On the 30th anniversary of the film: why Van Damme was fired from the filming of "Predator"
Most recently, Predator celebrated its 30th anniversary. The anniversary of the film once again raised one of the most burning questions of our time: why was Van Damme fired from the filming of Predator? Despite the fact that three decades have passed since then, and Van Damme played a walking special effect, for some reason this mystery still worries a surprisingly large number of people.
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On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the film, The Hollywood Reporter interviewed many participants in the filming of Predator and published a lot of material about the film. Among other things, there was a place for the Van Damme epic. Surprisingly, almost every interviewee gave out his own version of what exactly the Belgian was kicked out of filming. So I decided to translate this part. I think someone might find it interesting or at least funny.
Jackie Birch (Casting Director):
Jean-Claude Van Damme was constantly hanging out at my office, jumping and demonstrating his movements, begging for work. He was nobody. He didn't have any roles. And in the end I said to Joel Silver, "He's going to be great as a Predator, because no one can move like him." I'm being serious, he's an amazing person. He even moved his furniture to my garage! But not for long. I heard that on the set he constantly complained and was fired. And then he came back and took his stuff from my garage. And the next time I met him, he was already being paid $5 million per film.
Craig Bexley (director of the second film crew):
One day Joel Silver and I were walking down the corridor of the hotel, and Van Damme and his assistant were walking towards us. Van Damme came over and asked: "Are you Joel Silver?" He confirmed it. After that , Van Damme exclaimed: "Look at this!" and jumped up. And I swear to God, I made a split in the air, and his groin was at the level of my eyes — and my height is 6 feet. He was supposed to play a creature, and a company called Boss designed it. He had the head of an ant, and it all cost a whole lot of money. So they took Van Damme and put his head on him. And then he freaked out, grabbed this head for 20 thousand dollars, threw it on the floor and smashed it. Joel shouted, "Fuck you!" and then told Jean-Claude, "You'll never work in Hollywood again! Get off my set!" That's it.
John Davis (producer):
Initially, he played a Predator, but then we realized that a Predator cannot be five and a half feet tall. He should have been much taller.
Richard Chavez (actor, performer of the role of Poncho):
I remember one day Joel Silver called me in my room. Me, him and Van Damme immediately found a common language, and I also thought that he would be very cool in the role of a Predator. But Van Damme wanted his face to be visible in the frame. And I remember Joel saying, "Come down, talk to him and convince him that he's playing an alien and therefore has to wear a suit!" And I went down and spent a couple of hours trying to convince him, you know, that he should be in a suit. "Everyone will know that you are in this suit, Jean-Claude, because no one else can move like that." I tried to convince him as much as I could, but I couldn't get through. And then finally he was persuaded, and Van Damme still put on a suit and they shot a double. But when the people from Fox watched the resulting material, they hated it, deciding that the Predator looked like a rat — and it really looked like that. And as soon as the news reached Joel, he let Van Damme go.
Bill Duke (actor, performer of the role of Mac):
It seems they were going to put special effects on his body in the post-production process. But for this, the actor must wear a suit that covers the whole body. And on the set there was a 30-40-degree heat, and Van Damme lost consciousness twice due to dehydration. Then Joel came up and said, "Jean, I know it's hot in here, but we're wasting our time. If you pass out again, we'll fire you." Jean said: "I didn't do it on purpose!", to which Joel replied: "Man, this is business. Nothing personal." And now two weeks have passed, Van Damm is hanging on cables in the middle of trees and loses consciousness again. And then Joel comes up to him and says: "You're fired!"
Joel Hynek (Special Effects Specialist):
I was in Joel Silver's trailer when he called Van Damme there for a conversation. He walked into the trailer and Joel started telling him off: "Stop kickboxing (because that's what Van Damme wanted to do). Understand, a Predator is not a kickboxer." And Van Damme is like, "I have to do this because that's how I see a Predator." Well, Joel said, "So you're fired. Get out of here." Van Damme replied, "Kiss my balls!" and left. The end of the story.
As we can see, the truth is out there somewhere. The acting fraternity is more inclined to the technical version of dismissal, while the production team is more inclined to Van Damme's personal quirks. But the most interesting thing is that these are not all existing versions of what happened there. When director John McTiernan was recently interviewed about Predator, he commented on Van Damme's participation with a very muddy phrase: "We have not removed anything from it. His agent screwed it up. He tried to slip it into the movie without having the slightest idea what it was about. It turned out stupid. It turned out very stupid."
I don't know about anyone, but after reading all this, I get the feeling that Agent Jay came to the shooting, lit everyone with a neuralizer, and then told everyone a different version of the story. It seems that only Mulder and Scully could solve this mystery. By the way, this could really be a good idea for an episode of The X-Files: it would be much more interesting than a dull attempt at revival.
Well, as a bonus, here's another version of the Van Damme story. This time from special effects specialist Steve Johnson.