Born in Belgium in 1967 Jean Claude Van Varenberg (real name of Van Damme), was born into a world of great difficulties; porting has been resolved in the future.
Today he is 1.60 tall and no more than 84 kilos. He lives in Hollywood where he lived very happily with his wife Glady and their children. Even though they are apart they continue to get along very well. Christopher and Bianca went to live with their mother in Belgium and with that Van Damme was a little taken aback.
A lot of people make fun back in the US when Van Damme says that one of the first movies was PREDATOR. In some books it says Van Damme said this was because he didn't appear in the credits; that casting began long before filming.
At the beginning of the film the producers asked for an actor who was strong, flexible and who could carry heavy weights on his back to be the alien. With that Van Damme applied and was hired. Director John McTirenan told him that he needed to wear a lightweight Lycra-type outfit to perform the alien's moves.
But after a nasty fight with producer Joel Silver, Van Damme ends up dispatched and heads back to Los Angeles. Unfortunately for the producer, the guy who took the place of Van Damme broke his leg. In the end it was Kevin Peter who acted as the monster but, in the sequences where the alien appears like a chameleon, it is Van Damme who is under the clothes...
Van Damme started karate training when he was 11 years old and weighed about 35 kilos. He was skinny and sensitive. It wasn't strong and looked very, very small. Karate helped him, he struggled against himself and became strong physically and mentally, but retaining his sensitivity. In those times, he still loves painting and classical music, especially the piano. He later became a good dancer and danced for 6 years. At 18 he had to choose between dancing and karate because a French ballet company wanted to hire him.
At 16, he took his shotokan black belt and won the European Pro Karate Association, in the medium heavyweight category. Plus he was extremely disciplined and ran for more than 3 hours a day. After school he did lessons in 20, 25 minutes and then train.
He left home at age 16 and moved in with friends. He had problems with his parents for being too independent.
He didn't drink or smoke but got in trouble when he left school. He liked walking the streets and being at home.
When he turned 20 he went to America with only 500 dollars. The rest left in Europe to secure the future. There he rented an old car and spent a few nights sleeping in it. "Damme knows what it's like to starve."
From then on it was only movie signings and now we know where he got to.
Source: Biographies - Academic Unit of Civil Engineering / UFCG
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Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
COSTA, Keilla Renata. "Jean Claude Van Varenberg"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biografia/jean-claude-van-varenberg.htm. Accessed on June 28, 2021.
