He’s the 90s martial arts pin-up who nearly lost it all to cocaine. Now Jean-Claude Van Damme is back with his own whiskey brand, a film in the works – and surprising gym tips for IRAM RAMZAN

There’s an episode in an early series of Friends where Monica (Courteney Cox) sees a famous face on a New York street.

‘Oh my God, oh my God. It’s Jean-Claude Van Damme,” she squeaks to Rachel (Jennifer Aniston). ‘He is so handsome!’

Rachel looks at the muscular Belgian actor skeptically: ‘Do you think?’

Cue an incredulous Monica: ‘The Muscles from Brussels? Wham Bam Van Damme?’ It doesn’t take long before the housemates compete for Van Damme’s affections.

And who can blame them, I think, as I am led into his presence.

Almost 30 years after his appearance in the legendary sitcom, he is still the Muscles from Brussels at the age of 63! Or, as he likes it, the Fred Astaire of Karate, a nod to his mastery of the martial arts with which he made his name.

The 1980s and 1990s were the era of super-strong screen heroes, from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Sylvester Stallone, but few were a match for Van Damme – whose star turns included the splits and killer 360-degree kicks. With those rippling muscles, dashing hairstyle and killer moves, men wanted to be him – and women wanted to be with him.

“He looked so good,” my landlady says when I tell her I should interview him.

My mother asks for a personalized video. “Make sure he says my name!” Hang in there, mother!

And after researching JCVD’s oeuvre, I can’t say I’m surprised by her fangirling.

Take Bloodsport (1988) and the scene where he does the splits and delivers a knockout blow to a Chinese giant.

Or Kickboxer (1989), when he drunkenly dances with two Thai women and then does the splits (what else!) while checking out the bad guys?

Or how about Double Team (1997), in which he dodges bullets and a tiger in a Roman amphitheater?

And what about the stunt he pulled off – in just one awe-inspiring shot – known as ‘The Epic Split’ for a Volvo Trucks advert. Van Damme did the splits while balancing on the wing mirrors of two reversing trucks. ‘As a result, they sold 30 percent more trucks in China!’ he says proudly.

When I compliment him on his performance at our meeting in Belfast, he says regular exercise and a clean diet are crucial, but insists he is not in the best shape at the moment. He’s sleep-deprived from interviews in multiple time zones during a whirlwind promotional tour for a new Irish whiskey.

“The Irish people are very happy, they are down to earth,” he says. ‘They talk fast. I also speak fast, so I hope they understand me.’

Fitness, martial arts and alcohol are not exactly ideal bedfellows, but Van Damme has form. With his infamous mullet and double denim, he was the face of the American beer Coors Light.

I ask him if he’s ever had a shot of whiskey before training. ‘Sometimes I take a try. Friends of mine, bodybuilders, drink a shot of schnapps, vodka or whiskey because alcohol dilates the blood vessels.’

He says he drinks very little, but his grandfather inspired his love of the spirit when he was growing up in Belgium. ‘I remember being nine or ten and sitting on his knee. He liked to smoke cigars. I loved the smell, and he dipped the cigar in a golden liquid: whiskey.”

He is keen to emphasize that up to 50 percent of the new brand’s profits will go to environmental issues – and he is passionate about animal rights.

Worth an estimated £25-30 million, Van Damme’s life is far from a more humble beginning. Born Jean-Claude Camille Francois Van Varenberg, son of a Belgian florist, Van Damme grew up in Brussels with sister Veronique.

He says he left school at the age of 13 and spent a lot of time with comics, especially The Adventures of Tintin. “Tintin helped me enormously,” he laughs.

It was his father who encouraged him to take up karate to ‘toughen up’ and he received his black belt in Shotokan karate in 1978. He later studied kickboxing in Paris and – in a surprising admission – did ballet for a few years to further his improve martial arts. art ability.

But Van Damme wanted to become an actor. In 1981, at the age of 21, he sold his ‘California Gym’ in the Belgian capital, which he said earned $15,000 a month, to move to Los Angeles. ‘When I told my dad I wanted to go to Hollywood, he said, ‘Are you crazy? I closed my flower shop for you, you idiot!” ‘

Van Damme barely spoke a word of English, knew no one and had only $3,000 in his pocket. For four years he worked as a bouncer and limousine driver, often forced to sleep in his car and search for food. “I’m glad I hit rock bottom,” he says. ‘You meet people with different agendas.’

It all changed when he got his break in the low-budget Bloodsport. It was considered so bad that it might never have been released had Van Damme not insisted on helping edit the film and then begged the producers to release the film.

The film was shot in Hong Kong on a budget of $1.5 million and grossed $50 million at the US box office alone. Blockbusters including Universal Soldier (1992) and Hard Target (1993) followed, before he starred alongside Kylie Minogue in a film adaptation of the video game Street Fighter. (He and Kylie had an affair while he was married to his fourth wife Darcy LaPier, with whom he has a son.)

Despite his commercial success, his personal life was less so. He has been married five times to four women. His current wife, whom he divorced in 1992 and remarried seven years later, is former bodybuilder Gladys Portugues, with whom he has a son and a daughter. He battled a serious cocaine addiction and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the late 1990s.

“I was depressed in the morning,” he admits. ‘It took years for me to understand why I was so sad and the people around me were happy.’

He now describes himself as a reformed party boy who spends his time watching educational videos on YouTube.

Hong Kong has been his home for twenty years. He lives on the 75th floor of an apartment building, and while he’s in the elevator, he does deep squats and stretches in the minute it takes to get to his apartment. He demonstrates for me and — yes, he is quite flexible!

So what other fitness tips would he like to share? “Train your legs and your buttocks,” he advises me. ‘And stretch regularly too.’

When I tell him that I strength train twice a week, he says he wanted to go to the gym with me. “I could show you what to do.”

Swoon. . . I’m sure my personal trainer would understand if he was bumped in front of Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Finally, I ask him about his rivalry with fellow action hero Steven Seagal. The pair have not seen each other since Seagal, a black belt in aikido, questioned Van Damme’s fighting credentials during a 1991 interview. Things got heated at a party thrown by Sylvester Stallone, where Van Damme challenged Seagal to a fight. Seagal refused.

“I have no problem with Steven,” he now insists. ‘When you’re young, you want to be the macho man. If I saw him today I wouldn’t have a problem.’

So what’s next for Jean-Claude Van Damme? He is writing a script for a film called Battleground: ‘Bloodsport meets the dark web’. . .’ And what’s more, hold the cover: ‘It will be my last martial arts film.’

Say it is not so! It would be a shame if Jean-Claude were to leave our screens while he could still do the splits and high kicks that made his name.

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