Van Damme gets real

Jean Claude Van Damme plays himself in “J.C.V.D.”, made by French-based director Mabrouk el Mechri.,It shows the action hero playing a version of himself that hit the skids, dealing with insistent fans whose adoration can tip instantly into scorn.

“The Muscles from Brussels” shows an unexpectedly comic and sensitive side in a fictionalised film of his life and troubles;

“I think that’s what made the movie that guy who came from Belgium with nothing and followed a dream, he was dreaming a dream and he was crazy to believe he was a star so when he went to America and he talked to the producer he said ‘You know I’m a movie star. You can have me for free, I will be there for you, I want to make it, to succeed, I will do anything.’ I was really like a go-getter. And then of course for five, six years it was a very difficult life for me in the States, you know going from sleeping in the car taking some jobs left and right.”

Often treated as a figure of ridicule, a bargain-basement Stallone or Schwarzenegger, he reveals hitherto hidden depths, and a lucidity about his trade;

“I was a money machine. Anything I was touching with low budget movies, simple scripts it made money and money and money and promotion. I didn’t see life going by so I decided to party like all of them. But I came from sports so it was shocking for the audience to go ‘wow JCVD is checking into rehab. that’s very strange. he lied to us for many years. He showed muscles, martial arts, he showed a very healthy face. I fell in the trap and now I’m out of it and I don’t regret it.”

JCVD is released in the French speaking part of Europe now. Van Damme hopes “J.C.V.D.”, which is shot in his native French, will be also marketed in America.

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