For the late 1980s and early 1990s, Jean Claude Van Damme he was a rising star. After he was almost Predator for 1987’s “Predator”, his big break came with “Bloody Touch”, in which he shared roles with the famous Bolo Yeung. Thus, his burgeoning success brought him closer to “Street fighter: the last battle”the live action adaptation of the iconic Capcom video game, released in 1994, in which he gave life to Colonel Guile.
Although large doses of action were predicted, the film was relatively successful at the box office, but not critically or among fans. However, the nightmare was not only found in the final product, but also in the development process of the project.
An actor who could not see the premiere
In 2018, the British media The Guardian delved into the secrets behind “Street fighter”. The article was guided by the director of the film himself, Steven de Souza, who was encouraged to reveal unpublished details of his work, more than 20 years later.
One of the sad moments that was experienced on the set was played by Raúl Juliá. The actor was very famous and his role as Homer in “The Addams Family” had given him even more recognition. However, for “The last battle”, his health was very worn.
“I got a call from our wardrobe consultant. He had gone ahead of us one day to meet Raúl and he told me: ‘We have a problem. He has a hideous appearance; he looks like a skeleton.’ We thought, ‘God, what are we going to do? We can’t put it on camera,’” recalls de Souza.
The way out was to wait to shoot his scenes towards the end, with the goal of gaining some weight in the time he had. Although we managed to have Juliá as General M. Bison, cancer prevented her from seeing the premiere of the film.
Raúl Juliá played Homer in 1991 and 1993, for two “The Addams Lovers” movies. Photo: SensaCine
Van Damme, a lack of control of drugs and ego
the cast of “Street fighter” It was made up of young people and little-known actors. Therefore, as expected, the presence of Van Damme had the factors to make him the untouchable superstar of the set. This was revealed by de Souza, who said that there was a serious problem with his protagonist: cocaine.
“I couldn’t talk about it at the time, but now I can: Jean-Claude was very high. The studio had hired a caretaker to take care of him, but unfortunately the caretaker himself was a bad influence.”
“Jean-Claude was sick so many times that I had to find something else in the script to shoot; he couldn’t just sit around for hours waiting for him,” he added.
Not only was she a difficult person to work with, but she had a list of demands for her time on set. As reported by The Guardian, Van Damme he had the presidential suite of the hotel they were staying in, with a gym in his room.
This ‘divo’ atmosphere also materialized in the filming. According to the outlet, Jean-Claude used to take a lot of time alone before his scenes. On one occasion, a sequence took half a day to shoot, when it should have only taken an hour of work.
“Street fighter”, the 1994 film, had Jean Claude Van Damme as its protagonist. However, the production process was very complicated. Photo: Composition LR/ Universal
Secret romance with a pop star
When the production of “Street fighter” was already underway, those in charge of the shoot noticed that an actress was missing for Cammy. Thus, they set out to have pop music superstar Kylie Minogue in their ranks. However, they did not see coming that between her and Jean-Claude Van Damme ties would soon extend beyond the professional.
This fact was considered an open secret for many years, until the Belgian actor himself confessed it, in an interview with The Guardian in 2012: “Yes. It happened. I was in Thailand, we had an affair. A sweet kiss, a beautiful sentimental relationship.”
According to Van Damme, he and Kylie Minogue had an affair in 1994. Photo: Archive/La República
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