989, two years after Patrick’s Dirty Dancing, and became an instant cult hit thanks to the sheer brutality of its fight scenes. The movie is a staple of pop culture and remains one of America’s most-watched films.
The plot is simple: Swayze’s James Dalton is a bouncer who protects a bar in Missouri from a corrupt businessman and henchman Jimmy Reno, played by Marshall. But filming it was anything but easy.
A former undercover police officer with martial arts and military experience, Marshall revealed the then 36-year-old Patrick, who he called Buddy, was intent on showing he could play a “lover and fighter” – having shot to fame as a romantic lead.
At first Vietnam vet Marshall, who lives in Texas, chastised him for his lacklustre fight skills. But that fired them up to “beat the hell” out of each
other for real in their scenes and “not cheat” movie audiences.
It was the start of a brutal five-night exhausting and damaging all-action shoot for just one brawl alone.
Yet cameras caught Patrick grin during the screen fight even after winding his pal “with a flying knee kick catching me right in the chest”.
“When we first got into it, every crew member jumped on top us and pulled us apart, ‘Come on guys, don’t kill each other. We’re trying to make a movie here’,” Marshall recalled.
“Our arms, chest, sides, legs and backs were black with bruises. They packed he and I in ice. Then the director asked: ‘Can you do it again?’ – [and we said] ‘Oh hell. Yes’.”
The new Road House movie’s premiere will take place in Austin, Texas, after being chosen to open this year’s esteemed South By Southwest arts festival. It will be streaming on Amazon Prime Video from March 21.
Marshall is enthusiastic about the casting of Conor and Jake, who is no stranger to action roles in the likes of Southpaw. But he reckons 2024 rules will have prevented them from being as authentic as him and Patrick. “We’d continue all night to where we were mentally and physically exhausted – that would never happen today in the new Road House,” he said. “Jake is a tough son of a buck and Conor is a hell of a fighter but they would not be allowed to hurt and fight like we did.“
Marshall went on to roles in Walker, Texas Ranger, Babylon 5, The A-Team, The Rock and dozens more and is now in upcoming biopic Reagan and comedy Delivery Fee,
He couldn’t make a cameo in Road House 2024, for good reason. “People ask if I am in it, they forget Jimmy got his throat ripped out,” he said.
Becoming close friends Marshall and wife Lindy regularly visited Patrick and his wife Lisa Niemi at their home and shared regular calls for 20 years until his death from pancreatic cancer aged just 57 in 2009.
Marshall says: “He’d be working in India but call me at 3am. For two hours we’d talk about everything you can imagine. It never mattered what time it was, we always made time for each other. We always ended every call, ‘I love you, brother’.”
Marshall keeps the last text message that Patrick left him, days before his death, on his phone as a reminder of their brotherhood.
“I transfer it to every phone – I got his message two weeks before he died after I told him I was there if he needed anything,” he said. “He told me: ‘Partner those words mean a lot to me. Understand I am going to beat this sucker. I love you. Buddy.’
“When I heard he died it stopped the world cold.”
Marshall added: “Road House was not made to win an Oscar, but we went to a fight and a movie broke out. People always talk about that film, the fight and Patrick. “I think about him every day.”
■ Marshall is starring in upcoming biopic Reagan and comedy Delivery Fee. Road House streams on Prime Video from Thursday, March 21.