Jean Claude Van Damme Gets Serious About What's Left Of His Career

It's easy to make fun of Jean-Claude Van Damme because, well, rent one of his movies. The Muscles from Brussels is probably the worst of the action stars. Make no mistake, for about 22 months back in the early 1990s, Van Damme was a star. Those days are long gone now, and Van Damme told MTV recently that he probably wouldn't even embrace stardom if it presented itself again.

In a new interview, Van Damme says he has turned down lucrative roles - notably in Rush Hour 3 and an upcoming update of Street Fighter - because he doesn't need the money. Now, he just wants to "do something I'm proud of." First on that list, a movie in which he plays a version of himself.

Go figure.

The film is titled JCVD - uh huh - and it will premiere at Cannes, if the star is to be believed. "It's an acting type of film, a dramatic part. It's funny. It's got everything." I know what you're thinking and yes, I believe Van Damme is so uncomfortable with the prospect of acting that he clumsily calls it 'an acting type of film' as a defense mechanism.

"Being drunk, my [character's] life was from success to failure. And this guy is now leaving the States to refresh himself, to go back to Brussels to see his parents. He's got no money and he's looking for any type of movie to pay his lawyers for child custody. And then he shows up in a post office where a heist is happening, and people think I'm part of it. And then it becomes very "Dog Day Afternoon." I think it's the best film I've done in my career."

The movie certainly had an impact on Jean-Claude, who remarked, "After 37 movies, I said, 'I will never do another movie I would not like.' What (director Mabrouk El Mechri) did to me, it's like Scorsese did to De Niro years ago." 'Scuse me? Did he just, in some small way, equate himself with Robert De Niro?

Van Damme also reports that he will finance a film he plans to direct called Full Love. I strongly suspect it will be 90 minutes of the fading action star gazing longingly into a full-length mirror.

Original here