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Article: Van Damme-aged Action star pulls off his riskiest stunt: playing himself in an unflattering light.(Time Out!)
- Article from:
- Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)
- Article date:
- November 13, 2008
- Author:
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Byline: Dann Gire Daily Herald Film Critic dgire@dailyherald.com
During the late 1980s, I received a letter from action superstar Jean-Claude Van Damme after he read a review in which I praised him for taking his acting skills seriously.
"I have been working hard to improve myself as an actor," he wrote, "so your words were quite encouraging."
Of course, next to the emotionally inert Chuck Norris the reigning martial arts action star at the time the effusively boyish Van Damme looked positively Shakespearean.
Now, in his strange, challenging new movie "JCVD," Van Damme goes Shakespearean for real with a heart-ripping soliloquy kerplopped right in the middle ...