Sleeping in Cars, Then Kicking Into Bloodsport

Jean-Claude Van Damme is a Belgian martial artist and actor who arrived in Hollywood in 1982, determined to become a film star. In the five years that followed he found very little work. He appeared as an extra in the film Breakin', did stunt work for Chuck Norris, and came close to playing the alien in Predator.

In an interview in the Role Recall series, quoted by Yahoo, he described his circumstances in those years. He was living on the street, he said, sleeping in cars and garages, and he did not have much money. For a time he worked as a waiter at a restaurant in Los Angeles. The article does not name the restaurant or the places where he slept.

His break came at that restaurant. He noticed Menahem Golan, an executive at Cannon Films, at one of the tables and performed a roundhouse kick over the producer's head. Golan was not impressed, but the Asian film buyers dining with him were, and they helped Van Damme get a meeting.

Some weeks later, in that meeting, Golan dismissed him, saying that Michael Dudikoff and Chuck Norris were stars and that Van Damme would never be a star. Van Damme went around the desk and asked for any role at all, even a small part. After waiting two or three minutes, Golan told an associate to bring him Bloodsport and handed him the script.

Bloodsport, released in 1988, made him an international action star.