By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
April 14, 1989
If things had worked out differently for Belgian actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, he would be in Chicago running a karate school today. But he couldn’t get enough money to finance the operation, so Van Damme headed for Hollywood to pursue his childhood dream of becoming an actor.
“I sincerely believe everything happens for a reason,” said Van Damme, 28. “At the time when the karate school thing fell apart, I was very disappointed. But it worked out for the best, because otherwise I probably wouldn’t have gotten into acting.”
Van Damme’s career has been on the upswing since starring in the surprise hit “Bloodsport.” His second starring role is in “Cyborg,” a futuristic thriller now at local theaters. He plays Gibson Rickenbacker, a martial-arts expert who, by the way, doesn’t play a guitar.
Van Damme, who moved to the United States eight years ago, was born and raised in Brussels. Because he was a small child, Van Damme said other children picked fights with him and generally made his life difficult. When he was 11, his father suggested he learn to defend himself. Van Damme enrolled in a karate class and found himself excelling at the sport, even though he was small and wiry.
“I loved karate because it taught me to protect myself, and it gave me self-control and discipline, but I also knew that I’d never make a really impressive figure solely through karate,” said Van Damme, who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 178 well-sculpted pounds. “So I started training with weights and working out really hard. That, combined with my karate classes, helped me develop my physique, which in turn raised my self-confidence level.”
At 16, he was confident enough to ignore his friends’ jeers and signed up for ballet lessons to help his coordination. The five years he trained as a classical dancer have been invaluable to him as an athlete, he said. “Ballet is an art, but it’s also one of the most difficult sports,” he said. “If you can survive a ballet workout, you
can survive a workout in any other sport.”
Van Damme was a good student, but he didn’t like the restrictions of school, he said. So he concentrated on sports after graduation.
After winning various martial arts titles, including the European Professional Karate Association middleweight championship, Van Damme decided to go into the fitness business. At 18, he opened California Gym in Brussels, which brought in $15,000 a month. When he wasn’t helping clients shape up, he earned additional money modeling on the side.
A small part in the French film “Rue Barbar” reinforced his desire to become an actor.
“I made the decision then that I had to move to the United States,” Van Damme said. “I knew that I could probably get roles in Europe and possibly do well, but that doesn’t have the same validity as making it as an actor in America. That’s every actor’s dream. I knew it would be difficult, but I wanted to try. I had to try.”
So he moved to the United States and slept in a rented car until he could find work, not as an actor but as a limo driver, a karate instructor and a bouncer. He also took a crash course in English, a language he didn’t know how to speak.
Van Damme still speaks with an accent, which is – to use one of his favorite words – charming. “I may be too old to get rid of the accent completely,” he said with a laugh. “But that could become my trademark, maybe.”
He didn’t have to talk much when he got his first American film part as a villain in “No Retreat, No Surrender.” While most fledgling actors would have considered the role a major career step, Van Damme worried that casting directors would typecast him as the bad guy.
“Ever since I was a little boy, it was important to me to play the good guy,” he said. “I don’t know why I had that obsession. I just did. Maybe it’s ’cause I was so little. Playing the hero is like the ultimate fantasy fulfillment for a young boy.”
Van Damme knows that he has stiff competition from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren and Sylvester Stallone in the macho man action-film department, but he’s also confident he will be able to break away from the pack. For one thing, he’s got a loyal contingent of female fans.
“A lot of women write to me and say they think I’m a nice guy,” Van Damme said. “I don’t think women like me because they think I’m good looking, because I think I’m just OK looking. Someone like Mel Gibson is good looking!
“But I think people think I’m maybe funny and nice and charming. And those are some of my assets that I believe will help me remain a part of motion pictures for a long time.”
