Jean-Claude Van Damme arrives in Sydney in Qantas pyjamas
Jean-Claude Van Damme has made a dramatic entrance into Sydney, wearing his Qantas pyjamas after a long-haul flight from Los Angeles, after fly kicking waiting media crews. Here’s what happened.
Confidential
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At 59, Jean-Claude Van Damme is proud he can still do the splits.
Wearing a JCVD baseball cap and his Qantas pyjamas after a long-haul flight from Los Angeles, the Bloodsport star showed he is in prime physical shape with a fly kick for photographers as he made his way through Sydney Airport.
“It is not as easy as before because in the past I was able to jump in the air and land in the splits position,” the Hollywood action man told Confidential.
“Today if I do that, I will blow a tendon. It is not due to a less flexible person, it is just due to the age the tendon gets a little more stiff. It is very important to be flexible, very important for old age.”
He added: “Dance taught me a lot, I did five years of ballet and believe it or not people make fun of dancers but it is so hard. I combine ballet with gymnastic and karate and that has given me a lot of flexibility and dexterity.”
Van Damme is in Australia for a series of events titled An Evening with Jean-Claude Van Damme, starting at Sydney’s Wesley Centre tonight (Friday).
“I have been around the world a lot,” he explained. “I am going to express myself out there I guess in a different way than years ago because everybody changes due to maturity, the age and that stuff. We will talk about the past and present, about martial arts and stretching and eating.”
The Muscles from Brussels has been a regular visitor Down Under over the years and even made Hollywood flick Street Fighter on the Gold Coast.
He last visited in 2018 when the star of films including Universal Soldier and Timecop was photographed sitting next to former Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop at the NSW Federal Budget Lunch in Sydney.
On that visit he scouted locations to make a movie here and has two projects in mind, Three Coyotes and The Tower.
He would ideally like to shoot in or near the national capital of Canberra, where he believes a film studio should be built.
“Imagine Canberra if we can make a movie there,” he said. “Making two movies there, you bring people, you bring actors and workers. Australia doesn’t have that in Canberra, they should have it there in the capital.”
