Daniel: I saw the interview. Jay Leno aggressively controlled the interview. He devoted it almost entirely to Jean Claude Van Damme's five marriages, and the fact that he had just remarried his third wife. As Van Damme stated, he had come to talk about his movie, and Leno just wanted to talk about his marriage. So, the movie, even though apparently on the agenda, got introduced almost as an afterthought. The film clip showed one encounter between a bad guy with Van Damme. I thought Van Damme's truncated explanation that it was an "action" movie, without elaboration, had more to do with the pressure of Leno's directing the interview on the subject of most interest to Leno, and Van Damme's exasperation at not being able to warm to the issue of the film. Leno recollected that the earlier film showed Van Damme naked, from the rear. Van Damme joked that the current film shows frontal nudity. "Just kidding," said he. He also mentioned that Goldberg was in the film, and he mentioned other actors. I assume this was to appeal to the public popularity of those he mentioned. That was about it for the movie.
Van Damme came across well, honest, in good humor, willing to take a joke, and endure being made the butt of jokes by Leno. It is a hot seat in front of a national television audience with so much at stake. It seemed as if he were popular with the audience. From a commercial view, i.e., publicity for the opening of the film, I thought it was successful. It could have gone better if Van Damme were allowed the time to develop more information about the film.
Steve
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