JCVD: How American Can You Get?

January 13, 2010 in The Black Hole by Kyle Butler

I just discovered that Jean-Claude Van Damme is coming out with a new movie this year. I also found out that he’s playing a guy named Frenchy, which seems like a step back for a European immigrant who has spent over twenty years desperately trying to convince the world he’s 100% American.

Van Damme’s long-lived brawl with his own nationality peaked around 1994, when he played uber-American military man Guile in “Street Fighter: The Movie.” Despite being a commercial success (and a terrible movie), many people couldn’t understand why the producers decided to cast a Belgian as Guile.