The Voice vs Steven Seagal (FULL)

this is access TV Oh crazy here comes before it trunk can't be stopped everyone knows that he's on side welcome to Scottsdale Arizona welcome to the voice versus hello everybody I'm Michael Chevelle Oh my guest today on the voice versus really needs no introduction in the martial arts or movie world he's a seventh down black belt in the Japanese art of Aikido he's the star of such films as out for justice marked for death above the law hard to kill and under siege his name Steven Seagal Wow Steven Seagal a large the life figure controversial charismatic shrouded in mystery and myth and today on the show we're going to try and unravel some of those mysteries and did bike some of those myths so sit back and strap yourselves in for the longest interview ever conducted with Steven Seagal it is entire career welcome to another episode of The Voice versus Steven Seagal thanks for joining me on the voice versus is an applic pleasure you began practicing Aikido you shifted to Japan can you tell me how you first became involved in Aikido because it does intrigue me that you know I could have developed by the Japanese by a much shorter memory how your Shiba Oh sensei I knew yourself about 65 larger individual how did it come to be Aikido that was your chosen art well actually I started studying karate at a very young age I sort of lied about my age and got a job washing dishes at a restaurant I think it's called the wagon wheel or something like that and there was a cook there who's back then in America you don't really have dojos around you didn't have people teaching Kong who and no Korean arts and Chinese and Japanese we just didn't have it they were all sort of underground or quietly teaching and uh one of the cooks there was a guy called Sakamoto Suzanne he was a Shotokan guy and an okinawan shooting guy and he saw that when I was washing the dishes and moving around that I moved very fast and loved the martial arts one of the other guys in the kitchen I didn't know what he was he was a Mexican guy who claimed to be a boxer and you know he was one of these kind of controversial guys that love to talk about how great boxing was and how great he was anyway Sakamoto Cynthia decided to take benders wing and teach me I had asked him over in Oregon if you would and then I ended up learning from him karate the basics I was mostly Okinawan and then I started from him for many years and then finally I found someone who could teach me I kid I was very interested in Aikido as you know I had met Tim Morrison saying some of the people from studio never really studied with them much became very good friends and we did some demonstrating together and we demonstrated cut out at this place that they had which was a theme park like a Japanese theme park in Orange County somewhere I think was called the Deer Park and so demo doesn't say and I had a bunch of the guys who are not all stood you by the way we will demonstrate a cut out there there um and about that time I was I found a master in I her name is Sokka Kyoshi who became kind of the most important martial arts master of my life and I devoted all my time to became his closest disciple and I don't know if I was his closest disciple but he was my closest teacher and certainly I loved in most and devoted everything I had to him and he really was the most important martial arts teacher of my life of course the founder of aikido morihei was Sheba Oh sensei passed away in 1969 did you ever met Oh sensei and if you did did you develop a relationship weakened did you train with him at all not by the time well since I was getting old um you know I I was quite young I was 18 something like that I had gotten to my father was in Japan having to do with some military stuff and he allowed me to come with him I was able to meet um one of my closest friends Asuma sensei and go to Ibaraki Ueno sensing was alive until cuing got to see him got to hear him I wouldn't say that I got to study with him or get thrown by him or anything else I really in that way didn't know him um and then soon after that he became ill and wasn't teaching much and soon after that he passed away but I did um make very very close friends with the guys that I thought were his closest students and I felt that the mystical things the thing that I found the most interesting about those times was no says it wasn't talking about put your left foot here and your right arm here and flipped a guy this way and punch him that way he was really talking about mysticism and he was a kind of a priest in this place called OMA Tokyo and he was the student of the witch only somewhat on sensei and did which now he um the day which now he was his teacher and she was still alive and I went there to study from her which I did do and I did learn a lot of the mystical things that he was teaching that nobody else seemed to understand because they weren't really interested in that they were interested in learning how to fight so that was my beginning in that way what were some of these mystical things that Oh since I was trying to accomplish that you wanted to learn because I remember you sitting in interview once you wanted to transcend just a physical training of Aikido and learn the mystical ciders Oceanside taught well I mean I've been doing the martial arts for 40 some-odd years now and maybe 50 years I could say huh I don't know if I'm any closer to enlightenment now than I was then I have had moments of what seemed to me at the time to be great realization I have had moments of techniques that seem to be unexplainable or divine or spectacular but I've never been able to keep that level of divine or mystical technique consistent so that I could always do it and understand it it would seem to come and go without my really knowing when it would come and go and so I'm still sort of the average fool on the corner trying to you know put one foot in front of the other still to come on The Voice versus Steven Seagal we talk more about Aikido and traditional martial arts welcome back to the voice versus Steven Seagal let's talk more about Aikido and the traditional martial arts in your time teaching in Japan Stucker sensei as you were known you know who gave me that name was was dead what you know here I was also these teachers the one who gave me that name fantastic sorry and during that time you were known for a very hard practical style of Aikido what you were teaching was that close to what Oh since I had developed or were you taking a more aggressive harder style of Aikido that you were teaching I believe that in IEQ we had something called go judo which was the circle the square in the triangle and um you know the hard the medium and the soft but the soft was the most severe and that's that was the riddle that most people didn't understand um I grew up in a very very dangerous area an area that was all gangsters chuckles uh fighting every day in Shinjuku and in in Osaka when I finally went there I believe that Oh since they had something called a codon which meant the secret style or the secret arts that did he wouldn't teach almost anyone which did have to do with killing people and did have to do with techniques that could take a life and so forth and so on and I think after his you know supposed and I don't say this out of disrespect but I I don't know you know after his apparent enlightenment whatever that means cuz I don't understand what it means he apparently took all those techniques out him wasn't showing it those anymore but I did know the old people who did know them and I made those a part of my style and I made the attitude based on my understanding of Aikido which is that you have you know the gentle the supple the sublime the soft and severe and the wrathful and I felt very very convicted you know I felt tremendous conviction in the fact that I Kira has to be able to work against anyone in any style who wants to come and kill you or your family or your friends or hurt you I thought that Aikido could be as severe as inyart and I made it that way and once again I'll mention in a movie so I almost didn't say him and I you know both had that same attitude in him and I had the unfortunate displeasure of having to test our skills hundreds of times I remember there was the ridiculous question in there of have you ever had to use Aikido and that was one of the ones I was looking forward to tell you we probably shouldn't you know address that but yeah hundreds of times you know we've had to you know use this in the streets and that's how you know what works and what doesn't get assigned let's give you a sense of satisfaction that even though you don't want to use it ever for self-defense you hope you never get into that pretty commit amassing a sense of satisfaction to know that what you are teaching what your blood works it's not satisfaction forgive me for contradicting you but it is very important to learn what works like one of my teachers once said Xin tential were fighting for real in the street or wherever you are and then practicing on the mat is the difference between swimming on the mat and swimming in the water you know and you have to fight for real and if you don't fight for real I don't want to come up with any superlatives for you because it's not all about fighting but you will never understand you know really the essence of what any martial art is without having to you know really defend yourself very good point you know so in your days of instructing back in Japan apparently York ratings were legendary they took place behind closed doors can you tell me what a Tucker sense a grating would have consisted of for a blackbelt rating back in the day back in the day people were giving our black belts in one or two years my average for them was six years Wow back in the day and back in the day we took three to five guys depending on who you were and after you went through all of the different techniques showing you know piece by piece what you could do in the end you lined up three to five guys you put them across the room and you said begin and they would attack you as hard as they could and they would do anything they could to take you out and we constantly had people who would have broken nose knocked out teeth black eyes ripped open face and there there was never ever a black belt exam where people walked away without blood everywhere times have changed I have a knight sir rare if anywhere you'll find today that it takes more than a couple of years to achieve a black belt in most styles I mean and nobody comes at you that hearty and I used to tell the guys they say we'll kill me--come as hard as we can I'd say yeah you go as far as you can but keep in mind the harder you come the harder he is coming back yeah yeah when we return to the boys versus Steven Seagal Seagal talks about the transition from martial arts master to overnight Hollywood sensation welcome back to the voice versus Steven Seagal after a successful career as a martial arts instructor in Japan Steven Seagal returned to America to forge a career as a Hollywood star in 1988 he came out of nowhere to feature his first smash hit above the law you're moving on - you're moving - into Hollywood I mean going from martial arts instructor to Hollywood actor virtually overnight you came out of nowhere in 1988 with above the law whereas 1985-86 you were doing some choreography and some martial arts training with lots of Sean Connery correct during the mid-80s your first role though is a major feature early you didn't start with smaller roles like so many actors did and there's so many stories float around us through how you got involved in Hollywood one is that Mike Ovitz was a former student of yours and he took you to Warner Brothers he did an Aikido demonstration and Warner Brothers was blown away and boom Steven Seagal became a movie star is that true and if not I hate to admit it that is true okay that's a true story you still remember the days to remember these knows everything about it yeah we you you introduced a new style of martial arts that no one had ever seen on the silver screen people used to kicks punches of you know your Bruce Lee's and your Chuck Norrises and your Van Dam's etc but he was Aikido was there ever any trepidation from you or the producers the guys at Warner Brothers that this stuff might not work on screen there were no fleshy kicks and jumping round kicks and flashy stuff it was mostly joint locks and holds and throws what most people don't know is that they probably did have some kind of you say sheep I means like you know maybe they were a little concerned about reservations my reservation yes and so they did ask me to do a screen test and I did and they said man you know this guy has got so much you know going on he's got the charisma he's got the look he's got the action we we feel confident after that and so they handed me two or three scripts and they said you know make any of these you want I read them I came to America as a writer and um I didn't like it him I said you know I think we can do better than this they said well there's a writer's try cut me up so maybe if you want to you want to write something and I said yeah I want to write something and they said well there's a writer's strike coming up and the timing is gonna be difficult if you don't write it quickly can we assign some folks to help you I said sure they assigned me Steven Pressfield and Ronny Shue said and together we all wrote above the law which you need to be you've said that above the law was part autobiography well autobiographical in segments no I'm not gonna get into that but I will say that I believe it was based on a true story which had to do with the iran-contra you know conspiracy which really never came out you first five films are considered classics of the genre above the law hard to kill mark for death out for justice under siege classics I was a huge fan back in the day when I first fought soar above the lawyer must have been 13 years old or so into I think I whispered everything for a month afterwards just to imitate your voice out of all the characters you played Nico Toscani Mason storm John Hatcher Geno foligno and Casey Ryback which of those characters was the most fun to play most memorable that's a tough question I think maybe you know above the law was the most fun for me yeah yeah under siege I passed the question 1 or 2 which one did you prefer I should prefer it under siege - - under siege 1 I think I like under siege 1 yeah yeah I like them both yeah I like them both - they're both classics okay so many fight scenes in so many films you've done my favorite one I suppose the Alpha Justice cueball fight mister my favorite your favorite as well yeah that's my what my tenth one your favorite well I improvised you know in Special Forces you know we say something like you know there's this phrase that is common amongst operators you say adapt and overcome and coming up with the idea of putting that two ball inside a rag and using it against all those people was a really good idea that really works yeah I can tell you and I mean that will hurt somebody very badly and so I like that and then you know Denny Inosanto is a dear friend of mine still isn't your friend of money he as you know was one of Bruce Lee's teachers brilliant knife fighter graded Escrima cally and all that stuff in him and I had done a lot of practice together and working together and I tried to learn from him and I think he tried to learn from me and so being able to work with him that day and fight him was a great pleasure for me I was gonna say then in the sunset one stage Bruce Lee's number one student you also n teach and teacher friends with James Coburn as well who was one of his lease students indeed and that's how I met Bruce Lee was through Johnny was gonna ask so you've met you met Bruce Lee tell me about your experiences with Bruce and what was he like and how did you get on with it you know I wasn't around Bruce much he was the kind of guy who kind of would badmouth most a lot of the other martial artists and martial arts in a kind of a sarcastic way fun way which I understood for some reason he never had anything bad to say about me I was quite interested in Aikido and it was very nice to me he knew that I grew up in Asian that I had a son that was half just exactly the same age as Brandon and when I met Brandon he had lighter hair and said there's my little Caucasian boy you know and and you know I I thought was a really great guy really cool guy and I thought James Coleman was a great guy too and I'm really sorry they're all gone and when Brandon was killed like that um they called me a few minutes after it happened it was in Carolina somewhere they called me in the middle of the night they said we think that he's dead and but the guy shot a blank gun at him and how could he be dead he's dying he's you know severely hurt maybe dead and I said you will find a projectile in him you'll find a bullet in him they said that can't be you're crazy and I said you will find a bullet in him and they called me in the morning they said you're amazing and I said why they said then what there was a bullet in him and I can go through the whole story on what really happened which most people don't know but the long and the short is when bran didn't pass like that I didn't sleep for three or four days Wow I just reminded me too much of certain things and the loss of both of them was terrible for me another great actor one of my favorites and I know he's one of your favorites as well Jackie Chan man who sent me flowers my 21st birthday coincidentally and by the way you're not saying share the same birthday April 10 you were one of the people and it's a little-known fact who helped Jackie Chan break into America and introducing to American audiences can you tell me about your relationship with Jackie and how that started I mean I've known Jackie for Jesus maybe 40 years I've known him from way back in the early days um I'm not very close with him anymore um I don't really go to Hong Kong or China much anymore him SEMO home a lot of the old you know some of this is really maybe not quite fit for you know saying out loud on one on film but there's an interesting group of folks that you know are kind of some of the shadows and some of the light and I was friends with all those guys for a long time um haven't seen Jackie for a long time now but at one time I thought we're kind of good friends you know in a need to be you also said once you'd made many great movies which you have and take you've made many or some bad movies is there one particular film you look back on you sort of Cringer chased I did I really do that unfortunately there's many I think you know I was looking at an actor the other day on screen and I was crying holy [ __ ] can you say [ __ ] on this and we can say whatever you like yeah I said holy [ __ ] that this guy actually do this not only was the movie that bad but the acting was that bad and it's a pretty famous actor I just said hey man happens to all of us we all because we are I don't want to say victims but we are subject to the financers and what they want us to do and the studios and what they want us to do and we don't control the show so I made a lot of terrible movies and a few good ones if all your movies were lost forever and some freak fire and all the show rules were gone but one survived for you to be able to show your grandkids one day which one movie of yours would you hope survived it'd probably be on deadly ground because of the speech in the end which you know is exactly what Al Gore did you know 18 years later then he got an Academy Award in a Nobel Peace Prize for I was a little ahead of my time and I understand they cut quoted that quite a bit of that speech out it was originally much longer and it really just covered the entire gamut of what's happening with the planet and the environment but I don't really know what's left I'd like to rent it just to see but I think you know for mankind that's probably the most important work I've done in my opinion and then you know fire and blue was also another important environmental movie so but I think on deadly ground the speech in the end with the slide so is very important who's the most legitimate Hollywood tough guy in your opinion you accepted of course when you say tough guy do you mean martial artists or just timing I mean Stephen for real if he was on the street and there was a situation you wanted this Hollywood guy by your side because he could defend himself it's that hard to think of a legit one can you think of one Michael Jai White can I laugh in your face really yes votes on jean-claude Van Damme can I laugh in your face Chuck Norris I mean Chuck is in his mid-70s by 76 years old ok 75 76 years old interesting so I don't know I don't I've heard that he's not you know so I mean I don't really want to get into on film anyway you know who's a tough guy do I think Michael is a tough guy no do I think he's a martial artist no do I think John clouds a tough guy are marshallers no if you would put together your own ensemble of action stars your own version the Expendables like say would you choose three or four actors to be a medic I think they had many great actors in there you know there are great action guys I think um this guy Jason Streatham is a - Stacey is it he's not strata mistaken yeah Jason Statham is wonderful action guy gently fantastic I should guy who by the way is a real martial art yes Craig wisher and you know I mean I'd never seen him fight but I would imagine if you would have mentioned his name over those guys I would have to say okay he's a real martial artist in probably can fight Dolph wand'rin Calcasieu karateka used to be competitive oh he's a very nice guy do I think he's a tough guy and a great martial artist he's just a great guy and you know but but anyway so but I'm trying to think of all the guys that were and I didn't get to see it but um you know Jet Li and you know Jason Statham or great guys who else was in it Dolph Lundgren Terry Crews Randy Couture Randy's a real fighter mm-hmm yep you know of course Bruce Willis and Ani we know they found real fighters but great actors and a great actor and slice tonight he got all those great actors there all those great actors yeah folks you may be wondering at this stage of the interview wire having a Steven Seagal about the rumor that he was once choked out on set by judo gene LeBell stillness girl was adamant off-camera they did not want to give gene LeBell any publicity during this interview he said he had met gene LeBell on set once and all that ever done together was stretch and in no way shape or form had LaBelle ever choked him out he also said that LaBelle once claimed be knocked out Bruce Lee knocked out Jim Brown that gene LeBell is a pathological liar a scumbag and other choice words I choose not to say on television so make up your own mind about that apparent reamer more when we return here to the voice versus Steven Seagal welcome back to Scottsdale Arizona and the voice versus Steven Seagal I'm Michael chevelle Oh coming up next let's talk to Steven Seagal about the mixed martial arts world he's worked with Anderson Silva lyoto machida his thoughts on mixed martial arts and of course that famed frankic that anderson used to knock out Vitor Belfort that allegedly was taught to him by Steven Seagal let's talk a little bit about mixed martial arts your relationship with Anderson Silva how did you and Anderson Silva first come into contact Anderson sent me a card saying teach me your lethal stuff teach me your great stuff and then there was a phone number of a guy called George Joe Madison I called George and he said jamming him since a big fan he knows about you know all of your lethal stuff and would you come and teach him and I said lemon then let's meet and talk and we met and talked and I thought it's very sincere very humble and then it would be a good thing to do so I went to black house and started teaching a man after Anderson knocked out Vitor Belfort he said the front kick he won the fight with was taught to him by you gave you credit for that which was you know fantastic and sort of introduced you back into the world of mixed martial arts fans but there were a lot of people also questioning the validity of that of how an Aikido instructor would teach a Monti guy a version of a front kick I mean whoever says that doesn't know anything about my life I mean I spent my entire life first of all I started out in karate sure yeah my history my getting in karate yeah I started you know for from many years before I even began Aikido so and then I went around the world studying from you know kung-fu masters Muay Thai masters you know and Taichi masters and so I've been doing mixed martial arts for 40 years and so whoever says that just doesn't know anything about me would you believe you're one of the original mixed martial artists in that you'll probably one of the first guys to training so many different styles it's high-profile of course no I think there millions of other guys that were doing the same thing we just didn't use the word mixed martial arts but that's what we did because we wanted to study everything we could to make sure that whoever we're fighting we are covered for the different kinds of you know situations that we might be in we would know what to do on the ground we know to do with kicks punches elbows grappling joint locks whatever we want to know how to do it a lot of the old wisdom and knowledge and essence is lost today in the modern world a lot of what the old masters had and I have is beyond most of your modern practitioners comprehension because nowadays you have stuff like UFC for example where people are getting in there and physically they are you know it's wonderful in the sense that they're physically you know trying to kind of understand the limits of you know their talent and their skill and getting in there and testing it out and and they're great athletes and some of them are great martial artists and so forth and so on but the spiritual training that most of the old guys in the olden days used to go through in order to culminate the development of the physical self and the perfection of the spiritual self simultaneously that's almost lost these days and like Diller Machida was a dear friend when a student when his father and I are about the same age and we are cut from the same cloth and went through the same things with the same people him and I talked about this a lot this is something that we really understand and I have friends like his father and he's famous and said I could go down the list who are in their 60s in their 70s who could kill most of the guys who think they're great warriors that are in their 20s or 30s kill them instantly but that's stuff that most people who will hear this we'll go come on that's a joke uh well amongst real martial arts masters it's not a joke exactly I mean I take for example one of my favorite martial arts masters ever so say muscle Yama who invented Yogesh in karate there's a man who passed away in lighter agent you know we can still knock out people with one punch and kill with one punch used to kill bulls and do shooter strikes and shave the horns of bulls and you know the amazing feats it has a good friend of mine he was good friend of mine tremendous yeah you know I was um in Kazakhstan I think of somewhere crazy in the world the other day maybe six months ago son like that and there was a big cook Shinkai how do you say in English like a gathering or can be a convention together they were doing all this you know demonstrations and fighting and competition and all the old senpai all the old you know cook Shanghai ministers were there and they saw me come in this was like chilling at the oh you know he's here and they made me come and sit with the other masters and they introduced me as their some pie Wow what a tremendous honor tremendous honor you have mentioned you need to be that they kick you toward Anderson is something you've like had in the bank you had in the file from many many many years ago can you elaborate a little more on on the kick and is it your own version of am I getting of it it's not it will anyway everyone can say oh it's just a maker it's not just a my giddy what I tried to teach him in the order you see most people when they do my Getty they lift the leg and they kick so what I'm trying to teach people to do without giving away any trade secrets is to kick like this so you don't see it coming you don't lift up and kick you kick like this and it's the way you hold your your foot it's not like this like a lot of people do in there you'll see it okay but it's like this so it's like a spear a lot of people do do these to protect the toes is there a danger of breaking the toes well you have to lift your toes up okay lift your toes up and you're kicking with here okay so that's you know but it's it is not a classic typical my idea it's different and with lyoto machida you mentioned that you helping him with his punching can you elaborate a bit more on again what an Aikido stylist and a mixed martial artist like yourself is he sighs teaching a guy like luckily odds are when it comes to the handiwork for example I don't turn my hand when I punch your non coke screw the hand no I when I punch a punch like this because it's faster and it comes from here doesn't come here then come from here come from down you how do you mean if you're punching so if you're punching my hand and it's here like I think so and I drop my hand down and it comes from my body doesn't come from my shoulder or my hips come my whole body flies so it's very different my punches are very different and they're quick you know and I mean you know like I said the oldest father and I are the same yeah but we're also a little different because some of my teachers were different from his and in some ways he's envious of me and who I got to study with and vice-versa but you know he has two great teachers in his father and I and I think um there's just some unique stuff that I'm teaching the other that that he wouldn't be learning from anywhere else I don't think but this intrigued me are there many techniques do you believe out there in the whole world of martial arts that the public still haven't seen displayed successfully mmmm I thousands hundreds of thousands there's so many I mean I don't want to say I know much cuz I don't really know anything but I've forgotten more techniques than most people have learned Wow if you could choose to work with any other mixed martial artist that you haven't worked with yet who would you choose who you're a fan of I'm working with I'm working with who I want to work with you know those are two of my favorite guys there's plenty of other great you know fighters out there and to me anybody who enters the ring into the Octagon is a is a great warrior and I automatically respect them I don't like the concept of people doing the interviews and bad-mouthing the other god and I'm going to do this to him and I'm going to do that to him and he's this and he's that and I think that that's a disgrace to the martial arts and I don't like it at all and maybe some people are being egged on to do that for publicity but I don't like that well it begs a question that I've asked before and interviews are most mixed martial artists actually martial artists or other fighters I mean most of them are fighters that I'd embody the true martial arts spirit the triple shoot as well I mean you know so but you're talking about speed before particularly in red leading to lyoto machida how fast are used to look 60 years old and when you're sparring guys like Leo - and Anderson how fast are you still you should ask them that I don't want to answer that do you believe you still as fast as you were even ten years ago maybe faster really in another life would you have chosen to be a mixed martial arts fighter in the cage I mean no not for you we just we believe in keeping you know all of this secret as we can and you know there's just a lot of stuff we don't teach still to come on the voice versus Steven Seagal we talk to Steven about his work in law enforcement particularly on the border between Mexico and Arizona welcome back to the voice vs. Steven Seagal in Scottsdale Arizona well he's been a movie star for the better part of a quarter of a century it's a little-known fact that for more than 20 years Steven Seagal has been involved in the law enforcement industry so I asked him the question why does a movie star like himself who could sit back and enjoy a lifestyle of partys fine-looking women poolside cocktails choose to engage and put his life in jeopardy working the border patrol between Mexico and the United States moving on to another topic you do a lot of more work particularly on the border here in Arizona what makes a movie star like yourself who could sit back and live the lifestyle of a movie star relax coast through life what makes you want to put your life on the line against you know drug traffickers human traffickers rapists and the likes protecting the border why do I do that I'm a warrior and that's in my blood I also like to protect my country and I do that on the border as best I can I also like to do the little bit I can to take the bad guys off the streets murderers rapists arms are under armed robbers people who are terrible for society you know terrible for your wife and your children to have to live in the same planet with you know I'm hoping that those guys can all be put away so they can't victimize any more people you're up against some of the most dangerous and deprived people in the world when you're doing this line of work what's my standard situation you've ever found yourself in doing this work well I mean I think being shot at and good kick you know kicking in doors where you know there's bad guys in there with guns that are gonna try to shoot you if they can stuff like that have you ever been shot yes cut not Stan Wow yeah are you always armed yes right now if I was to look around this room would I find an arm of some sort you've brought with you yes you once started an interview that you feel more Asian than American is that still the case well I mean I was raised in Asia she's a real impressionable time for me because I was over there I'm very young in age and just the most formative moments of my life were there under great teachers so that's where I got my culture from my knowledge my wisdom my you know most of the way I think was learned there is it true that also you have a grandmother in your longish that is Mongolian well no no it's really probably on my father's side cuz all I have is a picture of my father's family and they got pretty slanted eyes and Asian clothes look like Russian Mongols but I don't know what they are but there are something Asian speaking of Russian you were in Russia just last week with the Livia Putin with phyto Emelianenko tell me about that experience because you were personally invited by Putin I believe to go to Russia what was that like well I mean I think the thing I love Vladimir Putin and I think he's a wonderful human being a great world leader a real man and I think he loves the martial arts well the first time I went to his home many years ago he had a life-size statue of Colonel jiguro Wow the ground retreated incredible he's just a great guy have a tremendous respect to him and I love what he's done for the martial arts in Russia and around the world and so I want to go there and participate in that and we went to one event together and it was just an honor for me to be with him coming up when we return to the voice versus Steven Seagal our Steven about his spiritual side and also what legacy he'd like to leave to the world welcome back to the voice versus Steven Seagal it's no secret that Steven Seagal is a Buddhist and apparently was once declared a tool cool that is a reincarnation of a 17th century Buddhist monk let's get into the spiritual side now of Steven Seagal ask him about his Buddhist life and what legacy he'd like to leave in 1997 you were recognized as a Tibetan lama or a toku that you were the reincarnation of a 17th century Buddhist monk named hundred dorje can you tell me more about that and what that meant whoa without going into any great detail I've been a Buddhist since I was a child since I was a young boy I started out being around Japanese Buddhist and somehow gravitated into Tibetan Buddhism um my teachers recognized me as that person but it's never really meant much to me in the sense that we don't believe that it's who you were as much as who you are in this life and um if I can learn anything from you know past life memories or any of the great things that Jen doctors I did that would be great but I think I just like to keep my shoulder to the wheel and you know learn as much as I can about Buddhism and how to help others how to have compassion how to make the world a better place and to me Buddhism is more about altruism and compassion and how you live your life in trying to make the world a better place than it is a religion have you ever thought of branching into comedy roles in acting I mean I remember sort of mountain dew you had in which you absolutely hilarious I I think I can be very funny everyone who knows me thinks I can be very funny I love to do a comedy a further I won't came along if you could go back in time Steven and change anything about your life at any period of your life what would you choose if you chose anything well we're getting too personal I'll just say that my biggest flaw is that I want to believe that not all people are evil and I want to be able to trust people and I've trusted the wrong people many times and it's been extremely costly extremely costly because there are scam artists and liars and thieves and criminals that will say anything you want to hear and can do some of the most damage that you know can possibly be inflicted you know when you leave this world as we all will one day what legacy do you hope that you leave I mean you know I've worked very hard to try to make the world a better place with how I've helped people um in just kindness and giving away everything I had to give in trying to work to make the environment better to try to fight against those who are destroying the environment I pretty much done everything I can do to be all I can be and help others and help the world be a better place in my small way I'm a small person and what I've done is miniscule in the grand scheme of things be that as it may under God under Lord Buddha nor all the things that I believe in all the things that I consider to be sacred I have tried very hard to be a good man and help others and I will continue to try has any of you work in law enforcement has any of you acting any of your martial arts ever contradicted your spiritual beliefs I mean you know in other people's minds I'm sure that it could because people tend to you know always be very judgemental and not always but you know often times and it's very hard for people to really understand the essence of others where they come from what they're really doing for example I have the feeling that one of the things that you're saying is for example well if you're Buddhist how could you be a cop well I became a cop to try to help others I became a cop to try to get the bad guys off the street I became a cop to save lives many times in my life I got to take someone who is a murderer or rapist and get them off the street and I've saved many people's lives during Katrina and Louisiana I was there you know I got to save lives there as a police officer so that to me is more important than sitting up on the throne in robes and you know preaching the gospel I don't mind diving in the water to save a life I don't mind getting my hands dirty to help someone oh he's helped if you had to choose the most rewarding experience other than family of course which is so rewarding for all of us would it be the work helping people out in Katrina in situations like that that you've done over and above your martial arts accomplishments or your movie accomplishments really yes yes those those are the things that matter the most saving lives and helping people Stephen thank you so much for your time as I said I've always been a big fan of you as a martial artist of your many charitable undertakings and you know we didn't talk about your helping animals around the world as well you're a big dog lover helping to save animals lives in various countries you'll work on the border and keeping us all safe and is one of the most legitimate martial artists old-school martial artists and a man who was the first Westerner to ever operate his own Aikido dojo in Japan which i think is a a massive achievement as well and I just want to say thank you for joining us on the show today and it's been an absolute pleasure thank you can't be stopped everyone knows that he's on side you

Channel: Liam Kimball

Views: 357,494

Rating: 4.3875313 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 3YDvGy0-p9M

Length: 49min 15sec (2955 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 01 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/studentthrowaway1]

You guys keep dissin' this guy. He's a cop. Treat him with some respect you ingrates.

[u/heftyfatso]

Even for the lulz, there is no way I can sit through and hour of Steven Seagal talking about Steven Seagal. I remember watching a few episodes of that cop show he was on, and I couldn't decide if it was a parody or not.

[u/TylerGuest1]

I can't tell if this is sarcasm. Isn't Seagal the ongoing joke of r/MMA?