The Red and Black

By JOSH MASSEY The Red & Black

ATLANTA - Jean-Claude Van Damme has delivered many kicks in his time, but in recent years he's taken a few as well.

In 1994, he seemed to have hit his stride with "Timecop," his biggest movie to date. The film took Van Damme into a different genre - sci-fi - but kept his familiar martial arts style. And audiences ate it up.

Then the bottom fell out.

"I'm not God. I wish I could be," Van Damme said in an interview, reflecting on his recent past.

After the nearly $50 million gross of "Timecop," his films started failing at the box office. His last film, last year's "Double Team," grossed only $11 million.

In a recent Entertainment Weekly interview, the star admitted he began using cocaine on the set of 1995's "Sudden Death," and quit a year ago after finishing "Knock Off." His habit, he said, influenced career choices and led to marital problems and his current battle with manic depression. But he's ready to move on.

"It's good sometimes if I can help some kids. To show a guy, a woman, a human being can come back from a mental problem and be strong again," he said.

"Knock Off" is the first step in rebuilding Van Damme's career. In the film, he plays a Hong Kong businessman who uncovers a conspiracy involving the Russian mafia. And, in Van Damme fashion, he has to save the day.

The actor is looking even further into the future, though. After "Knock Off" finished production, he added something to his job description: producer.

"It's great because you can choose your own people," he said of producing. "Not to keep control, but to give control away to people who are very hungry and who will do their best. I've done two movies back to back since 'Knock Off' ('Legionnaire' and 'Inferno,' due for release in 1999), and I've produced them. And they're my best movies so far."

One of the reasons Van Damme began producing, he said, was that he was growing tired of some of his films turning out badly, including his 1996 directorial debut, "The Quest."

"The script was wonderful," he said. "But (time and budget) took away a lot of the story. I should have been more tough."

He also regrets 1993's "Hard Target," which was director John Woo's first English-language film.

"I didn't have enough time to make a great script," he said. "There was a window of a month and (the producers) said, 'If you want to bring John to the U.S., you have to be ready by a (certain) day.' That's not the way to do movies. You don't go for a day. You go for a good product."

"Knock Off," which was filmed in Hong Kong, gives Van Damme the chance to work with another of China's most popular directors: Tsui Hark, who also handled "Double Team."

"(Hark) is very intelligent. He made the movie better than the script," Van Damme said. "He was in his own place, his own city, Hong Kong. He took advantage of his connections."

Right now, Van Damme is busy looking for another role. He slyly answered "maybe" when asked about a rumored sequel to his 1993 hit "Universal Soldier."

And despite his well-publicized dark off-screen life, he does make time for good causes. But don't expect him to discuss them, especially his involvement with the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

"I don't really talk about it. I like to keep it private," he said. "If you do something good in life, I don't think it's good luck to brag about it."

He has come to terms, though, with his role model status, and said that fuels him to stay clean.

"Nobody's perfect," he said. "But it's good sometimes to see somebody make a mistake and to come back and to become better. That's a role model to me."

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