If the King of Thailand is calling me, no, I stay in my room – cutting, cutting, cutting …" Stallone reportedly said that Van Damme refused the role because he didn't want to lose a fight to Jet Li, although this suggestion is vigorously denied ("Bullshit!"). "I said, 'I cannot do it!' And he said, 'Excuse me!?' But I had that fever. "When he called me, I was editing my movie, The Eagle Path," Van Damme explains. He's extremely grateful to Sylvester Stallone, his boyhood hero, for casting him – despite having turned down a role in the first Expendables in 2010. ![]() Today, though, older and humbled, he turns out to be a joy to talk to. ![]() ![]() Bigger success saw that enthusiasm turn to arrogance by the late 90s he'd been married five times and had a coke habit that almost took him out completely. He was desperately eager to please, enthusiasm bursting from his pores as he bounced around the talk show circuit, doing the splits for paparazzi outside LA nightclubs. When he broke out in 1988 in Bloodsport, Van Damme was 27, an action star with the muscles as well as the karate skills. He's the lead villain, and it's the first major film he's appeared in for over a decade, his personal life and career having hit the skids some 15 years ago. ![]() Van Damme is calling to talk about his role in The Expendables 2 – basically the Avengers of late-20th century action heroes.
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