Jean Claude Damme Interview Transcript
CNN.com: May 14
by Lorraine Hahn
Part # 2
LH:This is TalkAsia; we're speaking to Jean Claude Van Damme, movie action hero. Jean Claude, tell me you have been compared with obviously Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Segal, how does that make you feel to be compared to people like that?
JCVD: I think it's great to be compared because you have got to be compared to something in life. And people love to compare people I guess.
LH: Did they ever compare you with, let's say, the Jackie Chan's of Asia?
JCVD: No, but that would be a compliment. I think he's wonderful, he's very funny and he's a good person. I met him a few times at the opening of some event, and he also came on the set of my movie, Knock Off. I shot that movie in Hong Kong ahh no sorry, Double Team. I shot that in Rome and he came on the set to help us with some fighting sequences.
LH:Interesting! He didn't charge you for that did he?
JCVD: No.
LH: The man we see on the screen, this karate expert is that really you?
JCVD: Yes, it's me doing all those moves because I started training when I was 11 years old and I was not really gifted from nature physically. I was not very strong, but mentally I did put that "Be To Have" I want to and I will be, and I started training at the age of 11 so I built myself very well.
LH: What about this hard nosed very violent character?
JCVD: No, that's just a movie.
LH: So you're a real softy in real; life. You cry?
JCVD: Yes, of-course I cry, like every male. We all cry, some people cry less but it's good to have emotion in life. We can learn it well from women; they're much more advanced always. They are much more open than us to emotion.
LH: Coming back to your earlier days, you also trained in ballet. Does that help you in your fight choreography?
JCVD: Absolutely! Ballet gave me lots of grace and flexibility. When you can mix the karate, which is also graceful but powerful together with the technique of ballet you have a different type of marital art, which is great for the movie because you can do lots of moves very elegantly.
LH: I suppose that includes those world famous splits of yours, which many woman, I must admit, have been trying to do as well.
JCVD: But women are more flexible than men, in general.
LH: Let me talk to you a bit about your past. More recently the drug problems that you had, you've overcome them now. Why did that come about Jean Claude? Was it because the fame you had came too quickly for example?
JCVD: No, this is a long story, I don't want to go back to so many years ago, it happen many, many years ago. But I did go through some problems but now they're gone and everything is fine. I've got my wife, my family. I guess I was hurt by some promises, by friendships. When you go to a country without your family…..I was very young when I came to LA and I met loads of people and I saw loads of stuff for my age, and when you're sensitive you can be hurt. You have to be careful, so sometimes you have to keep your distance, which is sad because I will not change, and I will stay that same person. I would like to always open my heart to everybody in life.
LH:Something on a bit more of a happier note, you've been married 5 times, you're back with your third wife, Gladice, whom we've met. What kind of women marries action heroes like yourself? Is there a particular characteristic? Have they got to be stable, outgoing?
JCVD: My wife is a wonderful person. She's very strong and she's very behind me, and she was very mature about the word family. Which I was too but I was so busy traveling making movies, which for many years I suffered to make it in the business, and when I finally made it I didn't let the rope go off and I worked and worked and now I've made 31 movies, sometimes 3 movies a year. I didn't have any private life or anything, so I started saying to myself that I need to slow down, enjoy my family so we came back together and now everything is beautiful.
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