Playboy Interview: Jean-claude Van Damme

It was like a scene from a movie: Two private jets wait side by side on the tarmac at Burbank Airport. Two identical black limousines pull up within minutes of each other. Each one parks by a different plane. A tall, muscular man with a ponytail, wearing a red-and-black leather jacket, gets out of one limo, while a shorter, equally muscular man in a colorful silk shirt gets out of the other. But these men have more in common than private planes and limos. They are two of Hollywood's biggest names: Steven Seagal is flying to Montana, Jean-Claude Van Damme is on his way to San Diego to appear at a comic-book convention. And while the competition between the two is fierce--Seagal has even bad-mouthed Van Damme on TV--there's no confrontation between the two on this hot afternoon. In fact, neither acknowledges the other's presence. They simply get into their respective jets and fly their separate ways.

Of the two, Van Damme is clearly the rising star. While Seagal's latest films have misfired with moviegoers--and the star has taken hits offscreen for his temperamental behavior--Van Damme is on a hot streak. His most recent film, "Timecop," opened to good reviews and even better attendance, setting a box office record for the 33-year-old actor. So as he flies south with his fourth wife, Darcy LaPier, and Kristopher, his seven-year-old son from a previous marriage, his mood is relaxed. Throughout the 20-minute flight, Van Damme dotes on his son, touching his face, telling everyone who will listen what a good boy he is. And when Kris tosses his cookies on the plane's carpet, it is Van Damme who apologizes and cleans up the mess.

Later, as Van Damme enters a banquet hall at the San Diego convention center, 2000 fans give him a standing ovation. No sooner does the crowd quiet down than a woman shouts, "Take off your shirt!"

Van Damme smiles. His wife tries to smile, too, even though she doesn't much like listening to strange women asking her husband to disrobe. It's something she might as well get used to, because the adulation is unlikely to stop any time soon. Van Damme is just now crossing over from the limited world of martial arts films into mainstream movies. Studios that dismissed him only two years ago as a good-looking kickboxer now see him as the action-adventure star of tomorrow--a franchise that they can build on well into the future, thanks to Van Damme's relative youth. He's 22 years younger than Chuck Norris, ten years younger than Seagal and 14 years younger than the man he's now most often compared to, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

After a half hour of talking to his fans he waves goodbye and is escorted into another room for a press conference to promote his two latest films: "Timecop" and "Street Fighter." A reporter notices the bump on his forehead and asks if he had an accident. "No," Van Damme says, "it's a cyst. My wife says now that I'm a big movie star I should cut it out. What do you think? Should I?"

Van Damme was an unlikely prospect to face such movie-star dilemmas. He was born Jean-Claude Van Varenberg in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, outside of Brussels, Belgium. A skinny, knock-kneed kid, he didn't care for school, talked with a lisp and got into trouble for mimicking his teachers. His father, who owned a lingerie shop, then a convenience store and then a flower shop, had him study ballet and put him in a karate class when he was 11, where the boy suddenly became focused. He trained every day and was participating in bodybuilding and kickboxing competitions by his mid-teens. He won the Mr. Belgium bodybuilding crown and the European middleweight black-belt karate championship. He married at 18, opened a gym in Brussels and became a trainer to his customers. But he wanted more.

Van Damme was eager to travel and have adventures--and even more eager to be a movie star. When he visited Paris, a photographer spotted him and offered him a job modeling clothes for Jean-Paul Gaultier. Another time, in Brussels, he was "discovered" and offered a job playing a soldier in a Rutger Hauer film. He decided to leave his first wife to pursue acting. He tried to break into the martial arts film industry in Hong Kong but had no luck, so he went to Los Angeles when he was 20, with little money and even less knowledge of English.

For the next six years he struggled--placing his picture and résumé on the windshields of movie producers' cars, working as a bodyguard, bouncer, aerobics instructor, taxi and limo driver, pizza deliveryman and carpet cleaner. Someone suggested he change his name and he did, from Van Varenberg to Van Damme. He married and divorced a second time.

He appeared briefly as a gay biker in a film called "Monaco Forever," and Chuck Norris hired him as an extra in "Missing in Action." In 1986 he landed a role as a Russian bad guy in "No Retreat, No Surrender." But his big break happened when he ran into Cannon Films' co-owner Menahem Golan outside a restaurant. Figuring he had nothing to lose, he got Golan's attention and then shot his leg straight out and over the producer's head. Golan was sufficiently impressed and offered to make him a star. The vehicle was "Bloodsport," a kickboxing movie, and Van Damme felt the long wait was over.

But the movies created new frustrations. Cannon didn't release "Bloodsport" for 19 months. In the meantime, Van Damme (who was now promoting himself as Van Dammage, the Muscles from Brussels and Wham, Bam, Thank You, Van Damme) signed contracts with independent film companies to do other low-budget films. By the time "Blood-sport" was released and became a cult success, Van Damme was tied to low-paying companies for the next five years, making such action films as "Cyborg," "Kickboxer," "Death Warrant," "Lionheart" and "Double Impact," which all made money. When he was finally released from contractual obligations, he made "Universal Soldier" for Carolco, "Hard Target" with Chinese director John Woo and "Nowhere to Run" with Rosanna Arquette.

With "Timecop," Universal Studios was confident that a big budget and an expensive publicity campaign could break Van Damme out of martial arts films and into mainstream movies. The gamble paid off. Now Matsushita, Universal's parent company, is thinking even bigger, paying Van Damme $6 million (twice what he got for "Timecop") to star as Colonel Guile, the hero of Street Fighter, a wildly successful video game that Matsushita is turning into a movie.

Van Damme's rise has not been without controversy. He lost a recent lawsuit brought by an actor injured during a fight scene in "Cyborg"--Van Damme will pay close to a half million dollars in damages. Another lawsuit, by a woman who claimed the actor forced her to perform oral sex on him and then demanded a foursome, was settled.

There was also a divorce from his third wife, bodybuilder Gladys Portugues, who is the mother of his two children, Kristopher and four-year-old Bianca. Wife number four, Darcy, was married to Ron Rice, the Hawaiian Tropic suntan-oil mogul. An affair between Van Damme and Darcy led to the breakup of both marriages and has resulted in Van Damme's greatest anguish: He is separated from his children, who live with their mother in Belgium.

Contributing EditorLawrence Grobel(whose last interview for us was with Christian Slater) met with the man who might be Arnold in San Diego, the San Fernando Valley and Pittsburgh. He reports:

"Our first meeting took place in Van Damme's private jet; the second was at his home in the San Fernando Valley. We met the third time in Pittsburgh, where he was getting ready to make a movie called 'Sudden Death.' But the schedule was arduous. Our talks would begin two hours before midnight and continue until nearly dawn--that's when Van Damme felt most comfortable. Part of Van Damme's charm is his mangled English and heavy accent. Still, he was quick with his answers and candid with his thoughts. His moods changed each evening: The first night he showed me his muscles. 'Look at how much better shape I'm in than when we saw each other last week,' he said. The second night he was more subdued, the third, contemplative. At one point he shouted to me, 'I'm only 33, too young for a "Playboy Interview." I'm a baby, I have so much to learn.' But when I challenged his prowess as a martial artist he went from baby to professional, asking me to stand so he could demonstrate how, in two lightning-swift kicks to my shoulder, he could easily disarm someone like Steven Seagal, who comes from another discipline, aikido, which is all arms and finesse. Van Damme merely tapped my arm, but I felt it the next day.

"Earlier, I had visited Van Damme at his house in the San Fernando Valley. It was one of the hottest days of the year--more than 110 degrees--and Van Damme was on an inflated raft in his swimming pool. He invited me to join him and I did. 'Do people think you have a tough job?' he asked. 'You don't think this is tough?' I answered, trying to balance my tape recorder on my chest so it wouldn't fall into the water."

[Q] Playboy: Here we are, on the hottest day of the year, and you are floating in your swimming pool at high noon without an ounce of sunscreen. Are you brave or foolish?

[A] Van Damme: I never use those creams. I don't need them. It's the genes. My mother never used creams. I sit in the sun, I get red, then I get dark.

[Q] Playboy: The red part means you burn like the rest of us. That's not too smart these days, Jean-Claude.

[A] Van Damme: I do not worry. It doesn't harm me.

[Q] Playboy: Do you really think that you're Superman?

[A] Van Damme: I've got news for you--I'm nothing special. You are talking to a guy who was not raised on the street, who didn't do drugs or crazy stuff, who comes from a simple country with simple people. I'm not deep, not super smart, not stupid, just a normal guy. I have two dogs, a house. I like to train, I love life.

[Q] Playboy: You don't wind up with two major releases within three months by being simple. The expectations for Street Fighter are high--it's supposed to be your $100 million breakthrough film.

[A] Van Damme: I would love the movie to be successful because the guy who did it, Mr. Sugimoto of Matsushita, put two big studios--Columbia and Universal--together for the first time since Towering Inferno. He put in his own money from his company and I received a good salary, double what I got for Timecop. So I would have been crazy not to do it.

[Q] Playboy: He has already invested more money in remaking the Street Fighter video game with your image. Have you seen it?

[A] Van Damme: They've had 600 people working on this one video game for the past two years. When I asked what it was about they said, "Top secret." I know it's unusual and that they're using my face as Colonel Guile. So now the kids can play with Van Damme--jump, dance, kick, get punched. I'm part of a phenomenon.

[Q] Playboy: And how are you in the film?

[A] Van Damme: I'm funny, like Over the Top.

[Q] Playboy: Did you feel that way about Timecop?

[A] Van Damme: In Timecop I do everything--break arms, kick, jump, do a split, do karate, aikido, street-fight, knife-fight. I even fight with tools. Plus, it is an intelligent movie.

[Q] Playboy: No one would say that about your two previous movies, Hard Target and Nowhere to Run.

[A] Van Damme:Hard Target was a bad script, but we had some great action scenes, and John Woo made me look like a samurai with greasy hair. Nowhere to Run, the script was also not that good. The writer told me he was going to fix everything. I was in his house, he shook my hand, he promised me, but he didn't fix it.

[Q] Playboy: Did you always want to be a movie star?

[A] Van Damme: Absolutely. I was crazy about movies since I was born. I wanted to go to America to become a movie star. My father was against me to go to the U.S. "Crazy," he said. "You'll never make it. So many kids like you, and they speak the language." Everybody tells me it's impossible, but when you have something in your head, you have to do it.

[Q] Playboy: But weren't you already a success? You owned a gym in Belgium when you were still a teenager.

[A] Van Damme: I was making a fortune with the gym--$7000 a week, more than my father ever made. I was 19. I called it California Gym, and it was the biggest in Belgium. But I gave it all up--the business, my family, even though I love my parents, my first marriage--to come here. And when I came here it was difficult. I didn't speak English, I had no work permit. But I was happy. And full of ambition.

[Q] Playboy: You make it sound easy.

[A] Van Damme: It was not easy. Nothing happened for a long time. I learned the hard way. But you have two ways to go to Rome--you can take the freeway or you can take the road.

[Q] Playboy: Before you came to America, didn't you try your luck in Hong Kong?

[A] Van Damme: Yes, I had all these business cards from Hong Kong producers, but nothing happened. Then I came to America and nothing. Few people responded to me.

[Q] Playboy: Did you feel like you didn't belong here?

[A] Van Damme: No, I felt right, that L.A. is my place, like it's part of me, like I was here before.

[Q] Playboy: Did you continue to train while you looked for film work?

[A] Van Damme: I was very methodical. I was training four times a week, working at least ten hours a day, then going to casting, talking to people. I was always pushing, pushing, pushing.

[Q] Playboy: Did you get any interesting work?

[A] Van Damme: No. I was driving limousine. I did massage. Delivered pizza. Cleaned carpets. I was a bouncer.

[Q] Playboy: Did you enjoy any of that work?

[A] Van Damme: When I drove a limousine I took two women from Texas who were fortyish. They asked me, "Driver, do you have something to chew on?" I said, "Yes, bubble gum." "No, we want something to chew on, something in our mouths." They were trying to take me.

[Q] Playboy: In other words, they wanted to chew on you?

[A] Van Damme: Something like that. Their husbands sent them to Beverly Hills to have plastic surgery and they wanted something to chew on.

[Q] Playboy: And you didn't want these women to perform oral sex on you?

[A] Van Damme: They were ugly.

[Q] Playboy: Did you run into such problems when you gave massages?

[A] Van Damme: My first one. This guy took off his robe and he was naked. I said, "Do you have a towel?" He said, "Oh, I don't need it." I started to massage his back and he opened his legs. I said, "Buddy, that's it. I'm leaving." He stood up, it was half hard. I have nothing against homosexuals--I have lots of friends who are gay. But that was it for massage.

[Q] Playboy: As a bouncer, did you ever have to throw anyone out?

[A] Van Damme: Never. It was in Newport Beach, at Chuck Norris' wife's restaurant. I drove three hours every day back and forth.

[Q] Playboy: And when did you eventually work for Chuck?

[A] Van Damme: I went to see him when he was with a friend of his and I said I could train him. But he wasn't sure so he have me spar with his friend and he sat and watched. I jumped in the air, started kicking--the guy didn't expect that. Then I trained Chuck for months, for free.

[Q] Playboy: Why didn't he pay you?

[A] Van Damme: Ask him. I will never ask for something. After I train him every day he took me for dinner sometimes, and I also became an extra for him in M.I.A.

[Q] Playboy: During this time you were also sticking your picture on car windshields, hoping a producer might call. Did you ever hear from anyone?

[A] Van Damme: Nobody. I even went to the parking lots of the big studios like MGM and Fox, and also to the independent studios, which were more approachable. I always looked at the big cars--they were the producers'. I left pictures of myself and my phone number. Thousands of pictures. Sometimes I followed some cars to see the houses. People think I'm nuts, but it wasn't to harm anybody.

[Q] Playboy: It sounds pretty desperate. Did you ever wonder why you were having such a tough time?

[A] Van Damme: Before I came to America I was on vacation in the south of France and had my dog Tara with me. She was a black chow. I really loved this dog. I treated her like a girlfriend, like the love of my life. I was walking her when I saw a man walking a big male dog, very healthy looking, and I thought he was the perfect guy to take my dog because I cannot take her with me to America. So I gave my dog to him. A year later I went back to see her, but when I got there I thought maybe it wasn't a good idea that she see me--it will make her sad again when I leave--so I bought sunglasses and I put on a hat for the dog not to recognize me. When I saw my dog walking, she had holes with no hair and I said to myself, "You are such an idiot. You give that dog away to follow your dream, and they're treating you like shit in America. You're doing two-bucks-an-hour jobs, and here is the dog who is loving you like nobody else, and you left her." I wanted to go and touch her, smell her, but if I did then she would be happy for one day and then become even more broken. Like if you go back to a woman you once loved but now respect as your best friend, she thinks that it's love--a woman will not understand. So I stayed away for three days, looking at my dog every day and night, like a detective. Crying beneath my glasses. I left and returned a year and a half later, and she was gone. Gone. And the same happened to my parrot, a gray female. She loved me, she'd sit on my hand, stay on my shoulder. I gave her to an old lady and the bird died. The woman never called me. I will never give an animal away again. I thought, That's why God gave me such a hard time making it, to punish me. He loves the animals, they die, now you're going to suffer before you see the light.

[Q] Playboy: Your suffering stopped when you finally got Menahem Golan, the co-owner of Cannon Films, to put you in a movie. What's the real story of how you caught his attention?

[A] Van Damme: I tried to meet him for five, six years. Then I was going into a restaurant and he was coming out. I said, "Menahem, it's me, Jean-Claude Van Damme. Remember all the pictures I sent you?" He was busy doing business. So I said, "I can do great action films." And I kicked above his head, like a 6'2" kick. I impressed him. He gave me his card and said, "Call me tomorrow.'"

[Q] Playboy: He didn't think you were crazy? You could have kicked him in the head.

[A] Van Damme: No, the guy is from Israel. He came with 20 bucks to this country, he liked that stuff. The next day I called him, he wasn't available. So I drove to his office. Now, imagine me, I was driving a taxi, cleaning carpets, delivering pizza. Here I am in the penthouse of Cannon, the biggest independent company at that time. They had signed Stallone for $12 million for Over the Top, and I was on the sofa outside waiting for Menahem, who was on the phone shouting some deal. I thought, He likes to yell, he's a salesman. I was there one P.M., two P.M., three P.M., four P.M., five P.M., six P.M. Sitting there all day as people came in and out. Finally he came out, tucking his shirt into his pants, and I go inside. This time I think, Jean-Claude, you're here for six years, everything is shit, this is your only chance to have a small part in a movie. Don't panic, don't sweat your hand when you shake his, be strong. I felt all Belgium was behind me. Because many times people there cross my father, and they say to him, "Hey, we heard your son is a punching boy in America. How's the punching boy?" My father was in shame. I gave up my gym and everything. Imagine my father. I know about how Menahem came to America with $20, so I say to him, "I came to this country with $40 and I have nothing and I hope one day I can be somebody. I'm here for six years, nothing is going well in my life, so let's cut the bullshit. I know I've got something special. I'm inexpensive and I'm very good. You can make so much money with me, you can make me a star." I was almost in tears, and he saw my eyes were real. I said, "Look at my body," and I started to take off my shirt. "See the muscles I have." Then I took two chairs and did a split balanced between them. "See, I am flexible. I can do kicks, everything. I'm a young Chuck Norris. Maybe one day a Stallone. So what do you say?"

He said, "You want to be a star? I'll make you a star. You got a green card?" I say yes, which is a big fucking lie. "Do you have a lawyer?" "I will tomorrow." "An agent?" "Tomorrow." "Then you're going to make a movie. You're going to be the lead in Bloodsport."

My legs are like cotton balls. I can't believe it. When I leave I'm jumping all over like an idiot.

But then Bloodsport was delayed and delayed. Four months later I was on a plane to Hong Kong. Thank God it was set in Hong Kong.

[Q] Playboy: Could you have done it in the States without a green card?

[A] Van Damme: No. It was a good script, but they kept changing it. So the story ended up in the garbage and they kept losing sight of the movie. I had to recut the film myself.

[Q] Playboy: Why would Golan allow you to do that?

[A] Van Damme: Because he saw the movie. He hated it. He said, "Van Damme, it's a very bad movie." I go, "Menahem, I beg you, I saw it too, let me recut it." And I cut the movie every night with the guy who cut The Towering Inferno. The producer didn't know I was recutting it. I was such a politician. I didn't say nothing to him, I reported to Menahem every week. Then they put the film on the shelf, so he never saw the new version. It was not released for a year and a half. Then Menahem released it in France and all those countries, and I flew everywhere to promote it. I paid my own ticket to Malaysia, where it was the biggest box office. Two weeks later I flew to France, did karate kick for a magazine, did a split on the Champs Élysées. Big success because of the fighting scenes. Now you go to Asia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Bloodsport is unrentable in the video stores--it's always gone. It's a cult film.

[Q] Playboy: Did Golan know he had a hit?

[A] Van Damme: After he saw the box office he knew. He called me into his office and said, "Van Damme, the iron is hot. We'll do two more movies." By then I had waited so many months. I had other things I wanted to do, and also I had signed some contracts with small companies. So I said, "You said you don't need me no more." He said, "My friend, I made you a star. I'm going to sue your ass off." He didn't pay me a penny more. Instead of giving me $100,000 for the second movie, he gave me $50,000. Big mistake. I did Death Warrant and Cyborg for him and that was it. But I love Menahem because he gave me my first chance.

[Q] Playboy: After the success of Bloodsport, you really weren't free to work for any of the major studios, were you?

[A] Van Damme: No. So many studios called me for projects, but I wasn't available for, like, five years. I had signed these other contracts before Bloodsport came out. With Cannon it was one film, two options. With another company one film, two options. A third company also one film, two options. That's nine low-budget films, below $5 million for each one. That's why I made all those movies like Kickboxer and Double Impact. It was a factory, three movies a year, no cast, first-time directors. I didn't do good as an actor. But you know what? They all made money. I became a star with those movies.

[Q] Playboy: You've said in the past that they were "silly" movies.

[A] Van Damme: They were not silly. For what they were it was... OK. I'm proud of them, and I'm not proud. You know what I'm saying?

[Q] Playboy: Yes and no.

[A] Van Damme: I just wish that before those movies opened people should know that they were made for low, low money. So forgive this actor if sometimes he has to scream for two minutes and he has no explosions and no bullets, no special effects.

[Q] Playboy: Perhaps that's why they seem so authentic, like in Kickboxer when you kick down those big bamboo stems.

[A] Van Damme: I kicked them for real.

[Q] Playboy: Did it hurt?

[A] Van Damme: When the camera was rolling it felt good. It was my second time in the movies--I was hungry.

[Q] Playboy: You must have been pretty hungry to sign up to play the alien in Predator, especially when you discovered you were too small for the costume they had made.

[A] Van Damme: I did only two scenes and had to quit because it was impossible to work in it. I wanted to do good stunts in the suit, but it was too heavy. My head was in the neck, my feet were in a cast, I was in deep shit.

[Q] Playboy: But you got to meet Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[A] Van Damme: Yeah. The first thing he said to me was, "I like your belt. Where did you buy it?" I go [affecting an effeminate manner], "I bought it on Santa Monica Boulevard." He turned around and left. Two years later I saw him on the set of Red Heat, and without knowing it I was sitting in his chair. He came back from his scene and looked at me and I said, "I like your belt. Where did you buy that belt?" He left nice. He's smart because he remembered his line about the belt.

[Q] Playboy: What else impresses you about Arnold?

[A] Van Damme: He makes sense when he talks. He doesn't talk with complicated words, he's direct. You look in his eyes, they are good. He will never try to hurt you or take advantage of you. He's too busy and too rich, he has his own focus, his own mission. He's not looking at how your arms are so big and the way you dress. He's above all that. I like him a lot.

[Q] Playboy: Do you like being compared to him?

[A] Van Damme: Arnold is smart and I think I am smart, too. We both came from Europe--he came with bodybuilding, I came with karate, and maybe that's why people compare us. But you cannot compare Arnold and Van Damme.

[Q] Playboy: What about as actors? Arnold has proved himself to many critics, but there's still that question about you: Can he act? Does that annoy you?

[A] Van Damme: Yeah, it annoys me. People look at me with attitude if I tell them, Yes, I can act. There are two different types of acting: body acting and face acting. Brando dying in The Godfather, Stallone punching the meat in Rocky--if you can act emotionally you can act visually, physically. You don't learn acting--it's all mood, it's all from inside, from your heart. Why do people come to see me? Because I cannot act? I think deeply I can act, but I know I'll become better. I'm not there yet. Imagine if I can do action, drama, romance--what's going to be next? How far can I go? It's all a question of wanting. But if I say that one day I'd like to be perceived as a Pacino, a De Niro, a Hopkins, they're going to say I'm a nut case.

[Q] Playboy: Do you foresee a time when you will make films without exhibiting your martial arts skills?

[A] Van Damme: Absolutely. But it's difficult to leave the image behind. It's difficult for Stallone to leave Rocky, he was so good. That and Rambo are like a stamp on his forehead. But when he made F.I.S.T. he was a good union guy. When you become a thing it's difficult because you're a piece in a puzzle.

[Q] Playboy: Another action star you're often compared with is Steven Seagal, who apparently bad-mouthed you on Arsenio Hall. What do you think of him?

[A] Van Damme: I like him a lot. The first movie I saw of his, Above the Law, I knew he was going to be a big star. Seagal has a quiet, strong presence and he was very smart about something: He did action movies with a suit on. People like that.

[Q] Playboy: Why did he bad-mouth you?

[A] Van Damme: I don't know. He doesn't know me. When I was promoting Time-cop every reporter asked me about Seagal. I've met him only twice in my life. Why does he hate me?

[Q] Playboy: Maybe he thinks there isn't room enough for the two of you.

[A] Van Damme: We're two tough guys. If he loses weight we will have enough room.

[Q] Playboy: Would you like to do a movie with him?

[A] Van Damme: The combination of Seagal and Van Damme can be a hot movie. It's like putting Arnold and Sly together in a comedy. If Seagal and Van Damme joined forces it could be great because people want to see Van Damme against Seagal. It's like seeing Holyfield and Tyson. But it will never happen.

[Q] Playboy: Because one of you would have to lose?

[A] Van Damme: Exactly. And I hate to lose.

[Q] Playboy: Which means Seagal would have to lose to you?

[A] Van Damme: No, we both have to win.

[Q] Playboy: Seagal has called the people in show business pukes, scumbags and money grubbers. Do you see it that way?

[A] Van Damme: My answer to Steven Seagal: Quit. Go back to Japan and work for the CIA.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think Seagal ever really worked for the CIA?

[A] Van Damme: Honest to God? I think if a guy worked for the CIA he will not be authorized by the CIA to go on a television show and tell people he was a CIA expert.

[Q] Playboy: And Seagal supposedly doesn't think you're a world champion karate expert.

[A] Van Damme: When I was practicing karate I became the best. I had the best legs in the world, and still do. I can do things with my legs you wouldn't believe. I can jump 360 degrees. I was writing my name in chalk with my toes on the board at school. When Seagal says I'm full of shit, people don't pay attention. Because I trained.

[Q] Playboy: Let's talk about your training. How old were you when your father put you in a karate class? And why karate?

[A] Van Damme: I was 11, the youngest in the class. In America you have all these sports. In Belgium we had to choose from wrestling, boxing, bodybuilding, tennis, karate. The others were too expensive--membership fees every month, equipment. With karate it was $100 a year with everything included. So I was stuck in karate. My father said to me, "It was my best investment in life. I gave $100 for my son to play karate and he became a movie star because of that. Now he's bringing back millions. I never thought that $100 was going to make me so much money."

[Q] Playboy: When you started competing, did you lose many fights?

[A] Van Damme: Of course I lost some fights. Not many. When I was 18 Most to Angelo Spitarro, who was 28, in the final. I'd been fighting for three days, 12 fights, winning, winning, winning, going home to sleep, back the next day, winning. I lost the last fight because I was so young, so nice to people. I'm more mean now. When you get older you become more vicious, like an old wolf. I'm dangerous. I'm not to play with. I will not lose any more fights.

[Q] Playboy: Did you ever get hurt when you competed?

[A] Van Damme: I broke my jaw once. Here's what happened: When you do karate, if you put one knee on the floor the judge stops the fight. I had my knee on the floor and the guy I was fighting came at me full speed. Bam! Shot my head like a football! I stood back on my feet, fighting not to go down. But I lost control and I hate to lose control. The fight was canceled. That guy later became world champion and I fought him for the championship. I broke his jaw in 17 seconds. I did that famous kick, and boom! He slept.

[Q] Playboy:Inside Edition implied that there's no record that you ever won a championship. Do you have any belts to prove it?

[A] Van Damme: No belt. I received a free pair of plastic gloves, and the next day I saw my name in the newspaper. But it doesn't mean shit to me. Tell Inside Edition to look in the archives in Belgium under the name Van Varenberg, not Van Damme. They have the fight on film. Look at Bloodsport. You think a guy can do that and be a fake?

[Q] Playboy: What about fear? Do you feel fear before a fight?

[A] Van Damme: Always. The guy who tells you he's not scared is full of shit. Because that's what God gave you to survive: fear. If not, you'll become a kamikaze.

[Q] Playboy: Are your legs considered lethal weapons?

[A] Van Damme: I fought a lot in the ring, but if I fight for real, I will kill. I swear to God, I will kill. I cannot fight because my kicks will kill. Also, if I hit somebody now I'll be sued for millions.

[Q] Playboy: Have you ever lost your temper outside the ring?

[A] Van Damme: Once. I was 17, driving my little Citroën at three A.M., and this bus driver from Morocco cut me off and almost killed me. I stopped in front of him, stood below where he was sitting and called him a nut case. He said, "Fuck you." I was so pissed I kicked straight up with my leg and touched his face. It was the first time I lost control. He was knocked out, so I went into the bus and said to the passengers, "Guys, I'm sorry, you'll have to walk." I was in full right--he was crazy. He woke up I don't know when, maybe a half hour later, and he went to the cops. Some people had taken my license and the next morning the police came to my house and said to my father, "Your son kicked a bus driver in the face and broke his jaw in five places." My father didn't want me to have a police record so he paid them $75,000 for me to be clean. He was so pissed. "I'm teaching you karate to control yourself. You're an idiot, you're crazy."

[Q] Playboy: Were you crazy?

[A] Van Damme: Maybe. When I was 15 I was jumping from roof to the ground. I thought I was Spider-Man, Dare Devil. I once hurt my back badly.

[Q] Playboy: Did you know anything about steroids then?

[A] Van Damme: I knew everything about it, and I knew the consequences. I've seen people taking it like candy, by mouth, by injection. You'll have fast results and then you'll pay with your tendons, your prostate, your kidneys, liver.

[Q] Playboy: Did you ever take any?

[A] Van Damme: Never. When I was 19 I weighed 99 kilos [218 pounds], pure muscle. I was a beast. Enough for me. Right now I am 78 kilos [172 pounds]. I know what to eat, how to train.

[Q] Playboy: The old taboo about not having sex before a fight--is that a myth?

[A] Van Damme: People who train are very sexual--you clean your body from the inside, you regenerate all your cells. But making love before a fight? I will never do it. It would be like doing something wrong.

[Q] Playboy: Why would it be wrong?

[A] Van Damme: When some people make love, they do just one fuck. When you really make love you spend hours, you spend all night with a woman, you give a lot, you're sweating. You want her to feel good so you spend five, six rounds, and the next day you have to go 12 rounds. That's 17 rounds.

[Q] Playboy: Are you saying you have five or six orgasms each time you make love?

[A] Van Damme: I'm not saying I'm coming five or six times. It's just a metaphor.

[Q] Playboy: Seagal practices aikido, and you've studied Thai kickboxing. Which is more dangerous?

[A] Van Damme: In aikido you do something with your hands, you have to grab somebody and roll them down. You don't grab a guy with kickboxing--that's bullshit. In a real street fight you don't grab people. Kickboxing, you hit first. The guy will not grab you.

[Q] Playboy: Can a kickboxing champion take a boxer like Mike Tyson?

[A] Van Damme: You cannot compare. If you take the best champion in Muay Thai kickboxing, what he will do with Tyson is go for his legs with powerful, low kicks. He can break your knee. Kickboxing allows elbow, knee, foot. A boxer knows from the waist up, not the legs. If Tyson comes at me, I kick him--boom!--he's out. If I'm backed into a corner against the rope, who's going to win? Tyson? Maybe. But a kickboxer can give him an elbow, bam! Twelve stitches. When Tyson fights, he thinks about his next fight. When a Thai guy fights, there is no tomorrow. Elbow in the face, knee in the head. The boxer cannot use his knees, his elbows, his head.

[Q] Playboy: So you wouldn't be afraid to go up against Tyson?

[A] Van Damme: Now we're talking like two kids in school. Your father's a boxer, mine's a karate guy. Who's going to win? Forty-year-old businessmen love to talk about who will win between me and Seagal and Tyson. Men love competition. They want to be that guy in the ring.

[Q] Playboy: No, we want to put you in the ring. Who would win between you and Iron Mike?

[A] Van Damme: I've trained for 20 years. I can give him shit with my legs, you feel the power. I can triple-kick, like a mosquito. I hate to fight because I hate to lose. If I put my thumb in the eyes of somebody, I will take his eyes away. So if a guy insults me or makes fun of me, I turn my back and leave. It's good to know karate and kickboxing, but a guy who never trained in his life can come at you with a knife. Who is stronger than who?

[Q] Playboy: Name the best martial arts films.

[A] Van Damme:Enter the Dragon. And that Kurosawa movie where the girl comes to the village and the guy cleans the village of all the bandits, Seven Samurai.

[Q] Playboy: What about The Karate Kid?

[A] Van Damme: It was good for kids, but I hated it.

[Q] Playboy:Enter the Dragon was one of Bruce Lee's most popular films. Was he a role model for you?

[A] Van Damme: Bruce was fantastic, very special. The camera loved him. He was one of the first actors who came with a body on the screen. Before, there was Steve Reeves. But don't forget, before Bruce Lee was a karate guy he was sur la planche--on the wood. That means theater. When he was 13 he was acting. If you look at some of his movies, when he fights in slow motion, frame by frame, it's not too technical. But it looks great on camera.

[Q] Playboy: You're saying that he exaggerated certain moves for the camera. Don't you do that, too?

[A] Van Damme: The same. But I have my own style. I don't imitate anybody.

[Q] Playboy: Who are some of the authentic tough guys on the screen?

[A] Van Damme: Sean Connery's real tough. I heard stories from people. I met him once. Strong. The guy you see on the screen is the guy you see in life. I met Charles Bronson once too. He's a very powerful guy, a man's man. I love Hard Times. Robert De Niro, Steve McQueen. Mickey Rourke. To me, he was as gifted as Al Pacino and he lost it. Maybe he can come back.

[Q] Playboy: Are these some of your favorite actors?

[A] Van Damme: Some. I love Jimmy Dean, Marlon Brando, Christopher Walken, Pacino, Anthony Hopkins, Paul Newman, Montgomery Clift, Kirk Douglas, Stallone. And French actors like Alain Delon, Fernandel and Belmondo--my favorite. To me he is a god.

[Q] Playboy: What about Jack Nicholson?

[A] Van Damme: He's an animal. I love animals. He eats life with big fangs.

[Q] Playboy: Robin Williams?

[A] Van Damme: Genius. Comedy, he's the top. So gifted.

[Q] Playboy: Steve Martin?

[A] Van Damme: No, I don't like him. He does nothing for me. I like Tom Hanks and Jim Belushi.

[Q] Playboy: Mel Gibson?

[A] Van Damme: Very commercial, from action to drama. Hamlet was a good movie. You know who's great too? Johnny Depp--he's always lust. And Sean Penn. I saw a film with him and De Niro as priests. He ate De Niro alive.

[Q] Playboy: Charlie Sheen?

[A] Van Damme: Doesn't do it for me.

[Q] Playboy: Christian Slater?

[A] Van Damme: Love him.

[Q] Playboy: Keanu Reeves?

[A] Van Damme: Doesn't do it for me. In Speed, I just didn't buy that he was that tough. If you see that guy coming at you to fight with you, are you scared? No.

[Q] Playboy: Which films captured your imagination as a kid?

[A] Van Damme: I loved American films. Ben-Hur, Spartacus, The Wild Bunch. Later, Star Wars.

[Q] Playboy: How often did you go to the movies?

[A] Van Damme: I would go with my father on Sunday. I was expecting to see a movie once a week, but it happened once a month because he was always very busy.

[Q] Playboy: Was this when he was a florist?

[A] Van Damme: Yes, and before that he owned a lingerie store. And then my mother did that when he started a library, which in Europe means you're selling cigarettes, newspapers, bubble gum, like a 7-Eleven. It was hard, he was counting on every penny. I remember once my mother took us for pasta when he was working late and she said, "Don't tell your father we ate spaghetti." But I remember that smell, with mashed carrots, onion, some meat. I was ashamed to ask for a toy more than once a week because all the money they were making they were investing in something else to become more successful. And I was always helping them. I was a happy kid. You give me a piece of wood and a shoe, I would make a boat.

[Q] Playboy: Did you get an allowance?

[A] Van Damme: No, he gave me food and lodging and love. You don't give money to a kid of 16 in Europe. I cannot see kids who have their own bank accounts at the age of 16. What is this? It's a joke.

[Q] Playboy: Earlier you said your father paid $75,000 to keep you from having a police record. How could he pay that much if you were so poor?

[A] Van Damme: That was later, when he opened his flower shop and it was successful. That's when he made what for him was big money. He had all the Jewish clientele of Belgium. He was doing everything for those guys--marriages, receptions. One of his clients was Onassis. When I was living there I was selling flowers at night for him. My father was so good to me. I wish lots of people could have my parents. I remember when I had to have my appendix out. I was scared, but I was also sad for my father because he was in a panic. I saw his face, his eyes. He said, "If I could be in your place I would do it." I saw so much love that I started to cry. I said, "Dad, you are a wonderful father." He slept in the hospital by me, on the floor.

[Q] Playboy: Other than the time you broke that bus driver's jaw, did you ever do anything that upset him?

[A] Van Damme: When I shot my BB gun into our neighbor's laundry. I was shooting at clothespins and sometimes I missed and it went into the laundry. She came to my father, who yelled at me like crazy. Then I once killed a pigeon, shot it in the neck. It was a female and my father told me she was probably looking for food for her newborns and they were all going to die because of me. Oh, I feel bad.

[Q] Playboy: Did you get into many fights as a kid?

[A] Van Damme: I was not a fighter, but I made fun of people. I was always running, scheming. I never liked to fight; I liked to compete.

[Q] Playboy: You sound like a real family man, but you're already on your fourth marriage.

[A] Van Damme: I'm young, what do I know about life? I've got so much to learn. Maybe that's why I was married so many times, because it was too early to get married. I made mistakes.

[Q] Playboy: Perhaps you didn't try hard enough to keep a marriage together.

[A] Van Damme: Trying is easy, faking is not easy. So I didn't fake. Love comes and goes. Love is a strange phenomenon.

[Q] Playboy: When did you first think you were in love?

[A] Van Damme: I was 15--she was a blonde girl, cute. I was in love with a kiss. You know your first kiss? It was so new, like a breath of fresh air. Not even with the tongue, just the contact of the male and the female. It was soft, breakable, crystal... special.

[Q] Playboy: Did she feel that way as well?

[A] Van Damme: I don't think so. She never called me back. But at that time I was not too good-looking. I was a strange-looking kid, white-blond hair, big thick glasses. And I was shy, so shy.

[Q] Playboy: When did you have your first girlfriend?

[A] Van Damme: I met some girls at school, first love, second love, third love. But they would complain after--they were sad and brokenhearted. But there was one girl who came to live with me in my house with my parents. She was 15. I was in love with her for two years and we never had sex. My dad told me, "Don't touch her, you're going to make her pregnant." She was an angel.

[Q] Playboy: Did you ever pay for sex?

[A] Van Damme: When I was 17, I went to Paris with a bunch of friends and we went to a prostitute. She was nice, dark, flashy. When it was my turn my heart beat like in The Mask. She sat down on the bed, crossed her legs and asked, "Have the money?" I said, "Sure." I give her the money and say, "Can we talk?" I ask her, "You happy here?" She looked at me like I'm a priest. She said, "You want to talk or you want to do it?" I didn't feel like making love, so I said, "Keep the money," and I left.

[Q] Playboy: Was it because you couldn't get it up?

[A] Van Damme: I tried, it didn't work. If you go with a prostitute and you have to pay money to make love, can you have a hard-on?

[Q] Playboy: Obviously many men can.

[A] Van Damme: I think not. Anyway, that was my impression of Paris, of hot Paris.

[Q] Playboy: Has it been easier to attract women since you've become famous?

[A] Van Damme: Before I became a star it was more easy for me. Because I'm a good-looking kid. When I was unknown I had all the girls I wanted in the world. Since I'm known, they are scared of me.

[Q] Playboy: Four of them apparently weren't. How old were you when you first married?

[A] Van Damme: Eighteen. She was 27, mature. She was from Venezuela, very beautiful. We stayed together for a couple of years, then she left. Or I left her.

[Q] Playboy: Why?

[A] Van Damme: Many reasons. The gym, film business, me training every day, running around, traveling, pushing hard. When a woman loves you a lot she likes to be your companion, but it's hard for a woman to stay next to you when you travel. I said I'm going to go in the film business. If I don't make it, what's going to be her life? Maybe I'm going to be a loser. A bum. If I go into the business and she follows me for years and nothing happens, then what? I said to her, "I'm no good for you. I am not what I'm supposed to be. And I will never sleep until I do my dream." So I left her to live like a gypsy in America.

[Q] Playboy: And what happened with wife number two?

[A] Van Damme: The second wife, Cindy, she wanted me to be with her in her father's business. Her father told me he had wanted to become a movie star and it never worked and that I should be smart, let him buy me a nice car, house, give me a salary, work for him in his carpet factory. I said I cannot do it, so she left me because she supported her father.

[Q] Playboy: Your third wife, Gladys, and you have two children. She was a bodybuilder who at first ignored your advances, correct?

[A] Van Damme: She's a fantastic woman, great woman. If I were a woman, she would be better than me. I followed her to Cancún, Mexico, but she resisted me. But when I want something, I want it.

[Q] Playboy: Can you describe what it's like to have sex with a bodybuilder?

[A] Van Damme: Gladys was not too sexual. It was like sister and brother with us.

[Q] Playboy: And along came wife number four, Darcy.

[A] Van Damme: Darcy was something you cannot fight. Our chemistry, the first date... I tried to fight, I tried to find every excuse to have a fight. For a year and a half I tried to have a reason to come back to my family. Because it was too much to lose, the kids and all that stuff. And she tried too. We fought. Passionate. Unbelievable. She flew to Hong Kong when I was there. She called me from her big suite upstairs. I came, there was music and champagne, like Bugsy.

[Q] Playboy: She was married to Ron Rice, who owns the Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion company.

[A] Van Damme: He's a nice guy, very down-to-earth, smart. I like him a lot. I invited him to my house for a drink. I felt bad because I'm the one who did something bad to his marriage.

[Q] Playboy: How angry was he?

[A] Van Damme: He's too smart to let me know. He does not show his feelings--too much of a businessman. She knows, I don't know.

[Q] Playboy: Why the need to marry instead of simply live together?

[A] Van Damme: Women, they want marriage. And I like marriage too. It's building a relationship and a future together. Love is love. Marriage is a deal. Will that make the love stronger? It will make the woman happy. She thinks, He's my territory now, he's mine, my luck. Maybe they feel more secure that way. But that will not elevate or diminish love.

[Q] Playboy: What qualities attract you to a woman?

[A] Van Damme: Intelligence, charm, class, beauty, sense of humor.

[Q] Playboy: And if you're having an affair, should you tell the woman you live with or keep it a secret?

[A] Van Damme: I don't have an affair.

[Q] Playboy: If.

[A] Van Damme: If I have an affair should I tell the woman I'm with I'm having an affair? Naturally, I'm laughing. If you want to lose the wife who loves you, just tell her you are having an affair. If you want to keep the marriage, at least to try, you tell her something happened: "I was drugged." "She put something in my tea." Whatever. Let me ask you: If you come home and you hear your wife screaming and you walk into the bedroom and see her making love to a guy, what will you do?

[Q] Playboy: It could lead to violence.

[A] Van Damme: I would not get violent. I will be pissed like crazy, but I would go, "Guys, sorry to disturb you. Take your time, enjoy and when you finish I'll come back for my baggage, OK?" Because if I get violent, it's one more reason for her to fuck around. You want to be the champ, you act like a champ.

[Q] Playboy: You're telling us that if you walked in on your wife and she was screwing another guy in your bed--

[A] Van Damme: No, not in my bed. When a guy touch my bed, it's no longer my bed. If he touch my toothbrush, it's not my toothbrush.

[Q] Playboy: And if he's touching your wife--

[A] Van Damme: It's finished. No going back. The guy fuck you once, he fuck you twice. Same with a woman.

[Q] Playboy: Suppose that it's you fucking around and your wife walks in.

[A] Van Damme: You're talking fiction, right?

[Q] Playboy: Fiction or fact. You have been married four times.

[A] Van Damme: I never, ever fucked around in my house. I would never do that.

[Q] Playboy: Are you splitting hairs here? If it's in your house it's taboo, but if it's outside it's OK?

[A] Van Damme: You're talking about if, if, if. I'm giving you if. So when you go "if," I go "if."

[Q] Playboy: So you're saying that if you walk in on your wife with another man, the marriage is over. If your wife walks in on you with another woman, is the marriage also over or does she try to work it out?

[A] Van Damme: She will leave me.

[Q] Playboy: And has that been the reason that any of your marriages have ended?

[A] Van Damme: No. A woman never left me because I fucked around. It's always something else, which I've already explained. Because there's nothing worse than lying. When you love a woman and she thinks you fuck around and she's accusing you because she's heard some stories, there's just nothing worse than to spend your life with someone who doesn't trust you.

[Q] Playboy: Let's get back to movies. Who are the directors you admire?

[A] Van Damme: Oliver Stone is really special. I love also Adrian Lyne, Alan Parker, James Cameron, Brian DePalma, John Milius, Sergio Leone.

[Q] Playboy: Did you talk with any of them when you decided to direct The Quest?

[A] Van Damme: I talked with Stone. He's talking to me because he's got some respect--he likes me because I came from Belgium with nothing and then became somebody. I explained to him the story, my opening scene, and he said, "Why do you need me? You have all the shots in your head."

[Q] Playboy: In each of your films, you always get pretty beaten up before you emerge victorious. That doesn't happen much with Seagal. Is that part of your formula?

[A] Van Damme: It's good to see a guy who gets some beating. Because all the world champions take punches in the ring. Besides, it is just fun stuff, it's not dangerous. In a real fight, a guy takes a glass, breaks it and goes for your face. That's what I call a fight.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't you once meet Muhammad Ali?

[A] Van Damme: I met Ali nine years ago. He invited me to his house. He did some magic tricks for me. He was slow, and I felt sorry for him. I was having tears in my eyes when I saw him. What a great champ.

[Q] Playboy: What did you talk about?

[A] Van Damme: Religion.

[Q] Playboy: Do you believe in organized religion?

[A] Van Damme: I believe in God. I talk to God every day. It helps me a lot. It's a big difference between religion and believing in something.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't you once say that religion is only to make money?

[A] Van Damme: Yes. Am I right or wrong? When you go to a church or a mosque or a temple, it's so much luxury, so much money spent just to pray. That money can be used to help people. Religion can be dangerous. Look at all the fanatics. It's because of religion we have so much war. But my father told me don't talk about religion or politics in America and I'll be OK.

[Q] Playboy: Does having a baby face help your career?

[A] Van Damme: It helps. Look at Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford. Baby faces. Look at Arnold--even if he's smart, strong, mature, he has that baby look. Look at Jimmy Dean, Montgomery Clift. They're vulnerable, all of them.

[Q] Playboy: Yet you've said that you would prefer to look older.

[A] Van Damme: Because people like me more when I'm older, they have more respect. When you're 33 and look 28 on the screen trying to kick ass with a big bandit, you look like a kid. To me Arnold, Sly and Seagal have better faces--you believe them.

[Q] Playboy: Are there any actresses you'd like to work with?

[A] Van Damme: Roseanne. She's very funny. I would love to do a film with her. She is fantastic and a good actress. So clever. And in a sense she is beautiful. Look at her face, her eyes. She's lovable. Imagine a guy like Van Damme who dates a woman like Roseanne in a movie--pure love, it can be so special.

[Q] Playboy: Roseanne is a surprising choice. Anyone else?

[A] Van Damme: Madonna can be hot. You saw Truth or Dare? She's got something, pal. She's got tons of charisma. Imagine a movie: Madonna and Van Damme!

[Q] Playboy: You've picked two women who haven't exactly sizzled at the box office.

[A] Van Damme: I'll make them look good on film, don't worry about it.

[Q] Playboy: How about someone like Winona Ryder?

[A] Van Damme: She's very frail, very pasty. I like women who look like they've been through a lot.

[Q] Playboy: Like Debra Winger?

[A] Van Damme: Great. And Madeleine Stowe. Ellen Barkin. Barbra Streisand. She's a woman with a brain, talent, attractive. Goldie Hawn is beautiful and very sexy.

[Q] Playboy: Last year Entertainment Weekly said you were known as egomaniacal, erratic, homophobic and sexist. How do you plead?

[A] Van Damme: What's homophobic?

[Q] Playboy: Antigay.

[A] Van Damme: What's erratic?

[Q] Playboy: All over--one day hot, the next day cold. Irregular.

[A] Van Damme: I am high and low, that's true. Sexist?

[Q] Playboy: To be chauvinistic, not to treat women as equals.

[A] Van Damme: Wrong. What else?

[Q] Playboy: Egomaniacal.

[A] Van Damme: They are right only in one thing: erratic.

[Q] Playboy: What are your weaknesses?

[A] Van Damme: I love food. And I'm impatient.

[Q] Playboy: That's it? What is the image you have of yourself?

[A] Van Damme: I'm very happy with myself. I'm straightforward. I'm honest with people. I've got real balls. If I need to save a friend, I will go headfirst. So I'm more of a hero in real life than in the movies. Because in movies I let people do this and that to me as an action star. In real life I'm very strong.

[Q] Playboy: You mean you want to be a bigger hero on the screen? Isn't it enough that women scream for you to take off your shirt?

[A] Van Damme: I'm glad they are thinking about me and that they love the guy on the screen. But if they meet the real Van Damme they will go even more crazy. Because in real life I'm a romantic. I love classical music, I love beautiful things.

[Q] Playboy: Like those Cuban cigars you're smoking?

[A] Van Damme: Why does a cigar relax you so much? I love to smoke cigars--when you light up, you have to do it with small puffs, small suction, like when you make love to a woman. You can't do it like an animal. I would never smoke in public because I have an image. If kids see me with a cigar then they think, Hey, Van Damme is smoking, it's cool.

[Q] Playboy: Speaking of kids, how strict are you as a father?

[A] Van Damme: I believe a father has to be strict. You are preparing them for the jungle. It's a miracle to have a kid. People take it for granted. When you have that miracle you've got to cherish and take care, you have to prepare them to be a winner. You have to talk to your children, spend time with them. A father will give more advice to them than a teacher, because he loves them. But you also have to be very careful with your kids--you can fuck them up badly. One word from a father or a mother can give them sequels for the rest of their lives. When I go shopping, sometimes I see kids who treat their parents with no respect. They are telling their mother what to do, they throw stuff on the floor. If my son does that to me, he's in deep trouble.

[Q] Playboy: Have you ever laid a hand on your son?

[A] Van Damme: Yes, once.

[Q] Playboy: On his behind?

[A] Van Damme: In his face. I told him something, he didn't do it and he kept on. I was so pissed. He insulted me. Today my son respects me like crazy.

[Q] Playboy: Do you feel guilty that you are separated from your children?

[A] Van Damme: Absolutely. It's a huge problem. Every day I feel about it. I call my son almost every day. When I'm working out on the bicycle I listen to music on a Walkman because I can't think right. My son and daughter are in my head every day.

[Q] Playboy: We watched you object when your son left a slice of melon half-eaten.

[A] Van Damme: That's because when I came to America I was unable to buy a Dannon yogurt. Taco Bell was my Sunday--I enjoyed that Taco Bell from the beginning to the end. Even if I've got millions, billions, trillions of dollars, my children are going to finish their melon. Because I paid for it, I worked for it.

[Q] Playboy: And if they protest that they aren't hungry?

[A] Van Damme: Then I send them to bed. I will yell. Are you my child or what? You talk to me like that? You're my blood. Are you crazy? I will put that melon in the fridge and the next day when they wake up, there's the melon. They will eat nothing else until they finish that melon. We have this saying in Europe: Who stole an egg will steal a cow. If you answer me for a melon, what will you do later when you have a car? If your father's telling you something, it's your duty as his child to listen to him. You have to respect stuff in life.

[Q] Playboy: You're one tough dad.

[A] Van Damme: It's my duty.

[Q] Playboy: Are you as tough with your friends?

[A] Van Damme: I love friendship. When I have a friend, I'm giving everything. I've got the biggest heart on earth. Ask my friends.

[Q] Playboy: Your childhood friend Michel Qissi may not agree. He claimed that you never paid him his $22,000 salary for appearing in Lionheart.

[A] Van Damme: Lie. I pay more than that. He made a fortune with me. I gave money to his mother. I flew him first-class from Europe to America. He stayed in my house, we shared food. I gave him a car. Put him in Kickboxer, Lionheart, two movies back-to-back. Then he met a woman. He never dated too many women in his life. She told him, Jean-Claude is taking advantage of you. He said to me, "I'm going to go on my own because you're bad for me." Maybe this woman doesn't want us to be together. He left me and now I think he's in shame, back in Belgium doing groceries. Go ask him: Who brought you to America? Who gave you food? Who pay your first dollar bill? Who put you in the movies? Why you back in Belgium? Because you fucked up. But all of my friends, they all come back to me, they cry to me and say they're sorry.

[Q] Playboy: Truman Capote said that when he became famous he lost 80 percent of his friends. Has that happened to you?

[A] Van Damme: Ninety-nine percent of my friends. I return to my country, I go to visit a friend, but I have to make some phone calls. He says, "Who do you think you are?" I say, "No, no, I'm not snubbing you. I've got to make these calls or I'll lose something." "Go to hell." It's sad. Small mind. Those guys, when you leave the country and you come back, they don't understand your change. They don't know about the dog I lost, the bird that died. They don't know about me sleeping in the car. But what goes around comes around. If you do something bad to somebody, you will pay. I always pay, trust me.

[Q] Playboy: Speaking of paying, an appeals court recently upheld a $487,000 award to Jackson Pinckney, whom you apparently injured during the filming of Cyborg in 1988. You stuck a rubber knife in his eye?

[A] Van Damme: Here's the story. Pinckney was a big, heavy guy working in a gym. He was a bodybuilder, a soldier. But he didn't know how to fight. There was a fight between us. It was raining, muddy, difficult to see at night. He was supposed to attack me and I was supposed to kick him. He came too close to me and the knife touched his eye. It was hard plastic, not rubber. I felt sorry. I drove to his Army base, I invited him to dinner. He was wearing a patch. With surgery he'll have his view back to normal. It was not my fault. I said, "You should call Cannon and make sure you have insurance." "No, it's fine," he said. Four years later, a lawsuit. Why? I became a hotshot. He has a lawyer, I have a lawyer. It was a great show, like a circus. I was on TV. They said, "Jean-Claude likes to hurt people to increase his popularity and his career." He won half a million dollars.

[Q] Playboy: What did it teach you about our judicial system?

[A] Van Damme: It scared the shit out of me. Imagine when a guy has to be sentenced to death and he has 12 people who will decide. They have no power of their own in life, only this day they have power, and if you have one leader among those 12 people who can talk well, that leader can decide your life.

[Q] Playboy: There was another lawsuit, this one in December 1993, by a woman who claimed you forced her to have oral sex, and that you demanded a foursome with her and her boyfriend and with Darcy. Even though the suit was settled, would you like to take this opportunity to set the record straight?

[A] Van Damme: First of all, if Darcy see me look at a woman, she will go nuts. I was in all the papers. It came into Belgium and France, my parents read about it. Imagine me divorcing Gladys to be with Darcy, and then she claims this? She was dating my trainer. She once came in my trailer to shake my hand.

[Q] Playboy: And you never had sex with this woman?

[A] Van Damme: Absolutely not. It's absurd. But what am I supposed to do? What's the next step for me? I even paid some detective to see what's going on there, but it's a long story and I prefer to keep it off the record. My lawyer tells me to do nothing: "Today it's in the papers, tomorrow it will be gone."

[Q] Playboy: Another bit of trouble occurred during the filming of Universal Soldier, when you were arrested for speeding in Arizona. The papers said you were going 108. How fast do you admit to?

[A] Van Damme: Eighty. It was at midnight, nobody was on the road. The cop put the handcuffs on me and at the jail he took them away, but he said, "Don't kick my face. My partner has a gun, he will shoot." I told him, "It's in the movies I do that."

[Q] Playboy: Wasn't there also a lawsuit that you filed to get out of doing a sequel to Lionheart?

[A] Van Damme: I filed a lawsuit because they rented a car for me on the first movie and they never paid for the car.

[Q] Playboy: Wasn't that because you used the carphone a lot and the bill came to $64,000?

[A] Van Damme: I had the car for three months. I left it with my assistant for a month and he used the phone to call Europe. But what does $50,000 have to do with the $295,000 profit the producer made, plus the ten percent he has on Sudden Death? He's rich. I'm happy for him. But he should have paid for the car.

[Q] Playboy: That about covers the controversies about you--except for the one involving your Universal Soldier co-star, Dolph Lundgren, whom you apparently got into a pushing match with at a screening of The Player.

[A] Van Damme: That was on purpose. Our movie wasn't ready, so we had to do something to create some controversy at Cannes. I came up with pushing each other on the red carpet, where we'd have all the cameras on us. He agreed and it worked. He pushed me, I pushed him back. The bodyguards jumped in and stopped us. Then I walked off the carpet and he stayed there like he was pissed. It was exciting. People wanted to see us fight in the movie. That movie made $100 million over the world. We used the media for that. It was my biggest movie up to Timecop and Street Fighter.

[Q] Playboy: If Street Fighter doesn't do as well as you're expecting, you'll have to find somebody else to push.

[A] Van Damme: Yeah, I'll push you. It'll be in all the papers.

[Q] Playboy: "You push me, I'll push you." How's that for an epitaph?

[A] Van Damme: Better: "Do what you believe is right in life, and if you don't succeed, at least you tried."

[Q] Playboy: Where will that wind up? What country do you want to be buried in?

[A] Van Damme: I don't want to be buried in the ground, rotting, with all those worms. What I would love is to have my body dropped where you have those big icebergs and the water is so cold and pure, to be eaten by a polar bear or a seal or an otter.

[Q] Playboy: Have you always been as confident as you come across?

[A] Van Damme: I'm hard on myself always. I'm very insecure. But I believe in my dream and I was pushing every day to make it happen. So when I hear people complaining about jobs or not having work, asking for money, it's a bunch of bullshit. People don't understand in this country, they should kiss the ground in America. Go to Hong Kong and try to find some homeless. Very few. They want to make money, they clean shoes, they clean tires, they clean floors. Nobody has limitations in life except people who are born stupid or handicapped. If you saw me when I was young, I came a long way. I was not born this way. I became. I changed. I came to America without the language, without the permit, and I became a movie star. People call me lucky, they say I was in the right place at the right time. You have to make it happen, pal. You have to push hard, because it pays off. Maybe not as a movie star, maybe as a co-star or as a bad guy, who cares? If you want to make it badly, you can make it. When you know who you are in life, you can go so high. I really believe so.

"And I kicked above his head, like a 6'2"kick. I impressed him. He gave me his card and said, 'Call me tomorrow."