Acclaimed actor and animal spirit to many of us Jean-Claude Van Damme has delivered a swift and brutal roundhouse kick right to the face of Australian media mentality, storming, nay, strutting out of an on camera interview.
During an interview with Channel 7 Van Damme slammed the breaks on the line of questions.
“Let me talk, let me talk please,” he begins, after informing the journalist that he wishes to address the Australian people directly. “These questions you’ve been asking me…the press has been asking me the same questions for 25 years. Kylie [Minogue], ‘how’s your training?’ ‘How’s your this, how’s your that?’ So I’m coming to Australia to maybe to something different with the audience.”
It was back in 2012 that Van Damme opened up about an apparent ‘fling’ with our Kylie Minogue while filming the 1994 blockbuster Street Fighter. It appears scoop-hungry Australian media never let that one go.
“I’m 55-years-old, so I have a different P-O-V of live, and I will talk about this in Australia but those interviews they are giving me on TV right now they are very boring because the questions are boring. It’s difficult for me to answer those questions because I start to sweat, I don’t feel good. They are boring…Ok, next question…you have something interesting to ask me?”
Things fail to pick up from there and while we can’t hear the line of questioning, Van Damme’s reaction is very telling, getting up and taking off his mic, he mutters, “Ok, going to the restroom, bye-bye…What the fuck is going on in Australia?”
The dude has for sure copped a few blows to the head over the aforementioned 25-years, but the below diatribe is far from the usual Australian media-provoked-celeb-diva-meltdown. If anything, it serves as the greatest promo clip to push, of all things, his forthcoming speaking tour of Australia, An Evening With Jean-Claude Van Damme
Well played, Van Damme.
