Jean-Claude Van
Damme is back.
His heyday of the 90s far behind him, the former “Muscles
from Brussels,” Bloodsport kickboxer,
and mulleted
action star with the odd forehead lump recently began popping up in GoDaddy
commercials, beating bongos and shaking maracas while doing the splits, leering
at small business owners and yet inspiring them with a husky “It’s go time.” At
the American Film Market trade show last week, his not-yet-released action
flick Swelter scored pretty big, selling
in multiple territories around the world. But what has really propelled him
back into the public eye is his extraordinary, commanding appearance in an epic
new Volvo
commercial.
Unlike the whimsical, frenetic GoDaddy ads, the Volvo spot has
a tranquil, ethereal beauty about it. It features Van Damme staring impassively
at the camera with the focus of a Zen master, while the two semis beneath his
feat carry him backwards, ever so carefully and precisely diverging – in reverse – until his split legs are parallel
to the highway streaming underneath. Not bad for a 53-year-old. Van Damme and
the trucks continue into the sunrise to the accompaniment of Enya’s lush “Only
Time.” Meanwhile his voiceover proclaims in his famous accent, “I’ve had my ups
and downs, my fair share of bumpy roads and heavy winds.” Indeed he has.
“That’s what made me what I am today.”
What he is today is a survivor – of poverty, bipolar
disorder, drug addiction, and fame – and one of Hollywood’s most unique personalities.
Obsessed with stardom, the young martial artist hit Los Angeles in 1982 and struggled
through a period of homelessness looking for his big break, which came six long
years later in Bloodsport. The
superfit actor was at the top through the early 90s until his films gradually
declined at the box office, and Van Damme himself declined emotionally and
physically. At one point he was blowing through $10,000 a week on cocaine.
“It became a
point where I wanted to die. I didn't have any reasons to live,” he confessed. “Then you have to find back your self-esteem.
And then, slowly, every piece of yourself becomes precious again... It’s not
the drugs. It’s a problem with yourself, which you have to cure.”
And so Van Damme worked his way back to personal and professional
respect. For those who don’t take him seriously as an actor, check out his
stunning turn in JCVD from 2008, in
which he plays himself as a down-on-his-luck actor: broke, unable to get work,
embroiled in a custody battle for his daughter, and suddenly at the center of a
hostage situation in his hometown Brussels.
At one point in this underappreciated drama, Van Damme and
the camera rise above the set, and he addresses the viewer directly in a
riveting, emotional, six-minute monologue*
in which he rambles about his fame, numerous marriages (five times to four
different women), and drug abuse. It is nakedly personal, compelling, and
honest, and it garnered him newfound and hard-earned respect. Time rated his performance the second best of the year, after Heath Ledger’s unforgettable
Joker in The Dark Knight. Not bad for a down-and-out former
action star everyone had written off.
As of November 21st,
views of his Volvo video topped – according to one source – 48.5 million, making it second to only
Volkswagen’s Darth Vader-themed Super Bowl spot in 2011, as the most-viewed car
campaign of all time. It took that ad more than two months to reach as many
views as Van Damme’s achieved in just nine days. So he is reintroduced to a new
generation and poised for superstardom again. It’s go time for
Jean-Claude Van Damme, the survivor, the guy from the street with a dream. More
power to him.
* Apparently a video with
English subtitles is unavailable, but you can read the translation at the
bottom of this
page.
(This article originally appeared here on Acculturated, 12/5/13)
