Many fans still wonder about what happened to Jean-Claude Van Damme. The Belgian actor was once a household name but quite absent from the spotlight in recent years. But it can’t be denied that the popular action hero had a significant amount of controversies attached to his name. It was quite shocking that this list even contains an incident of him on the set of FRIENDS.
Besides its characters, comedy, and iconic events FRIENDS is also still known for his cameos. The wide range of celebrities who made their cameos in the sitcom is still talked about among its fans. But, if the makers are to be believed, then the Bloodsport actor’s cameo must be on the list of the worst ones.
What went wrong with Jean-Claude Van Damme’s cameo?
Jean-Claude Van Damme made a special appearance in the most-watched episode of FRIENDS- “The One After the Superbowl”. Following the trend of broadcasting something exceptional as The Superbowl lead-out program, NBC released the double-length episode of the sitcom. It featured a plethora of cameos with names such as Brooke Shields, Chris Isaak, and Julia Roberts.
But interestingly Jean-Claude Van Damme’s cameo didn’t play out very well as the other ones. During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, several comments were received from the creators of the show that revealed the Belgian martial artist was very difficult to work with. As per the director Michael Lembeck, the show stars Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston had a very bad experience on the set as they felt uncomfortable during their kissing scenes with Van Damme.
“We shoot him and Jennifer first. Then she walks over to me and says, ‘Lem, Lem, would you do me a favor and ask him not to put his tongue in my mouth when he’s kissing me?’ I tell him everything is great but it’s a tight shot so maybe let’s not do that.”
He added:
“Then we’re shooting a scene later with Courteney. Here comes Courteney walking toward me and saying, ‘Lem, can you please tell him not to put his tongue in my mouth?’ I couldn’t believe it! I had to tell him again, but a little firmer.”
While the actress had a sort of disgusting day on the set, the makers had their share of troubles with the Cyborg actor. The then-president of NBC Entertainment Warren Littlefield even joked that it was quite debatable if Jean-Claude Van Damme was more difficult to work with or the monkey.
Jean-Claude Van Damme hampered the production of the episode
The producer Kevin S. Bright revealed that the star appeared three to four hours late on the set which largely affected the schedule of the episode. Then his behavior on the set was also notably problematic when he went to his trailer without speaking to anybody and demanded more time to memorize his lines.
But it must be noted that even after so much trouble, co-writer Michael Borkow admitted that he did his part well.
“He’s not a comedy star, and I think it showed. On the other hand, we didn’t need him to be funny. We needed a big Hollywood star that the girls would fight over and he did that great.”
Following a long break due to addiction problems and after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Jean-Claude Van Damme made his return to the industry with some movies like highly acclaimed Belgian crime drama JCVD, Kung Fu Panda 2, The Expendables 2, and others.
FRIENDS can be streamed on HBO Max.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
