Van Damme: Hollywood blacklisted me
April 6, 2011
WENN

Jean-Claude Van Damme is convinced he was blacklisted in Hollywood after demanding millions for his movies.

The Belgian martial arts star was forced into an early retirement in the 1990s after he snubbed a major film deal in a bid to negotiate a more lucrative offer -- only to have industry executives turn their back on him.

He admits a haze of alcohol and excess kept him from realizing his error.






Appearing on U.K. television show "Jean-Claude Van Damme: Behind Closed Doors," he recalls:

"After the movie 'Timecop,' I received a huge offer for a three-picture deal and it was 12 million dollars per picture. That's 36 million dollars. I was wasted.

I said, 'I want 20 million like Jim Carrey' and they hung up on me. I was not myself. I was completely f---ed up and I made a bad mistake and I was on the blacklist in Hollywood for years."






Now the action star is turning down movie projects once again, so he can focus on training for his comeback fight against Thai boxer Somluck Kamsing in November.

He adds, "Slowly they want me back for making those theatrical movies but now I've decided to fight. If I win that fight, which will be exceptional, it will bring me another 10 years of health. It's like a repair.

So I'm very happy today where I am."

http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=639654&gt1=28101

Yeah he's stupid for turning down 12 million a movie and that's good that he admitted he made a mistake doing that. JamesG, you think he's making good money doing straight to video movies? It's probably not as much money as he would've made doing movies that come to theatres but i'm sure he gets paid good for doing straight to video movies.

Yeah he's stupid for turning down 12 million a movie and that's good that he admitted he made a mistake doing that. JamesG, you think he's making good money doing straight to video movies? It's probably not as much money as he would've made doing movies that come to theatres but i'm sure he gets paid good for doing straight to video movies.

He's still very big overseas, especially in his home country Belgium.

His latest movies may come direct-to-video in the US but they get theatrical releases overseas.

I'm a fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme, and his considerable martial arts expertise... I have a lot of his movies on VHS and DVD... His wife, Gladys Portugues, was a professional female bodybuilder, who I'm also a fan of...

He's still very big overseas, especially in his home country Belgium.

His latest movies may come direct-to-video in the US but they get theatrical releases overseas.

actually his movies are straight to dvd in the U.K too.

actually his movies are straight to dvd in the U.K too.

In the U.K. most of them are; but some get theatrical releases in France, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Germany...