Gazzara on "Road House"

Actor Ben Gazzara calls Road House his "most watched" film, a judgement based on the number of times the Patrick Swayze vehicle has been shown on cable. "TNT. HBO. TBS. Lifetime. All of them. It's all over the television like a cheap whore," he said during an interview with limitedthinker.

Below are Gazzara's remembrances of this landmark film:

o "Swayze was a talented kid, but too pretty for his own good. His hair - it looked like it could fly. I took him aside and told him 'Pat, you're a good kid, but you can't make it in this business if you're prettier than the leading lady.' He told me he thought I was right, but his advisors told him differently. I told him 'be a man, then!' But he wouldn't be a man. Look where he is now and look where I am now."

o "I always thought Road House was an unrealistic picture. I played Brad Wesley, the capo of a Missouri cowtown called... I can't remember what it was called. Anyway, Swayze plays this bouncer who comes to town and defeats me on my own turf. Now anyone who knows me knows there isn't a snowball's chance in hell a bouncer could take me. Not on my own turf. Not on anyone's turf. So there's no realism there. A picture has to have realism."

o "I didn't want to do the picture at first. It's for kids. Then I got to thinking - the new generation needs to see it done, Gazzera-style. So I agreed."

o "How did I prepare for the role? What kind of a fuckin' question is that? I pretended I was the capo of a Missouri cowtown, you idiot. It's like being the capo of a big town, only here, there's less people. You break legs. You just don't get as much money. The cost of living is lower, though. So it's a wash."

o "The fellow who played the blind leader of the rock band in the picture was a blind leader of a rock band in real life. I think that's why we were able to pull that off in Road House. Again, realism. If the guy wasn't really blind, people would walk out of the theater saying 'I liked the picture except for Swayze beating Gazzera and the blind leader of the rock band.' But people didn't say that, except for the first part."

o "The scene where I'm having brunch. The bloody mary was my idea. I had the writer put it in, and Swayze had to react on the spot. I guess he did okay."

- Brian Moore