Post by Claudia on Aug 11, 2017 14:07:20 GMT
www.parismatch.com/People/Jean-Claude-Van-Damme-Je-regarde-le-Christ-je-sens-qu-il-est-vivant-et-que-je-suis-comme-en-mission-pour-aller-lui-parler-1324859
Translation by Google:
Jean-Claude Van Damme: "I look at Christ and I am on a mission to talk to him"
By Ghislain Loustalot 11-08-2017
The hero of "Double Impact" and "Universal Soldier" sees himself inheritor of Tarzan, but commissioned by Christ to do good. This lover of humanity is also the most loving of fathers. And the most crazy.
Passing through Paris, the Belgian actor who became a star in Hollywood announced the launch of his foundation.
Paris Match. In the pilot of the series "Jean-Claude Van Johnson", which will be broadcast by Amazon in the autumn, you are retired. You think about it (in real life)?
Jean Claude Van Damme. Retired, me? If I stop, I die. All my life was a fight against myself, first to improve myself physically and mentally: I was rather puny, not gifted for studies, hypersensitive. Leaving my mother to go to school was torture. But I went ahead and it must continue.
Read also: Jean-Claude Van Damme will play in an Amazon series
The series starts with Brel's, "Ne me quitte pas". Does that have something to do with your own life?
I grew up with Brel. Every year, we went on holiday to Menton, my parents, my sister Veronique and me. Twenty hours drive in a little Fiat! My father chose the cassettes: Aznavour, Wagner and especially Brel. Endlessly. Today I live in Hong Kong and Los Angeles, but a Brel song instantly takes me back to that era.
"Ne me quitte pas" means "Do not leave me", for someone who has been married five times ...
That is true. I had already had two wives before meeting Gladys, with whom I had Kristopher and Bianca. But Gladys never liked traveling. She loves to stay at home, take care of the children and the dogs. I was never a dredger but I met another woman, with whom I had Nicholas. And then I remarried with Gladys. She is definitely the woman of my life, my soul mate for thirty-three years.
In "Jean-Claude Van Johnson", there are pictures of dogs everywhere. Why ?
They are our eight dogs. One is in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the back. People say: "Van Damme is thrilled with his private jets." Sometimes it's the only way to get a sick dog back to Los Angeles!
Before, you could not stand routine, hence some excesses. Is it still like that?
I do not know how to get bored. At night I sleep two or three hours. I work on the Internet. I study biology, sociology, history, physics, quantum teleportation ... On September 4, I will announce to the world the creation of my foundation. Its mode of operation will be unique, altruistic. I make money, I am privileged. But I know where I come from and what I have to give back to others. Today the world is not doing well. And I have so much to tell the world! And so much to give!
What is the purpose of this foundation?
Improve life, save the planet, humanity, through concrete actions on climate, threatened species, pollution. Propose the colors of a new future.
About the future, how did you raise your children?
I'm more a kid than they are, they often say, "Dad, calm down, you're not 15 years old." Even though I live in Hong Kong and they're in Los Angeles, we're still very close. Yet there are things that are lost. The kids send a text message to say "I love you", but there are no more tactile contacts, hugs like in my day. Me, I had the spirit formed by the requirement of the martial arts - twenty seconds late, twenty pumps - and by the harshness of life. In Hollywood, I have gone five years, I washed cars, slept in the street. When I see one of my kids yawning, it makes me crazy.
They are all three actors in action movies. Should they inevitably walk in your footsteps?
What else can we do? I helped them the best I could, they participated in some of my films. Now, if they have no talent, it will not be my fault.
What were your first dreams?
I grew up on the farm, in Hekelgem, with my grandmother. I've always been attracted to animals. I feel their heart beat at a distance as if we were a single entity. One day, in 1969, my father took me to the cinema to see "Tarzan". I told him, "Tarzan is not going to win alone, I have to help him save the world." He said, "You can go to church pray for him." That's what I did. And then I had a revelation.
With his two oldest children, his best disciples: Kristopher, 30, and Bianca, 26. Demonstration of karate on the solarium of Lagardère Paris Racing, July 21st.
Which revelation?
At 9 years old, I had an overflowing imagination. Going from my room to the toilet in the middle of the night was a fighter's course. I saw monsters everywhere. One night was Christmas Eve, I woke up, got up and went down. No fear in me. I go out. Flakes fall as big as tennis balls. I push the door of the church, there is a choir that repeats the "Ave Maria". I look at Christ, I feel that he is alive and that I am on a mission to speak to this man on the cross. Even before I kneel, I hear that voice that says, "Yes." What a shock! I was wired at that time to become a star. I became an actor to be able to use my fame. Now I can help those who are still in the dark.
You often talk about your father, not your mother. What are your relations with her?
My father is an autodidact who taught me a lot. He reminds me of Paul Meurisse, the same class. I respect him enormously. He took care of my accounting for many years. Some time ago, we were taking pictures and saw a step underneath me: he is much taler than me and he kindly wanted us to be the same lenght ... That's beautiful. I am also very close to my mother, I call her three or four times a day. When people said I was mad, she reassured me: "Do not listen! I believe in you". My greatest anxiety is to lose them.
Is the connection with them strong?
Is the connection with them strong?
The story takes place a few years ago. I was in Hongkong when I felt a violent plexus pain. I say to my friend Alex: "Man, my mother is going to die, I feel it. I have to leave." And I take the first plane to Brussels. At home, my mother seems to be fine. But I force her to accompany me to the hospital. A laparotomy of the cardiac surgery makes her take some tests. She needed to undergo a surgical procedure, four arteries, they did open heart surgery. If I had stayed in Hong Kong, she would not be here today.
It is your parents who have gave you the values that still govern your life?
A few weeks ago, in anticipation of the visit of Kristopher and Bianca, my two elders, my parents, 84 and 82 years old, started a diet to be top of their form. Extraordinary, right? That's the power of love.
Lunch on the grass at Lagardère Paris Racing, in the Bois de Boulogne. With Eliana and Eugene Van Varenberg, his parents, Bianca, Kristopher and Gladys.
Wagner, Mozart, Verdi, you listen to a lot of classical music. Is that important to you?
I listen and I cry. Because this music is true, sincere, made of wood, ropes, made by the hand of man, magnified by the soul of geniuses. I feel all this deep inside. When I'm not well, I get carried away by Beethoven. Sadness is part of life, I accept it. You always get something from it, provided you do not give up.
Has self-deprecation always been present in your life?
The Belgians are apart, they take themselves less seriously. We fucked up a lot with my mouth and suddenly I added it. Humor is important. But I confess that I am a disturbing person. Like Donald Trump.
Precisely, you defend it, alone against all ...
I started following him two years before his election. All my friends, even the Russians, said, "He's a clown." I said, "He can untie his tie and get a deal with Putin." That's what America needs! Hollywood actors are naive. They fly in a private jet and do not care about people who work in a factory in the Midwest. Trump is hard-working man. A beast. A depardieu without alcohol and cigarettes. I'm just afraid he'll get murdered.
Do you think about writig a story about your life some day?
I am already working on an autobiography that I will publish at the editions of the Cherche-Midi. I blackened 600 pages, with only my childhood and the dark period of my life. I'm rid of it.
How do you see yourself in the future?
With many grandchildren, animals, and me in the middle. Yes, I will be a great grandfather who will give a lot of love.
