Conor McGregor was stung by Meryl Streep's harsh words and set out to prove her wrong, using the Hollywood legend's criticism of mixed martial arts as fuel to push beyond the usual limits of a fighter. Chatting with The Hollywood Reporter, McGregor shared how Streep's comments spurred him on to achieve success outside MMA in a new film.
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"Fighting is the most beautiful form of art, and, you know, it's a great thing to come into this game, which is also art," McGregor said. "I was really taken aback because fighting is an art. It's brutal also, so I can understand."
"It's not for somebody to make a mistake; it's real artist for those who do what we do, so I came in [to filming 'Road House'] with maybe a little chip on my shoulder and wanting to represent my sport and my art, give my best in this arena."
McGregor's reaction followed Streep's dismissal of MMA's significance in popular culture. At the 2017 Golden Globes, Streep argued that sports and MMA are far from being considered art.
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"Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners," she stated then. "And if we kick them all out, you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts."
McGregor's comments come as the Irish fighter was promoting the new version of the 1989 hit film which starred Patrick Swayze. McGregor is acting for the first time in a movie, playing the antagonist Knox, opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays Dalton, a former UFC fighter-turned-bouncer.
They wanted the film to feel real with McGregor in it. But there was one scary moment while they were making the movie that made both McGregor and Gyllenhaal very nervous.
In a fight scene, McGregor and Gyllenhaal were really going for it with lots of things around them and during a take, Gyllenhaal got hurt by some glass and cut his hand. "We're fighting on the floor, fighting around tables, we're fighting around glass, even if it's breakaway glass," said Gyllenhaal on "Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard." "I get up, I'm supposed to have been a little bit out of it. I put my hand on the bar, f*****g straight glass."
Gyllenhaal didn't want to stop filming even though he was hurt because he didn't want to do the scene again. "I was like, 'We're not doing it again.' I felt the glass going in my hand," he added. "I remember the feeling and went, 'That's a lot of glass,' and I just finished the f*****g take. My whole arm swelled up. It ended up being staph."
Even with his foray into the silver screen, McGregor has hinted at a return to the Octagon, despite being currently focused on "Road House." He's also sent a message to UFC president Dana White about his plans to get back into competitive fighting.
He told talkSPORT's YouTube page: "It's good to see Poirier get that win [over Benoit Saint Denis at UFC 299]. That makes the quadrilogy, the real trilogy, the finish of it. To put an end to it. That is a huge bout right now. I anticipated the bout would go that way, and I was happy to see it,".
He added: "Obviously I've got the Nate Diaz trilogy. That's what I had said for The Sphere. You know, there was cold water put on that publicly off the bat, and I wasn't happy with that."
"So, I need discussion or conversation because if I lose interest, if I'm not getting anything back, I just drift off."
- This article was crafted with the help of AI tools, which speed up the Daily Express editorial research. A Daily Express editor reviewed this content before it was published. You can report any errors here
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