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Van Damme Focusing on being a Real Actor
No one does the splits like the Muscles from Brussels - Jean-Claude Van Damme. Catching up with him at Cannes (where his self targeted documentary JCVD was shown) he was quoted as being dead serious about his craft.
Cinematical says:
Jean-Claude Van Damme spoke to MTV while in Cannes, and he said: “I’m a brand name. I’m not just a guy. I think I’m ready to be decent. I’m hungry to make movies, but movies with deeper characters. I want respect. I want to believe in myself.”
The article continues to speculate that after 37 films he finally decided he wants to be serious about movies and is hungry to get back at it. I can kind of see how this many films could get made. Like VanDamme himself says, he isn’t a person, he is a brand name. If they wanted to put me in senseless film after film where I didn’t really have to try that hard… I’d do 37 of those in a row!
I heard he did a little cop movie in which people were saying he wasn’t terrible and some even went as far as to suggest that he showed some serious promise. Could we be entering a new era in which VanDamme is considered among serious actors? Who knows.
Im kinda rooting for the guy. I just have a good feeling about him.
Hey Rodney, I actually saw JCVD at Cannes two weeks and it’s not a documentary, but a dark crime comedy with lots of dialogue which atmosphere reminded me of ‘Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels’. Van Damme plays himself and shows a surprisingly vulnerable and self-deprecating side of himself. Very recommendable film actually, well-written and original.
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One of the best film a saw the last 10 years. JCVD at his best, and surprisingly human and tender. Not a documentary, but a very special film. Like Jules say: original and worth seeing. Some will be very surprised to discover an very different Jean-Claude.
9/10
Oh come on, NOBODY on this planet is interested in Van Damme anymore. I would even go so far to say he’s not really a star anymore, much less a “brand”.
Maybe Tarantino can save him and bring him back like only QT can, but otherwise, I don’t see it.
Van Damme is actually quite popular in France (NOT in a “Jerry Lewis” kind of way); his trademark interviews on french TV, where he mixes french and english words (the guy, being Belgian, has an awful belgian accent when he speaks, so he tries to camouflage it behind lots of american words, even speaking with an american accent in french -go figure!) have become internet memes.
There are numerous websites that list quotes from his interviews, where he tries to distill wisdom and philosophises in his unique way …
JCVD tries to cash in on that strange newfound popularity by showing Van Damme, playing himself in the movie, caught up in a bank robbery at the local post office in Brussels - hilarity ensues.
I suppose you could compare it to what Bruce Campbell is doing in his new movie.
If nobody was interested in Van Damme he wouldn’t be making a new film every other week.
I’m sure that JCVD will change allot of peoples opinions of him.
Here is a link to a french fansite with quotes, videos, etc….
Warning; all that stuff is serioulsy tongue-in-cheek…
http://jeanclaudevandamme.free.fr/