Gregg DeGuire/WireImage; United ArtistsUFC champion Ronda Rousey is headed to the big screen again, where she will "be nice"...before kicking some serious butt.
The 28-year-old is set to star in a remake of the 1989 cult hit Road House, stepping into the late Patrick Swayze's part in what will mark her biggest acting role yet, Variety reported on Wednesday.
"It is a great honor to play a part in celebrating the life of a man that inspired so many," Rousey said in a statement on Twitter. "I couldn't be more grateful to have this opportunity to pay respect to the beloved Patrick Swayze...I promise to work incessantly to make sure this project is a tribute his family and friends can be proud of."
In the original Road House, Swayze, who died at age 57 in 2009, played James Dalton, a hot bouncer and all-around badass who gets hired as the head of security at a refurbished bar in a town terrorized by a corrupt businessman. There, he teaches his fellow employees how to defuse dangerous situations...i.e., deal with thugs. His mantra: "I want you to be nice...until it's time to not be nice."
The action movie also contains more memorable quotes, such as "My way...or the highway," "Pain don't hurt" and a particularly crude one made by Dalton's adversary that contains the word "prison. "
Variety quoted sources as saying that Rousey recently reached out to Swayze's widow, Lisa Niemi, to ask for her blessing to do the movie, which Niemi gladly gave. Niemi, 59, has not officially commented.
Rousey has previously had small roles in films such as The Expendables 3, Furious 7 and the big screen adaptation of Entourage, in which she played herself.
The fighter recently received an onstage shout-out from Beyoncé. During Bey's performance at the 2015 Made in America Festival last weekend, the singer had audio of comments Rousey made on UFC 190 Embedded played for the crowd.
"I have this one term for the kind of woman that my mother raised me to not be. I call it a 'do-nothing bitch'," Rousey had said, when talking about being a role model. "She's a bitch who just tries to be pretty and be taken care of by somebody else."