You ever wonder what the definition of genius is?Well, wonder no more.  It’s simply interviewing the legendary Jean-Claude Van Damme about his oeuvre, which the Onion’s AV Club did and killed.  Or rather, JCVD killed.  Whatever the case, the definition of genius has been killed.  Defined.  Over.For example, JCVD on scene stealing in Breakin’:

I didn’t know the difference between medium, high, and low budget. So I was trying to win the scene: I was behind the lead actor in the group, and I was jumping as high as I could, and doing a flip in the air. But of course they cut that, because I was eating the screen with that fantastic jump. 

Playing “Gay Karate Man” in Monaco Forever:

They asked me to play a guy driving, I believe it was an MG or a Ferrari, on the road of Mulholland Drive. I took a guy that was doing hitchhiking on the road, and I took a guy in my car, and I play a homosexual, and I was trying to take advantage of him in that car. And then he came off and wanted to fight me. I did some kicks above his head, and blah, blah, blah. It was funny. Very small, low-budget, independent type of movie.  

On the theory of improvisation, or what they call playing “Inspector Gangster” in Belgium:

No, I didn’t take any acting lessons, but I was playing with guys of my age over in Belgium. We played Inspector Gangster. We met in a room. We were like, “Okay, you’re going to come into the living room, okay? You’re going to play a guy coming in for a deal. Right? You’re going to sit down there and we aren’t going to agree about that deal, then we shoot at each other.” You know, like game stuff. I was like 13, 14 years old. So, the guy comes in the room, and I’m: “Oh hey. How are you? What’s your name?” all that stuff. It was kind of like rehearsing without knowing.  

On “acting” especially like the kind that Daniel Day-Lewis does (you better watch your ass DDL):

Later in my career, I understood something from a good director named Ringo Lam, who directed me in Maximum Risk, In Hell, all those movies. He said “acting doesn’t exist.” If we start to act, you’ll see the guy “acting.” I believe we really have to go into a character. I only understood that now, my last couple of movies. You have to go into something and invest your mind into that specific person. You have to prepare; you came from which family? How did you behave before the events of the film happened? You have to build something into your mind to lose the Jean-Claude Van Damme, and to become, for example, Jack Robideaux [fromThe Shepherd: Border Patrol]. The problem is, when you don’t have very deep scripts, when you play the very simple characters, you know, the revenge and this and that, it’s very difficult for a guy like me to believe into my role. So I just play the physical guy, with my kicks and my punches, and I follow the story. 

On playing identical twins in the great Double Impact, where he famously doubled the Van Dammage: 

[It] was not too difficult, since I am bipolar in nature…The only thing different between Alex and Chad was the silk underwear. Mr. California, Mr. Silk Underwear. It was kinda funny.

Proppers must go to Joey Jerusalem who sent this in. 

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