Jean-Claude Van Damme Once Stalked A Major Star Around Miami Trying To Fight Them
When most people think about Jean-Claude Van Damme’s career, it is images from the myriad of different classic action movies that he starred in which come to mind first. Given that Van Damme rose to fame due to his role in those films, it makes all the sense in the world that he is still best known for his roles in films like Bloodsport and Universal Soldier.
Despite the way that most people remember Jean-Claude Van Damme, he is more than just an action movie star. For example, some people have seemingly forgotten that Van Damme has had a fascinating career and he gave an incredibly powerful performance in the 2008 drama film JCVD. More importantly, Van Damme is a human being with a personal life just like the rest of us. However, on at least one occasion, Van Damme’s personal life was controlled by his desire to fight just like one of his movie characters. After all, Van Damme once stalked a major star around Miami trying to fight them.
The Action Era
Unfortunately, for a long time, it seemed like because of a series of bad decisions, action movies were ruined forever. Thankfully for action movie fans, that seems to have changed recently. After all, over the last few years, actions movies have had something of a renaissance thanks to movies like Nobody as well as the John Wick and Mission: Impossible series. On top of that, now that there are so many talented female action movie stars, the genre has the potential to appeal to a wider audience.
Even though it has been wonderful to see action movies come to prominence lately, there still is no doubt that action movies were the most successful during the 80s and early-90s. After all, during that era, there were more massively popular action movie stars than at any other time in the past or since. For example, during those years, mega-muscled actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Carl Weathers, and Dolph Lundgren rose to fame. Then, there was Bruce Willis, the action movie star who seemed like a regular guy. All of that is to say nothing of the action movie stars from that era that were known for their martial arts skills including Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris, and Jackie Chan.
Real Life Rivals
No matter how they may come across on the big and little screen, a lot of famous actors have next to nothing in common with the characters they are best known for. On the other hand, there certainly are some stars who don’t seem all that different in real life including many action movie stars that carry themselves with a lot of machismo, just like their characters.
Given that some action movie stars seem to have an overabundance of testosterone in their systems, it isn’t overly surprising that some of them have become rivals. For example, even though Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone are really good friends now, they once shared an extremely serious rivalry. In fact, Schwarzenegger once intentionally tricked Stallone into starring in one of the worst movies ever made.
A Wild Night
Even though it is mindblowing that Arnold Schwarzenegger once tricked Sylvester Stallone into a potentially career-ruining mistake, there is another action movie star rivalry that is even more interesting. After all, it turns out that the rivalry that Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal once shared came remarkably close to ending with a real fight between them.
In 2006, Sylvester Stallone answered a bunch of questions that were asked by Ain’t It Cool News’ readers. During that question and answer session, Stallone talked about a lot of interesting things about his own life which makes a lot of sense. However, it is pretty surprising that Stallone also revealed that Jean-Claude Van Damme tried really hard to fight Steven Seagal one night.
According to Sylvester Stallone, in 1996 or 1997, the action movie star threw a party at his house that was attended by people like “Willis, Schwarzenegger, Shaquille O’Neal, Don Johnson, and Madonna”. Two of the other major stars that were at the event were Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal which turned out to be the source of some drama.
“Van Damme was tired of Seagal saying he could kick his a** and went right up to him and offered him the chance to step outside so he could wipe the floor with him, or should I say wipe the backyard with him. Seagal made some excuse and left.” Amazingly enough, once Seagal left the party, Van Damme wasn’t satisfied so he tracked his peer around Miami to challenge him to a fight again according to Sylvester Stallone.
“His destination was some Ocean Drive nightclub in Miami. Van Damme, who was completely berserk, tracked him down and again offered him a fight, and again Seagal pulled a Houdini. Who would win? I have to say I believe Van Damme was just too strong and Seagal wanted no part of it. That’s just my opinion.”
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