Steven Seagal has made a reputation for recounting stories from his ’80s and ’90s glory days. Some of which even included embarrassing memories of his then co-stars. A notorious critic of whom he thinks is on par with him and who isn’t, no matter their career has landed in a lot of hot waters over the years.
However, in an interesting turn of events, it was none other than his Hard to Kill co-star William Sadler, who revealed an interesting tidbit about their experience filming the movie. And turns out, it was shocking enough to make them run to save themselves.
Steven Seagal had sh*t rained on him
Steven Seagal made his Hollywood debut in the 1988 movie Above the Law. However, it was in his second movie Hard to Kill, that he met William Sadler, who turned out to be one of the most famous Hollywood villains of that era. Incidentally, Sadler was playing the villain in this movie as well.
Portraying the corrupt senator who had ordered an attack on Mason Storm’s, i.e., Steven Seagal’s character’s family made sure for him to have quite a few action sequences with the martial artist set on revenge.
During such a high-intensity action scene, though, all hell broke loose when both actors and the crew had to face a foe whom they were completely taken off guard by. According to Sadler, there was a particular scene in the movie which they were shooting for in a zoo. He recalled amusingly,
“We’re in front of the ape enclosure. There’s a moat and then there’s this cliff and all these apes, all these chimps are sitting there watching us film. So Steven and I are on this hill and he, of course, is seven feet tall already and he took the uphill side, of course.”
However, things seemed to deteriorate fast after this. The Die Hard 2 star added, “Halfway through the scene, behind us are these apes and in the middle of the take I heard the cameraman yell, ‘Incoming.’ The apes had apparently all crapped in their hands and thrown it. It was raining monkey sh*t. I thought wow, everyone’s a critic.”
Unprepared for what to do they had to quickly duck to save themselves from the onslaught. Fortunately, though, that seemed to be the end of these horrific experiences for them during the shooting for the whole cast and crew.
Steven Seagal’s Hollywood career
Steven Seagal came to the spotlight during the sudden rise of action movies in Hollywood during the 1980s and early 1990s. Although he debuted with Above the Law in 1988, it was not until the 1992 movie Under Siege that he shot to fame with his character Casey Ryback.
And rightfully so, as even when action movies based on martial arts were being made left, and right, he brought to the screens something fresh by imitating the undisturbable calm and unbeatable strength of a Japanese martial arts Sensei.
This was most probably a leftover mantle from his time in Japan learning and teaching martial arts. However, that did help him make some of the most iconic movies of that time, such as Executive Decision and the Under Siege franchise. Although he has fallen from A-list status, back then, at the start of his career he used to be one of the most sought-after action heroes with millions of fans worldwide.
Source: Showbiz CheatSheet
