37 years ago, Jean-Claude Van Damme's destiny changed during a meeting with an influential action film producer. In his inimitable style, the actor recently returned to this amazing anecdote.
Currently showing in Le Jardinier, available on Prime Video, Jean-Claude Van Damme is taking the opportunity to tour the media. Guest of the show En Aparté on Canal+, the Belgian actor delivered an incredible anecdote about his beginnings in the United States.
After conquering his native country, Belgium, thanks to his practice of martial arts, JCVD tries to live the American dream in Hollywood. So he flew to Los Angeles in 1982 with the aim of becoming a movie star. However, everything does not go as planned and Jean-Claude fails to break through after 5 years of hardship in Uncle Sam's country.
Van Damme's American dream
“Suddenly, everything falls. I fall like a sack. Total depression. I start crying on the carpet, I was in a state of prayer”confides the action star. But destiny will come and save JCVD. He hears that Menahem Golan, producer and director of action films, is looking for a martial arts specialist for a new project.
Without a second thought, he rushes to the office of the filmmaker, to whom we owe notably The Delta Force with Chuck Norris or Over The Top, the standoff with Sylvester Stallone. “I show my muscles, I take the two chairs, I do a split between two chairs”explains Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Unfortunately, Menahem Golan is not really impressed and gives him a scathing: “You will never be a star!” JCVD, desperate, then tried everything. “I promise you, I hear this voice inside me saying, 'Go around the office and beg. If you have to, get on your knees.' But when this voice comes, it’s not even that I hear it, at the same time that this voice arrives, I follow it”indicates the 64-year-old artist.
Van Damme then kneels in front of the producer and implores Golan to give him at least a very small role. The actor, in all his exuberance, reenacts the scene for the show. “I can be Chuck Norris' punching bag. Anything you want. With little tears in my eyes”continues the actor.
-The destiny of Jean-Claude
“And he looks me in the eye. I tell him: 'I just want a close-up of me, so that when I go back to Belgium, when I go back home, people aren't going to make fun of me. But everything it very quickly, very slowly and very powerful He looks at me: 'My friend, my friend, why are you crying? I had one of those shames, I was like that, like an asshole.” remembers JCVD.
Jean-Claude Van Damme complies and Menahem Golan tells him: “Why are you crying? There are a lot of children dying in the world. And he sits down.” The producer then calls his secretary and asks her to bring him the Bloodsport script.
Do you want to be a star? I'm going to make you a star!
The actor imitates the director getting up from his chair, grabbing the script and throwing it heavily on the table while saying: “You want to be a star? I'm going to make you a star!” “And this script falls in front of me. I look at it and like an idiot, I say, 'What is my role in the movie?' 'Idiot! You have the main role'”replies the producer.
This meeting changed the life of Van Damme, who would achieve enormous success thanks to Bloodsport in 1988, opening the doors to Hollywood for him. As a reminder, the feature film introduces us to Franck Dux (Van Damme), an American karate champion. The latter has only one obsession: winning the Kumite, a clandestine martial arts tournament organized in Hong Kong, a meeting where anything goes, including fatal blows!
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