A conventional wisdom of the people of the United States of America is that action stars are born, not made. They believe the likes of Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone came out of the birth canal with a headband already tied around their head and a chip already planted firmly on their shoulder. Their state of affluence was sitting there next to the curl bar just waiting for them to claim. To which I say, “Hark!” This is America. No one rides for free. Van Damme, Lundren, Statham—all God-fearing Americans—had to start out on the bottom rung and pick themselves up by their bootstraps while doing a chin up to get to where they are today.
Arnold Schwarzenegger started out his storied Hollywood career in a feature called,
Son of Hercules. The previously mentioned Jean-Claude Van Damme has an uncredited but crucial moment in the critically acclaimed prequel to the groundbreaking film,
Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, titled
Breakin’. Heck, even Ronald Reagan started out as a humble B-movie actor before becoming an action hero.
Sylvester Stallone is no different. Broke and homeless, the Man That Would Be Cliffhanger took a gig that paid $200 (US) for two days work (ET). The final product was,
The Party at Kitty and Stud’s. And it was the start of Stallone’s storied career.
