Post by Claudia on Feb 6, 2017 19:38:02 GMT
Jean-Claude Van Damme on tour: ‘I trained like a tiger but begged like an animal to break into Hollywood’
www.heraldsun.com.au/news/jeanclaude-van-damme-on-tour-i-trained-like-a-tiger-but-begged-like-an-animal-to-break-into-hollywood/news-story/768e282593201d892213f27313fe1e00
NUI TE KOHA, Herald Sun
August 26, 2016 9:12am
ACTION heroes don’t necessarily conquer the world on their first attempt.
Jean-Claude Van Damme, Belgian-born movie star of global blockbusters like Bloodsport, Double Impact, Kickboxer and Universal Soldier, says his triumphs often came from deep, dark struggles.
“You can stay in the darkness or you can go to the light, and be on top,” Van Damme says. “But the memory stays with you like an old lion filled with scars. However,” he adds, excitedly, “the lion can rise like a king and find himself in the kingdom of Australia.”
Did he just say that?
The colourful and cosmic Van Damme, whose “unscripted and unplugged” speaking tour visits Melbourne tomorrow, delivers aphorisms like the famous high kicks in his movies: quick, well-timed, but leave you wondering: “What just happened?”
The speaking tour, which visited Sydney earlier this week, opens the book on Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg, born 55 years ago.
A shy, skinny kid, Jean-Claude’s father sent him to martial arts training for a better shot at life.
Consequently, a recurring theme of the show is Jean-Claude’s almost obsessive need to prove himself.
“It was always inside me to do something like nobody has done in Belgium,” he says on stage. “When you have pressure from a father, what’s the best gift you want to give? I wanted to become a movie star for my family, my parents, my country.”
Later, he confides: “You want to show to your creator how much love you have for them. My father showed me love and respect and I wanted to show it back.
“But sometimes, a mother believes more in a child than a father, who is more suspicious because he is built to protect the family. Today, if my son said: ‘I want to go to America and be a movie star,’ I would go: ‘Aahhh ..” Van Damme says, shaking his head darkly.
And with good reason. Van Damme says he endured five years of cold, hard rejection trying to break into Hollywood.
One producer told him: “There are a million people like you at Gold’s Gym. You’ll never be a movie star.”
He recalls one meeting where he begged for a role.
“I trained like a tiger, but I begged like an animal who is dying,” he says. “I was like a warrior asking for the love of my father.”
But fame and success came at a high cost. Showbiz stresses led to a $10,000 a week cocaine habit, which, by 1996, saw Van Damme using 10 grams a day.
He quit the drug in 1998, the same year he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
“I was consumed with going to the top, but this life can hurt you,” he says on stage. “The world destroyed me. I had the soul of a lamb, and I discovered strange things in the dark.”
After the show, Van Damme says those “dark times” taught him to live “in the light.”
He explains: “In the light, we have different levels — logic, grief, anger, fear, jealousy and love. Those are the levels of life. You can’t experience all those levels in the dark.”
Van Damme has been married five times to four different women, including body builder Gladys Portugues, with whom he has two children, and actor Darcy LaPier.
He had a romance with Kylie Minogue while shooting the 1994 movie Street Fighter in Thailand and Australia.
Van Damme says women have been a very powerful influence in his life.
“Women can open up easily the pipe of love. To me, that pipe is fuel that helps a man do the right thing. I learn from women, always.”
But he admits: “It’s very difficult to live with me because I’m very hard on myself.”
Today, Van Damme is back in the spotlight with a web hit, Jean Claude Van Johnson, a Ridley Scott-backed project where he plays washed-up action movie star who’s a spy in real life.
He has also shot two new Kickboxer films and wants to spend more time in Australia to promote ecological causes.
“I pay attention to time,” he says. “The right time for this, the right time for that. Sometimes you have the words, sometimes you have the numbers, and sometimes they criss cross and it all makes sense.”
An Evening With Jean Claude Van Damme (Unscripted and Unplugged), Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Sunday.