Jean-Claude Van Damme Reveals Why He Left ‘Predator’ | Heat Vision

hello friends this week we have a very very special guest one of the most iconic action stars of all time mr. jean-claude Van Damme thank you so much for joining us you've had a really great iconic career that has spanned decades and at this point some of the things that float around about you online and some of the the stories of your life almost bigger than life they're almost unbelievable and some of them I was hoping we could go through a couple of the moments from your career and you could kind of tell us a if they're false and then being to try and maybe flesh out the details on some of them and the first one we have one of your first roles was in a Chuck Norris film I'd heard that you helped Chuck Norris train in the 1980s and you also had a job working at his bar forty-fourth is that true right as a bouncer really you were a bouncer and have any fight thank God I was a good schmoozer sympatico and no incident happened because you know when you see a big guy look stronger than the small guys normally entrapment you're gonna fight there and I was like good money on the side and then on the weak time I was I trained with Chuck three times a week in rolling hills that's where I met him the first time okay came to check house and the guy was there with it some sparring to unit so I put him in the front but I did like a run house kick and I touched him in liver fell down was knockout and Chuck was upset that most have to become France and stuff like that but you didn't have to fight anybody in the bars as well as a bouncer but when you're training you knock somebody and all because I was so precise and just to touch you know and just like if you go in the right place yeah at the right time you go down ah bloodsport was kind of your breakout role and one of the things that really put you on the map the first cut of it was something that maybe you were unhappy with and you personally recut the film to make it be the final product is that true yeah my friend Sheldon the road last one I was doing another movie called kickboxer said you better to come back why you more me look like one and also I came back from Highland and we saw the cut and I I wit I was impossible you know I mean jumping in the air they cut in the middle so I did go back to my noggin a second time please can i edit the film please please please and give me a editing room I was able to cut at night the guy was cutting with me is the guy who did tower inferno okay so it's like Academy Award editor and I was together with him and he show me the steps was released in some cabin theater in New York and I became sensation I'm just saying overnight whatever you speak a lot of languages but is it true that you learned English from watching The Flintstones because people said so slumming them happy but when I came in this country I didn't speak much English I was but I was so into my will of making and that I didn't see that as a as a problem but it was a problem well bloodsport - I mean like that was something you had done cuz you were a kickboxer yourself before you became an actor is your record that's online accurate you up do it was that it was 19 wins and one loss as a kickboxer sighs I think more than that in real yeah over in Germany some friends left school early I work sold flowers when I was a kid in restaurants make good money then open a gym or the lawn make very good money put them on the side put three times my pocket and go to America I am succeed uh speaking of underground fights or even professional fights and I is it true that you attended a bare-knuckle brawl with Vladimir Putin I think was 2007 issues that should lift your hand you'll be shot I was with Latino the watching a fight with Fedor and I have a bad habit my lips are dry okay I always do my chapstick and I have a bag me back with my chapstick and then that flows my this might not and I put my back under my chair so I going off for my back okay to take my chapstick while the fight is happening as soon a good I got twenty security guy Wow coming at me like no one can take a gun because I went through indignities okay yeah Sookie you back it be careful very fast I'd heard that during the filming of street fighter you would called cut yourself during a very expensive scene because you thought that you had said a word wrong or a line wrong is that correct that may be possible yeah do you remember mm no but I'm the type of guy because when you start something and if the dialogue is not right it doesn't follow truthfully right so what's important we make a movie I mean that's just years ago when you pay more attention to the biceps and the ABS muscle 58 you still got really good biceps a very good shape what I'm saying you change the mentality I read culture absolutely there are many many theories and rumors about why you left predator because you were originally supposed to be the predator in that film what is the actual reason why you left Frederick I came to the studio and they made me run around the studio and I German not like that's a joke these games are very high yes he's in so then I've got to go keep displays and they put me on on sticks and woods and they start to melt all the cast on me you know and it's burning hot I am a gala I like to breathe and you know know they're gonna do my head and everything and I got my friend next to me I said man I ain't gonna make it it's really put in my mouth like a tube can I direct Emma I was just to them a stunt guy right right and I was covered into that cast for at least 20 minutes we say a few issues if you feel like you cannot breathe just go like this with your finger and I'll pull that stuff away from you and I did it I start to panic you go no more five more minutes like say and finally the cast came off I was in predator it was disgusting and my feet were in these calves so I was on some sort of like stilts yeah so when Joel asked me to jump I knew is gonna be about 1:00 I said I think this is impossible Joe I think when I have a problem then he replaced me by somebody and the guy who did my Stan something bad happened to him and then they stopped the film and they did a new more safe outfit so I was happy that I listened to my intuition I'll ask you one more question and this is a movie that you were not in but the movie Mortal Kombat in 1995 or 1986 they based Johnny Cage off of you did you get any royalties from memory nothing not on the video game not on bloodsport not on street fighter not done year see they brought you you started no but I came I was kind of a sensation because a great teacher who so martial arts in a different way was many years of training and that's what made love sport the martial art sensation what's nice about about my career it's like I make movies I didn't have my ups and down big small movies but and shut around the world and I saw really were we are in the sand sea and I left for Hong Kong I live in Hong Kong right and I've got this goal of going somewhere else and now acting I come here with pleasure so I enjoy the conversation right I'm not scared to make a boom with my mouth or make up because there have been so I'm really mean because I'm doing something else than that so when I jump into with a yawn huh I'm real I tell the truth so I want that type of guy and all those actors for as good if not better than me was great experience yeah well I mean it's been a hell of a life that you've lived yeah so far I want to say thank you very very much to Jean Claude Van Damme for joining us this has been a huge treat for me and for everybody here we're all huge fans of jean-claude Van Damme the movie is we die young is that on March first check it out thank you again so much for joining us and I'm gonna go try and do some high kicks [Music] you

Channel: The Hollywood Reporter

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Id: bqYh3dlKTOY

Length: 8min 10sec (490 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 01 2019