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<\/p>\nThere\u2019s an episode in an early series of Friends in which Monica (Courteney Cox) spots a famous face on a New York street.<\/p>\n
\u2018Oh my God, oh my God. It\u2019s Jean-Claude Van Damme,\u2019 she squeals to Rachel (Jennifer Aniston). \u2018He\u2019s so hot!\u2019<\/p>\n
Rachel surveys the brawny Belgian actor sceptically: \u2018You think?\u2019<\/p>\n
Cue an incredulous Monica: \u2018The Muscles from Brussels? Wham Bam Van Damme?\u2019 Before long, the flatmates are competing for Van Damme\u2019s affections.<\/p>\n
And who can blame them, I think, as I am ushered into his presence.<\/p>\n
Almost 30 years on from that appearance in the legendary sitcom, at 63 he\u2019s still the Muscles from Brussels! Or, as he would have it, the Fred Astaire of Karate, a nod to his mastery of the martial arts which made his name.<\/p>\n
The Eighties and Nineties were the era of super-buff screen heroes, from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Sylvester Stallone, but few were a match for Van Damme \u2014 whose star turns included the splits and awesome 360-degree kicks. With those rippling muscles, bouffant hairdo and killer moves, men wanted to be him \u2014 and women wanted to be with him.<\/p>\n
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‘I am ushered into his presence’, Iram Ramzan says as she sits down with\u00a0Jean-Claude Van Damme<\/p>\n
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The Eighties and Nineties were the era of super-buff screen heroes, from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Sylvester Stallone, but few were a match for Van Damme \u2014 whose star turns included the splits and awesome 360-degree kicks<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/22\/22\/76869481-12659763-image-a-33_1698008861140.jpg\")
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Fitness, martial arts and alcohol are not exactly ideal bedfellows but Van Damme has form<\/p>\n
\u2018He was sooo good looking back in the day,\u2019 my landlady gushes when I tell her I\u2019m to interview him.<\/p>\n
My mum asks for a personalised video. \u2018Make sure he says my name!\u2019 Steady on, Mother!<\/p>\n
And after researching JCVD\u2019s oeuvre, I can\u2019t say I\u2019m surprised at her fangirling.<\/p>\n
Take Bloodsport (1988) and its scene in which he executes the splits and delivers a knockout blow to a Chinese giant.<\/p>\n
Or Kickboxer (1989), when he dances while drunk with two Thai women and then performs the splits (what else!) while seeing off the baddies?<\/p>\n
Or how about Double Team (1997), which has him dodging bullets and a tiger in a Roman amphitheatre?<\/p>\n
And what about the stunt he performed \u2014 in just one, awe-inspiring take \u2014 known as \u2018The Epic Split\u2019 for a Volvo Trucks ad. Van Damme did the splits while balanced on the wing mirrors of two backwards-moving lorries. \u2018They sold 30 per cent more trucks in China because of that!\u2019 he tells me proudly.<\/p>\n
When I compliment him on his appearance at our meeting in Belfast, he tells me regular exercise and a clean diet are key, but insists he\u2019s not in the best shape right now. He\u2019s sleep-deprived from interviews across multiple time zones on a whirlwind promotional tour for a new Irish whiskey.<\/p>\n
\u2018Irish people are very happy, they are down to earth,\u2019 he says. \u2018They talk fast. I speak fast too, so I hope they understand me.\u2019<\/p>\n
Fitness, martial arts and alcohol are not exactly ideal bedfellows but Van Damme has form. Sporting an infamous mullet and double denim, he was the face of American beer Coors Light.<\/p>\n
I ask him if he\u2019s ever had a shot of whiskey before training. \u2018Sometimes I take a shot. Bodybuilder friends of mine have a shot of schnapps or vodka or whiskey because alcohol dilates the arteries.\u2019<\/p>\n
He says he drinks very little, but his grandfather inspired his love of the spirit when he was growing up in Belgium. \u2018I remember being nine or ten, sitting on his knee. He loved to smoke cigars. I liked the smell, and he\u2019d dip the cigar into a gold liquid \u2014 whiskey.\u2019<\/p>\n
He\u2019s keen to emphasise that up to 50 per cent of the profits from the new brand will go towards environmental issues \u2014 and he\u2019s passionate about animal rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Fitness, martial arts and alcohol are not exactly ideal bedfellows but Van Damme has form<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/22\/22\/76869113-12659763-image-a-34_1698009222427.jpg\")
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He\u2019s keen to emphasise that up to 50 per cent of the profits from the new brand will go towards environmental issues \u2014 and he\u2019s passionate about animal rights<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/22\/22\/76869107-12659763-image-a-35_1698009254452.jpg\")
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Worth an estimated \u00a325-30 million, Van Damme\u2019s life today is a long way from humbler beginnings<\/p>\n
Worth an estimated \u00a325-30 million, Van Damme\u2019s life today is a long way from humbler beginnings. Born Jean-Claude Camille Francois Van Varenberg, the son of a Belgian florist, Van Damme grew up in Brussels with sister Veronique.<\/p>\n
He says he left school at 13 and spent a lot of time immersed in comics, especially The Adventures Of Tintin. \u2018Tintin helped me a lot,\u2019 he laughs.<\/p>\n
It was his father who encouraged him to take up karate to \u2018toughen up\u2019 and he received his black belt in Shotokan karate in 1978. He later studied kickboxing in Paris and \u2014 a surprise admission \u2014 did ballet for a few years to enhance his martial arts ability.<\/p>\n
But Van Damme wanted to be an actor. In 1981, aged 21, he sold his \u2018California Gym\u2019 in the Belgian capital, which he says was making $15,000 a month, to move to Los Angeles. \u2018When I told my dad I wanted to go to Hollywood, he said: \u201cAre you crazy? I shut my flower shop for you, you idiot!\u201d \u2019<\/p>\n
Van Damme barely spoke a word of English, knew nobody and had just $3,000 in his pocket. For four years he worked as a bouncer and a limousine driver, often forced to sleep in his car and scrounge for food. \u2018I\u2019m glad I touched rock bottom,\u2019 he says. \u2018You get to meet people with different agendas.\u2019<\/p>\n
It all changed when he got his break in the low-budget Bloodsport. It was deemed so bad it might never have been released had not Van Damme insisted on helping to edit the film and then begged producers to release it.<\/p>\n
Shot in Hong Kong on a $1.5 million budget, it returned $50 million at the U.S. box office alone. Blockbusters including Universal Soldier (1992) and Hard Target (1993) followed, before he starred alongside Kylie Minogue in a film adaptation of the video game Street Fighter. (He and Kylie had a fling while he was married to his fourth wife Darcy LaPier, with whom he has a son.)<\/p>\n
Despite his commercial success, his personal life has been less so. He has been married five times to four women \u2014 his current wife, who he divorced in 1992 and remarried seven years later, is former bodybuilder Gladys Portugues, with whom he has a son and daughter. He battled a serious cocaine habit and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n
\u2018I was depressed in the morning,\u2019 he admits. \u2018It took years to understand why I was so sad and people were happy around me.\u2019<\/p>\n
He describes himself now as a reformed party boy who spends his time watching educational videos on YouTube.<\/p>\n
Hong Kong has been his home for 20 years. He lives on the 75th floor of an apartment block and while in the lift, he does a deep squat and a stretch in the minute it takes to get to his apartment. He demonstrates for me and \u2014 yep, he\u2019s pretty flexible!<\/p>\n
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He says he drinks very little, but his grandfather inspired his love of the spirit when he was growing up in Belgium<\/p>\n
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So what other fitness tips would he like to share? \u2018Train your legs and your bum,\u2019 he advises me. \u2018And stretch regularly as well\u2019<\/p>\n
So what other fitness tips would he like to share? \u2018Train your legs and your bum,\u2019 he advises me. \u2018And stretch regularly as well.\u2019<\/p>\n
When I tell him I strength-train twice a week, he says he wishes he could go to the gym with me. \u2018I could show you what to do.\u2019<\/p>\n
Swoon . . . I\u2019m sure my personal trainer would understand being bumped for Jean-Claude Van Damme.<\/p>\n
Finally, I ask him about his rivalry with fellow action hero Steven Seagal. The pair haven\u2019t seen eye-to-eye since Seagal, a black belt in aikido, questioned Van Damme\u2019s fighting record during a 1991 interview. Things got heated at a party given by Sylvester Stallone where Van Damme challenged Seagal to a fight. Seagal refused.<\/p>\n
\u2018I have no problem with Steven,\u2019 he insists now. \u2018When you\u2019re young you want to be the macho man. If I saw him today, I\u2019d have no problem.\u2019<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s next for Jean-Claude Van Damme? He\u2019s writing a script for a movie called Battleground \u2014 \u2018Bloodsport meets the dark web . . .\u2019 And what\u2019s more \u2014 hold the front page: \u2018It\u2019s going to be my last martial arts movie.\u2019<\/p>\n
Say it isn\u2019t so! It\u2019d be a Damme shame if Jean-Claude were to depart our screens while still able to do the splits and high kicks that made his name.<\/p>\n