Chat with Jean-Claude Van Damme

Van Damme stars as himself in this not-so-true-to-life biopic which explores the perception of public figures and their real lives. Van Damme's character gets thrown into a bank robbery and the movie star and action hero turns into a regular guy, filled with fear.
Send in your questions now and then join Van Damme at 11:10 a.m. ET on Tuesday!
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Buzzmaster (11:00 AM)
Jean-Claude Van Damme will be here to chat at 11:10 a.m. ET! Send in your questions!
Charlie (Milwaukee)
You've been in a lot of movives. What do you look at when making the decision to do a movie or not do it?
Jean-Claude Van Damme (11:18 AM)
Sometimes I made some movies without thinking too much about it. I did it without deep thinking. I made some that made me a star and others without deep thoughts. I took advantage of that. I want to do something myself and give to the public some reality in dialogue. Not to act, but to tell the truth and also give some action.
Ken (Trenton, NJ)
Was it strange being in a movie where you play yourself?
Jean-Claude Van Damme (11:20 AM)
No. It's like in a way difficult, because you have to mirror yourself. You have to see yourself. You have that double personality that's being slowly created on the set. It's like a 90 degree angle. I had to go from being young and dreaming of being a movie star and going all the way to the top and the failures to back to the top. It's a movie mixed with a real story. It's good to show like a samauri, a double blade of a killer and a man. I wanted to show that history of both sides. I've done a lot and I think it's cool. Being able to talk about all that. The problem with Jean-Claude Van Damme is that you can ask him one question and he can take you on a path. For me, training is more to keep myself in shape. Now I have so much knowledge in training, I can train less and keep the same shape. Not because I'm as strong as I was 10 years ago, because I have more knowledge than yesterday.
Tom (DC)
Do you still do kickboxing workouts?
Jean-Claude Van Damme (11:27 AM)
Yes, in fact, I'm in Thailand with a movie called Full Love. For me it was either the movie business or the fighting competition. Now I'm an actor and I do the action. But people don't realize the power you need to stay 8-9 rounds in the ring and use 90% legs. You don't see that. I do a kick in JCVD and it's like it was 15 years ago. I don't mean to be egotistical. I hate to show off, but this guy wanted to see my kick. I train hard. Too hard for my age. I went into the ring and this guy asked if I wanted a lesson. I said no, I don't need any lessons. So we sparred. I was going slow with him and we were sparring, but then we kicked up the intensity and I did a kick and he was out of the ring in less than a minute. But I don't like to fight. There is power and you know the damage you can do. If you know the power, you can easily break a neck like nothing. I don't like to fight, I like to make movies.
Larry (Charlotte)
Is there one of your movies that fans want to talk to you about the most?
Jean-Claude Van Damme (11:30 AM)
They love Double Impact. But in some countries, they like the kickboxing. In Russia, they love those movies. I go to some fights there. Once, Mr. Putin came to the fight. We talked about martial arts. It was amazing. We didn't talk about politics. Then I have some guys in Kazakstan who like martial arts. Then I have some guys who like JCVD. It's good to have different types of movies. Lionheart, Bloodsport, movies like that, people like. It's action. I was young in making those movies.
Jean-Claude Van Damme (11:32 AM)
Thank you to all the ESPN listeners out there and the fans.
Buzzmaster (11:56 AM)
Thanks Jean-Claude! And you were most certainly right when you said, "with Jean-Claude Van Damme ... you can ask him one question and he can take you on a path." You most certainly did today. Thank you so much!
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