A tag in the career of the martial artist and movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme is that he was originally cast for the role of the alien on Predator directed by John McTiernan in 1987. But later he was replaced by the late Kevin Peter Hall.
Jean-Claude Van Damme, right before his boost into worldwide fame as the lead actor in the martial arts movie Bloodsport, was scouted to star along with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, and Jesse Ventura as the main antagonist.
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The Original Predator Armour Was a Failure
The original Predator costume was a complete disaster due to its absurd size and weight. It weighed over 200 pounds and was over 7 feet long. Well, the first costume design that the executives made was not the one they showed in the movies. The then FX artist for the movie, Steve Johnson, who worked on the original suit had a meeting with the director and producer,
“With great pomp and ceremony, McTiernan comes in and slams down a bunch of designs [of the Predator] that have already been done by a production designer … They said, ‘Here’s what we want you to make.’ What they needed was a character with backward-bent reptilian legs, extended arms, and a head that was out here.”
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Steve Johnson also added that though the design was way ahead of its time, the costume was awful and its head protruded out. Though Johnson warned them, they went on to shoot the scenes. “And they wanted to shoot on the muddy slopes of Mexico in the real jungles, It was virtually physically impossible to do.”
Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Actions Got Him Fired
The 5 feet 10 Jean-Claude Van Damme was no match for this ginormous suit with its head tilting out of its body. He complained several times on set stating, “I hate this. I hate this. I hate it. I look like a superhero,”. In an interview, Van Damme said,
“My head was in the neck. My hands were in the forearms, and there were cables [attached to my fingers to move the creature’s head and jaws]. My feet were in his calves, so I was on [stilts]. It was a disgusting outfit,”
Bill Duke, in an interview with Murder Master Music Show, stated that Jean-Claude Van Damme was fired from Predator and later he revealed the reason why,
“So he had a stealth suit on, and they put him on wires, and he flew up in the trees with the wires on his back like he was flying, He had passed out twice from dehydration, and the producer came over to him and said, ‘If you pass out again, I’m gonna fire you.”
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While this situation escalated with Van Damme replying, “I’m not passing out on purpose! I’m dehydrated!”, the situation only got worse as after a few weeks, Van Damme passed out again and the producer fired him from the set.
Predator is available for streaming on HBO Max.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
