In 1984, when he was taking his very first (dancing) steps in Hollywood, one of the greatest actors in action cinema had a role as an extra in the film “Breakin”. Did you recognize him?
Launched into action stardom in the late 1980s with the release of Bloodsport, in which he played an American karate champion seeking to win an underground martial arts tournament in Hong Kong, Jean-Claude Van Damme has continued to confirm his status as an action hero by starring in classics of the genre such as Kickboxer, Universal Soldier, Timecop or the almost autobiographical JCVD.
However, the one we nickname today “The Muscles from Brussels” because of his Belgian origins and who began his career in Hollywood by failing to play a famous science fiction monster, began his journey with figurative roles in much more confidential projects.
In 1984, four years before the Bloodsport revelation, we could see him performing a few movements among the spectators of a dance duel, at the start of the feature film Breakin’, directed by Joel Silberg, and in which a jazz dancer wanted to appear a show with two hip-hop dancing brothers. It’s no surprise that JCVD favored this type of project, given that in parallel with his career as a karateka, the budding actor was also an accomplished dancer.
About 10 minutes into the film, we can see him in the background, wearing a black tank top at Venice Beach (see above). Besides two other small, furtive roles in Missing and Monaco Forever, this is his very first appearance on the big screen. According to IMDBVan Damme had also tried to attract the viewer’s attention as much as possible by filming this sequence, performing somersaults and backflips which were unfortunately not preserved in the editing.
At that moment, the future star probably didn’t know it, but a few years later, luck would smile on him, and a long Hollywood career would begin for him.
(Re)discover the trailer for “Bloodsport”, which revealed JCVD…