"I like to do everything - not perfect, because that doesn't exist - but to be as best as possible".
That drive propelled Jean Claude Van Damme from starting martial arts at the age of ten, to being a black belt world class fighter by the time he was 18.
"I was one of the youngest kids in the club. I wanted to spar," he said, "but I was very skinny".
He turned the disadvantage around and used it to fuel his ambition. "You've got to fight in a sense your own self, your body, to become better".
By 22 he had moved to Los Angeles, hoping to become an action movie star. Roles in Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Street Fighter and Timecop made him one of the most recognisable faces in martial arts movies.
He tells The Feed, however, about a role he didn't take: that of Predator. Originally cast for the movie, Van Damme ended up leaving the project because he didn't like wearing the suit.
I was in the outfit but it didn't work so well in terms of physicality it was well built but kind of dangerous," he said. "My feet were in the calves of the animal, and my fingers were in the forearms, and there were cables... it was very hot basically".
Van Damme's latest project is the Amazon pilot 'Jean-Claude Van Johnson', in which he plays a washed-up version of himself who is also a spy. The idea came to him while travelling for work.
"I was travelling around the world with those movie producers, and I see those guys are too smart, and they get authorisation to go all over the place," he said. "So I thought, maybe these guys are spies... too smart to be a producer".
Van Damme admits to being a perfectionist. "You've got thousands of people watching you, I can feel like I don't want to make any mistakes".
"I think they don't know how sensitive and emotional I am."
Jean-Claude Van Damme is currently on a speaking tour of Australia, appearing Sydney and Melbourne.
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