If Jean-Claude Van Damme has a few cult films to his credit, he has also missed out on several notable… or sometimes surprising, roles. Here is a small selection of what you have never seen with JCVD.
Jean-Claude Van Damme has just celebrated his 63rd birthday. The one who announced streaming before anyone else in 2001, which was “stiff as a post, short-sighted as a mole, ugly as a louse” before becoming a star and who could have become a classical dancer, has established himself since the end of the 80s as one of the essential faces of action cinema.
Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Full Contact, Double Impact, Universal Soldier, Timecop… So many films which have forged the aura of “The Muscles From Brussels” in the collective imagination. But JCVD could have attached its name to a few other notable films. Check them out below!
He refused Welcome to Zombieland
Prime Video / Sony Pictures Releasing France
According to Jean-Claude Van Damme, it is “the biggest mistake of his career”. Although his refusal of a $36 million contract was arguably more damaging to him, his regret at not appearing in 2009’s Welcome to Zombieland illustrates the impact of the film’s huge cameo on pop culture. Warning spoilers… In this case a cameo from Bill Murray, who makes a memorable appearance as a survivor of the zombie apocalypse (in his own role and disguised as the living dead so as not to be disturbed) opposite Woody Harrelson , Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin with whom he revisits a memorable sequence from Ghostbusters. Did you say worship?
Before being entrusted to Wes Anderson’s favorite actor, this winking role had been designed for the late Patrick Swayze (who had fallen ill in the meantime), then for several Hollywood stars who had all declined (Dustin Hoffman, Sylvester Stallone, Mark Hamill, Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Bacon or Matthew McConaughey… and Jean-Claude Van Damme, therefore). We obviously regret that JCVD did not accept this self-parody: seeing him revisit his significant scenes facing the quartet of Zombieland definitely would have been hilarious. He made up for it a few years later with the series Jean-Claude Van Johnson, in which we discovered that his identity as Jean-Claude Van Damme was only a cover for the most formidable of spies who took advantage of his multiple filmings to accomplish its missions.
He turned down Mortal Kombat
Capcom / New Line Cinema
Jean Claude Van Damme and Mortal Kombat, it’s a long story! Indeed, in the first opus of the video game saga (1992), the appearance, design and movements of the character of Johnny Cage, action movie star embarked on the bloody clashes of Mortal Kombat, are directly inspired by Frank Dux, the Kumite champion played by JCVD in Bloodsport (1988).
When the video game was adapted for the cinema in 1995, it was therefore logically towards the Belgian star that the producers turned for the role. Jean-Claude Van Damme preferred to decline for another video game adaptation, Street Fighter, where he plays Colonel Guile alongside Kylie Minogue. It is therefore Linden Ashby who inherits the role of Johnny Cage in front of the camera from Paul WS Anderson, future director of Resident Evil.
Nearly thirty years later, in 2023, JCVD finally joined the MK universe by lending his voice and face to the Johnny Cage skin in the Additional Kombat Pack of the Mortal Kombat 1 game.
He almost starred in Demolition Man
Universal Pictures/Warner Bros.
Jean Claude Van Damme facing the Demolition Man? This almost happened in the early 90s, when the project was in development. At the time, JCVD, in the role of the villain Simon Phoenix, would have had to face not Sylvester Stallone – who had not yet been courted by the production – but Steven Seagal, the studios’ first choice in a scenario that Van Damme had revealed to be quite different from the final film.
The public will finally be treated to an explosive face-to-face between Wesley Snipes (after Jackie Chan’s refusal) as a peroxided and ultra-violent Simon Phoenix and Sylvester Stallone as John Spartan adept at muscular arrest… and cross-stitch . And to see a Sly / JCVD clash, you will have to wait for Expendables 2 in 2012 where the actor plays the aptly named “Villain” facing Barney Ross and his squad of mercenaries.
He refused to play in Dog
Universal Pictures / Paradis Films
Released in 2018, and adapted by Samuel Benchetrit based on his own novel (published by Grasset), Dog follows the meeting between a lost man and the owner of a pet store and dog trainer who will take him in… and make him his pet “animal”. The tone of the film, cruel and absurd, divided critics and audiences. But also questioned Jean Claude Van Damme, initially approached for the role of the trainer. JCVD would therefore not have been on the same wavelength as the director in relation to his character and the film in general.
“When I wrote the book, I had the image of Chuck Norris in mind: this distressing figure of a man sure of his doing and who will never give up. In this case, this trainer disappointed by the men – and undoubtedly even more so by women – swear by animals and the violent authority he exercises over them. He speaks of animals as he thinks of men.explained Samuel Benchetrit. “Physically, Jean-Claude seemed to me to perfectly match what I had in mind. But I quickly understood that we didn’t have the same vision of things. I don’t know if he really understood the film I wanted to make, and the financial means I had! So we parted ways amicably.” The filmmaker finally entrusted the role to Bouli Lanners, whom he had already directed in I always dreamed of being a gangster, opposite the “dog” Vincent Macaigne.
He almost played Wolverine
Metropolitan FilmExport / 20th Century Fox
At the end of the 90s, when Fox was working on the project to adapt the X-Men on the big screen, the question of who would play Wolverine was one of the major casting issues. If Russell Crowe is the studio’s initial choice (he will decline the offer), other big Hollywood names are being considered to take the claws (and favorites) of the fan-favorite mutant. Mel Gibson, Bob Hoskins, Keanu Reeves, Viggo Mortensen, Edward Norton are on the list, as are Jean Claude Van Damme ultimately dismissed due to his accent in particular.
Entrusted to the Australian Dougray Scott, who could have exploded on the international scene, the role ended up escaping him due to a scheduling conflict with Mission Impossible 2 where he faced Tom Cruise. It is therefore an unknown actor, his compatriot Hugh Jackman, who inherits the character, with the success that we know (nine appearances and a highly anticipated return in Deadpool 3 opposite Ryan Reynolds). But let it be said, we almost had a Belgian Wolverine and a very (very) flexible one!
He almost played with Franck Dubosc
Paramount Pictures France / Daniel Angeli
In 2007, in the wake of the first Camping and its great popular success (nearly 5.5 million admissions), Franck Dubosc, director Fabien Onteniente and screenwriters Philippe Guillard and Emmanuel Booz developed an ambitious project called Le Mexicain. A trilogy of adventures led by a tandem as ill-matched as they are complementary, and inspired by the films of Philippe de Broca such as The Man from Rio.
Faced with Franck Dubosc, the idea of engaging Jean Claude Van Damme to form the other part of the detonating duo is strongly hollowed out. The project The Mexican ultimately cannot be realized, and Onteniente and Dubosc will find themselves on Disco, Camping 2, Camping 3 and All Inclusive. JCVD, for his part, would subsequently shine in several French comedies: Narco, Beur sur la ville and Le Dernier Mercenaire.
He left the set of Predator
Twentieth Century Fox
It’s 1987, and Jean Claude Van Damme has not yet “exploded” thanks to Bloodsport And Kickboxer. Spotted thanks to his role as a villain in Karate Tiger – The Red Tiger, he was asked to play another antagonist opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger: the Predator. Unfortunately for the Belgian karateka, who dreams of distinguishing himself in Dantesque fights against Schwarzie, it is disillusionment. The alien creature’s costume, uncomfortable and stuffy, is ridiculous to say the least. “I look like a superhero” explodes the actor.
And the explanations from director John McTiernan and the head of special effects will make him even more disillusioned: he discovers that he will be invisible during almost the entire film (remember that the Predator has a stealth device in its high-tech arsenal)! This frustration leads to strong tensions, and Jean Claude Van Damme finally leaves the project. The design of the creature, for its part, will be redesigned and another immense actor (Kevin Peter Hall, 2m19) will slip into the costume, offering SF fans one of the most striking monsters of the genre. But without JCVD, who will conquer Hollywood the following year with Bloodsport.
False Connection – Jean-Claude Van Damme Special