There’s no disputing that Jean-Claude Van Damme dances to the beat of his own drum. As a matter of fact, that’s what got him famous in the first place, since he’s unlike any other action star of his era. Now, there have been a few instances where he’s crossed the line – such as his guest appearance on Friends and the time he broke into Sylvester Stallone’s home (yes, really).
So, what actually happened here? According to Van Damme, he was a major fan of Stallone and wanted to get career advice from him as an upcoming actor in the business. Instead of setting up an appointment through Stallone’s agent or manager, though, he found out where the Rocky actor lived and saw it as an opportunity to go right to the source. Hey, the ’80s were a different time!
As JCVD told Yahoo, he saw Stallone’s then-wife Sasha Czack heading out on a bicycle ride, so he took the opportunity to get into the house. “I was trying to go above his wall. … [Czack] saw that, she called the cops,” Van Damme said. “They came right away. But I [said], ‘I’m a big fan. I just want to do karate with Stallone.’ They [heard] the accent, they saw in my eyes I was innocent. They said, ‘Move on.'”
If anything, Van Damme was persistent about his career. It’s also rumored that he auditioned for the role of Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, but as we all know, that gig went to Dolph Lundgren. Ironically, JCVD would portray something of a pastiche of Drago in 1985’s No Retreat, No Surrender – an underrated role in a supremely underrated action movie.
Despite the setbacks and doors being shut in his face, Van Damme refused to quit on his dreams of being an actor. His big break arrived in 1988’s Bloodsport and kickstarted his rise to superstardom. The rest is history.
Funnily enough, Van Damme would eventually make his way into Stallone’s house. This time, he was invited to a party and didn’t need to scale a wall to get inside. However, he and Steven Seagal ended up in a squabble that’s much ado about nothing (though utterly hilarious for anybody else to think about and witness). According to Stallone, Seagal ‘pulled a Houdini’ and wanted none of Van Damme’s smoke.
Yet it’s still humorous to think about Van Damme trying to climb over the wall to meet Stallone at his house in the ’80s. Let’s imagine he had succeeded in his mission for a second. What would have happened next? Would Stallone have met with him in the first place? And if he did, would he have given him advice or offered him a role in a movie of his? It’s interesting to ponder, but in retrospect, the future didn’t turn out to be bad for JCVD in the long run.
