20 November 2023 , 20:44
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Jean-Claude Van Damme is an icon when it comes to action movies and it's safe to say his life has had it's own share of drama.
Nicknamed the Muscles from Brussels, the 63-year-old Belgian native spoke to the Mirror about his big break in acting, his run-ins along the way, and his path to partnering with an Irish whiskey company to create Old Oak. In the chat which left no stone unturned, the Hollywood star discussed everything from his unsuccessful meeting with Jackie Chan, training with Arnold Schwarzenegger in his hotel room, and his relationship with Chuck Norris. JCVD also admitted to losing it with a producer and "almost taking his head off" after a big disagreement.
Starting from his early days, Jean-Claude took us back to his late teens, admitting he left his hometown with very little - and no English vocabulary - in a bid to crack the acting industry.
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Jean Claude Van Damme sparred with 'wackos' and world champions (Cannon/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)He revealed how he initially left the gym he opened at 17 and travelled to Milan on his father's advice to hand out business cards at a then-prestigious event and to showcase his photo shots to potential film producers. This included an epic black-and-white image he claims is his favourite of him doing the splits over two vehicles while holding a pistol. It was such acrobatic shots which saw him gain the interest of Kirk Douglas and Jackie Chan.
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However, despite the initial interest - and an unsuccessful trip to see Chan in Hong Kong - Jean-Claude was soon disillusioned with life. The excitement of arriving in the US had quickly evaporated as he became "lost" with "nowhere to sleep" - something made harder by the fact he didn't speak the language.
But after an invite to Enter the Dragon star Bob Wall's house, his situation began to change, with Bob urging pal Chuck Norris to meet and train with Jean-Claude as he had "never saw legs like this" before. After this introduction, Chuck and Jean-Claude began taking early morning training sessions, with the wannabe star travelling two hours - and sleeping in his car outside Chuck's house - to do so.
This training saw him sometimes take on "wackos" in sparring, while other times he was paired with world champions such as Joe Jackson. His connection with Chuck led to his break in the movie industry after Chuck featured him in Missing in Action, shot in the Philippines. The film, released in 1984, was followed years later by the production he's perhaps best known for, Bloodsport.
JCVD revealed why his bare butt shots kept occurring (Sygma via Getty Images)
Jean-Claude built up a good relationship with Chuck Norris (Getty Images)That film brought about a number of iconic scenes - including a shot of his bare backside, which sent the audience wild. The scene followed him around in the industry as directors urged him to bare more for the baying viewers. Opening up on such a request, he said: "In Bloodsport, they show my buttocks. After the sexy shot, came another shot and another director saying 'can we see your a**, people love your a**, women love your a**', so I said okay fine. Next movie was the same."
He added that this was a recurring theme movie after movie and sort of became his trademark along with his huge leg kicks.
By 2021, JCVD was a big shot - aside from just his rear end - and landed a role as a bad guy on The Expendables 2. Despite his huge reputation, he still described his meeting with "scary" Sylvester Stallone regarding a scene he felt was "too much". He took it upon himself to try to tell Sly, who was also the movie's director, this. Revealing how everyone is scared of the Rocky star, he admitted he opened up by trying to sweeten the deal, telling him he was his biggest fan.
"I go to his trailer," he said. "Everybody was afraid of Sly. Afraid in the way he is the emperor of the set. He's made so many movies he knows how to command a guy. So I go to him and can't find the note I had already wrote for him. I go 'Mr. Stallone, I don't want to disturb you'."
While Jean-Claude frantically searched for the note, Sly quickly invited him in and asked what he wanted, to which JCVD gingerly explained his thoughts on the final scene. Much to his surprise, Sly simply told him to choreograph the entire shot himself and come back to him. Jean-Claude then went on to laugh as he impersonated the final message Sly demanded of him as he went to leave: "'Hey Kid,' Sly said, 'stick to the script!'"
This wasn't his only run-in with the powers that be - far from it, in fact. While his Sly meeting was somewhat successful, Jean-Claude admitted this wasn't always the case. In one instance, he described how he saw red and launched a "humongous papaya" at the head of a producer who had tried to cut the budget of a hit film.
Jean-Claude joked the producer was lucky the papaya wasn't a whiskey bottle (old oak)Speaking of the heated meeting regarding 1991's Double Impact, JCVD explained how the producer had lost money elsewhere and decided to try to cut the budget of Double Impact. "When he said that to me [the budget needed cutting], instead of talking like a civilised guy, I don't know why, I just took this humongous papaya and threw it at him. Today, I'd probably be sued for millions. But I put a papaya at him. He ducked at just the right time and the papaya splat."
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He continued with a chuckle: "Oh, thank God he didn't get hit. But he just stood up and said 'okay' and then left the room. He never asked me about taking some money away again and that was his biggest box office."
Jean-Claude then joked how he lost a fruit for nothing before jibing at least he didn't have a bottle of his new whiskey in hand at the time. It's a whiskey he is proud of - shown by his full attire of branded gear for the chat. The Old Oak brand is currently available in both three-year and five-year whiskeys.
He said his previous Friends comments were misunderstood (Peacock)Elsewhere in the chat, Jean-Claude wanted to make it clear he was in no way "ashamed" of his Friends cameo, insisting publications had simply picked up on one of his comments wrong in recent chats. He appeared on the iconic sitcom in 1996, and reports recently circulated about his feelings. However, he put it down to simple miscommunication and insisted I was to correct him if he made any mistakes during our call with his translations between English and French.
"I wasn't ashamed. I was SHY with Jennifer [Aniston]," he retorted. "I was SHY with Courteney [Cox]. When they came to kiss me I was SHY. All the magazines said I was ashamed. How can I be ashamed with those two amazing ladies?"
Jean-Claude Van Damme spoke to the Mirror following the launch of Old Oak whiskey.