Interviews as part of the promo for the movie Lukas

Nice reading. It seems JC joined the project for the emotional feel of the story, a project with heart.

Nice interview except the "I am not a movie-star" No JC! you are a film legend.

people.bfmtv.com/cinema/jean-claude-van-damme-de-retour-dans-lukas-j-ai-fait-plein-de-films-ou-je-mentais-1509692.html

22/08/2018 at 08h29 Updated on 22/08/2018 at 12h53

The actor is showing this Wednesday, August 22, the new crime of Julien Leclercq. JCVD appears there as we have rarely seen. On this occasion, he confides in BFMTV.

"I wish all the directors of the world to make a film with him, it's as if, after having the license, we had a Rolls-Royce at once." "He" is Jean-Claude Van Damme. And the one who sets his panegyric is Julien Leclercq (The Assault, Gibraltar), the director of his new film, the polar Lukas, in the cinema this Wednesday, August 22.

The pitch is simple: a security agent (Lukas, played by Jean-Claude Van Damme) is forced to infiltrate on behalf of the police a dangerous Flemish gang. The screenplay was written especially for the star of Bloodsport and Kickboxer. "This is not a movie at a wink," however warns Leclercq.

"Jean-Claude remains in his character 22 hours a day"

The two men are collaborating together for the first time. "We got tamed," says the filmmaker. "I knew him as everyone through the movies, but not intimately, nor the actor with this force of proposal, this listening".

For the actor as for the director, filming in winter in Belgium was very "intense". Perfectionist, JCVD ​​has been strict "to avoid lying to the public". "I made a lot of films where I lied, where my character was not developed enough," he laments. On screen, everything must "do true", he says.

Julien Leclercq agrees: "Jean-Claude remains in his character for twenty-two hours a day, it was Lukas for thirty-two days". This emotional investment, however, comes at a cost: "It takes two to four weeks to get back to you, it depends on how you stepped into the role," slips "The Muscles from Brussels".

Thirty-two taken in one day

Present at each shot, JCVD ​​appears as we have rarely seen on screen: silent, tired, wearing glasses, wearing a sweater too big for him. One scene, in particular, marks the spirits - and illustrates JCVD's attention to realism: a five-minute sequence shot in which Lukas must succeed on a mission.

"I love plans like this, it's the physical condition that is hard, it's the cardio that's hard," says the martial arts specialist. "This scene was the brave moment of the film, I only made five films, but it was my most complex shot," says Julien Leclercq. "It's a pure marriage between the actor and the camera, it was a real ballet to choreograph even if it was more violent than a ballet!"

The shooting of this sequence was spread over a day. At the end of the fifteenth take, JCVD ​​launches to his director: "if you see a mistake, just a small mistake, cut and we start again to try to make it perfect". It will be at the end of the thirty-second.


"That's where I saw that Jean-Claude Van Damme was blessed by the gods of cinema, it was the last possible take, after I had no light." When he came out of the house, he There was a beautiful sunset behind him, and that's when I thought he was lucky, this boy. "

Luck and a lot of confidence in Julien Leclercq: "A guy like that, he knows what he's doing, he loves me, he wants it to be good, you're doing something like that. that is beautiful: when the director is great, the actor has only to focus on his acting.

Full Love, which he directed, comes out in 2019

When it concentrates on the acting, JCVD boards on Full Love, a film that began to realize ten years ago. "It's a film that was made without script, day-to-day," says the star, who says she worked on this feature film "with unknown people, friends": "They are good. owl". However, it will be necessary to wait a little longer before discovering it. According to JCVD, the film should see the day in 2019.

Jean-Claude Van Damme: "There is something missing in my life"
www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/a-la-une/jcvd-il-y-a-quelque-chose-qui-manque-a-ma-vie

Posted on 26/08/2018 at 04:55 | Updated on 26/08/2018 at 12:33

On the occasion of the release of "Lukas", Jean-Claude Van Damme gave an intimate interview to The New Republic.

"I know we've already met: I never forget a face". Obviously, this kind of sentence can flatter the ego, but it says a lot about Jean-Claude Van Damme. If at home the word often gushes too quickly (see his unfortunate exit on gay marriage in the show of Laurent Ruquier for example), the most Belgian of our international stars is attentive to the other, disarmed in the face of criticism. Tears often come to his eyes from the slightest emotion.

When it comes to embodying a character, Van Damme is never in half the measure. Thus, Julien Leclercq, the director of Lukas, his new film, will tell us that the actor broke his finger while shooting an action scene, but that he did not say it so that the filming does not accuse no delay.

During the interview, he often takes his arm, as if he was afraid of losing your attention.

Among the world stars of action movies, you are probably the only one to release as much strength as weaknesses ...

"Yes, and that's good. You have to show every aspect of your personality, feelings, fear, that's normal. Nobody is unbeatable. Besides, Lukas is not a movie of superheroes. "

What are your similarities with Lukas?
"Perhaps this permanent melancholy. There is one of the actor who has seen a lot, who has gone everywhere. And then there is the weight of life. My character has to take care of his daughter, it took me back to the time when mine was born: my career exploded and I could not handle it properly. It made me feel good to play a normal guy and shoot in my Belgian campaigns even though I go there often to see my mom, my dad, who are a certain age. I am very attached to my family, to my sister, all that. Besides, I want to do more movies in Europe. European films are much richer for the actors. We have more developed roles. "

Julien Leclercq talks a lot about your commitment to the role, to the point of hurting you. Where do you place your limits?
"When you go into a role, you do not pay attention to yourself anymore. You are in the story. What counts first is the story. As Gabin said, a good movie is a good script and then a good script and finally a good script. After, when you start to live it really, you do not listen anymore. "

But how far?
"When I come home after a day on the set, I go to Youtube to keep up to date. But afterwards, I have to take a sleeping pill otherwise I still have the character in me, in my head, and he does not go to sleep ... if I can express myself that way. A film is a month and a half of an iron discipline. You do not have the right to party even once. In the car, when I go to the set, I put the scenes in order in my head, I hold my emotions so that they go out in front of the camera. I have to be relaxed, I do not speak, I'm in my movie. "

What does cinema offer you?
"It's a real pleasure because I come out of my skin, my brain a little complicated to be a character for a month and a half. Sometimes, during fight scenes for example, I'm so much the character that I almost wonder who these people are with cameras and lights. "

How do you choose your roles?
"Twenty years ago, I took the movies one behind the other without really paying attention to the director: everything worked anyway. Today, I take my time, I really look at who the director is and the quality of the script. "

We see with this film that you have a gift to embody a character. Have action movies not locked you in a golden cage?
"Yes, but the problem is that when I arrived in the United States, I had only the baggage of martial arts. I begged on my knees to be given Bloodsport. It all started from there. After the success of the film, I was put in these roles that were new at the time and it was very hard for me. I never thought I would be given a chance, as was the case with JCVD, the Van Johnson and Lukas series. I do not see many actors in my category who would be able to play such introspective roles. There are people who are born strong, but I am very different from that: I am very emotional, sensitive. It's in my DNA. Karate, the weights, the dance is only the envelope. "

To be JCVD, what kind of discipline is it?
"You know, coming into the car, I saw a video of Claude François on Youtube. I said to myself: this is the perfect guy, we feel that he has taken care of his outfit, his presentation, his dance, the dancers, etc. And I know that this guy, when he came home, he took his vegetables, he went to bed early, did not overdo it: everything for the job. Well, I'd like to be like that! I'm going to train for three or four months. The time of the film, it will be perfect but as soon as it's over ... I may not be able to play it rock'n roll as I did before, but I will travel, do business, I will change pace and to be a lot cooler. "

Small, you dream of becoming what you are. Yet you remain melancholy: the success did not bring you joy?
"I'm happy with my success and helping people. It's beautiful what I did! When you say that I remain melancholy, I answer you it's true. Because I know there is something missing. Something missing in my life, not necessarily something bigger. Thanks to the movies, I can live. But if I have neither film nor training, I'm screwed. I need a gym and good roles. "

Interview with Sveva Alviti for Rolling Stone Italy
www.rollingstone.it/cinema/news-cinema/sveva-alviti-io-dalida-e-van-damme/425273/

Sveva Alviti: "Me, Dalida and Van Damme"

Now Sveva is at the cinema in France, Belgium and Uk with Lukas, alongside a myth like Jean Claude Van Damme: "I grew up with his films, thanks also my father, he is an icon. When I arrived on set, we had to shoot a scene in the car and already have a lot of intimacy. I was agitated, I trembled. He came with his bodyguards, they closed the doors and he told me 'Do you know why I make this film? Because I saw Dalida '. Inside of me I thought that I did not care if he really saw it or not, he wanted to put me at ease right away and it was fantastic."

Lukas is a French thriller that will be released in Italy in the coming months, "where you will not see Van Damme as you know him" and in which Sveva interprets "a very tough woman who is forced to work for the Belgian mafia and through the character of Jean Claude tries to have a human relationship with someone ".