There was a time when Steven Seagal was a pretty respectable action star. That time is long gone. "Strange" and "controversial" are good words to describe the modern-day Seagal, and these are all the reasons why.
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00:00There was a time when Steven Seagal was a pretty respectable action star.
00:04That time is long gone.
00:06Strange and controversial are good words to describe the modern-day Seagal, and these
00:10are all the reasons why.
00:13In 1992, Steven Seagal starred in Under Siege, an action flick that grossed over $150 million
00:19worldwide.
00:20Eleven years later, he starred in The Foreigner, a movie with a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
00:25Basically, this guy has come a long way… down… since the 1990s.
00:30According to multiple actors, Steven Seagal is an incredibly difficult co-worker.
00:35John Leguizamo found out the hard way.
00:38While in rehearsals for Executive Decision, Leguizamo laughed at something Seagal had
00:42said, so Steven responded with an executive decision of his own.
00:45"...he came up and he taekwondoed my ass against a brick wall.
00:51He's 6'5 and caught me off guard and knocked all the air out of me, I was like, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.
00:56Why?
00:57Why?"
00:58Then there's The Glimmer Man, where the script calls for Seagal's character to kill a serial
01:02murderer, played by legendary character actor Steven Tobolowsky.
01:06"...am I right or am I right or am I right?
01:09Right, right, right."
01:10Seagal decided he didn't want to kill so many people in movies anymore, and even tried convincing
01:15Tobolowsky that his serial killer character should live.
01:19The scene was eventually filmed as written, and Tobolowsky's murderer met his maker.
01:24"...my entire chest explodes, like my heart explodes, like blood flies out of the camera
01:32and I fall out of frame and smoke rises."
01:36Of course, as filming progressed, Seagal improvised lines about how he sure was glad he didn't
01:41kill that guy in the church.
01:43The film's director called Tobolowsky in to record some extra dialogue to make it seem
01:48like his character's on-screen death was a little less permanent.
01:52What he's settle on?
01:54"...I ended up shouting up, finish me off, you son of a b----!
02:00Come on, don't leave me like this!
02:03Kill me!"
02:05Steven Seagal has done quite a bit of fight choreography.
02:08According to IMDb, most of the films he's choreographed are his own, but in the early
02:1280s, Seagal worked on the James Bond film Never Say Never Again.
02:16Having been brought on board to teach Sean Connery some Aikido.
02:19Meanwhile, Connery was already well-versed in karate, having been awarded an honorary
02:25third-degree black belt while preparing for 1967's You Only Live Twice.
02:30Connery explained what went down when the pair worked together in an interview on Jay
02:33Leno's Tonight Show in 1996.
02:35"...and then I got a little cocky, because I thought I knew what I was doing, because
02:38the principle is it's defense, so it's a pyramid, and I got a bit flash and I did that and he
02:43broke my wrist."
02:45Wow.
02:47There's no denying that Steven Seagal is an accomplished martial artist.
02:50He's a legit seventh Dan in Aikido, a martial art that relies on joint locks and the redirection
02:56of momentum.
02:57He was even the first American to teach Aikido in Japan.
03:00But more than a few fighters think that Aikido is actually kind of worthless when it comes
03:03to self-defense.
03:05Fight analyst Jack Slack says Aikido only works if your opponent is running straight
03:09at you, something most smart fighters never actually do.
03:13UFC commentator and fighting fan Joe Rogan adds that Aikido would never work against
03:17a trained fighter.
03:18Never.
03:19Not in a million years.
03:20If you couldn't tell from his filmography, Steven Seagal is fascinated with law enforcement.
03:25Well, with the exception of Under Siege.
03:28"...Are you, like, some special forces guy or something?"
03:31"...I'm just a cook."
03:33"...A cook?"
03:35Anyway, Seagal actually served as a cop in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, for about 20
03:41years.
03:42In 2009, Seagal took things to the next level by starring in a reality show called Steven
03:47Seagal, Lawman.
03:49In the third season, Seagal teamed up with the controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa
03:54County in Arizona.
03:55In 2011, Arpaio orchestrated a raid against Jesus Llovera, a local man suspected of cockfighting.
04:02But when the cops showed up, they had a lot more than just a warrant.
04:06There were up to 40 SWAT officers, a bomb squad, canine units, and even armored vehicles.
04:11"...We hope to take the suspect and anybody else who was inside the house by surprise."
04:17And what could be more surprising than the police tanks that tore down the gates to Llovera's
04:21property?
04:22Or the damage done to parts of his house during the raid?
04:25This peacock had no idea what to expect.
04:27Llovera eventually pled guilty to cockfighting, and the 115 roosters that he kept at his house
04:32were saved, right?
04:34Wrong.
04:35Apparently, the police actually euthanized them all.
04:38So that's...something.
04:41With a career as varied as Steven Seagal's, it's important to remember that he's not just
04:45about punching, kicking, and killing lots of chickens.
04:48This dude also plays the guitar in a blues band.
04:56And sometimes, he does...well, whatever this is.
05:05The savviest movie stars give the people what they want.
05:08And in the late 80s, the people wanted a sort of mystical stone-faced martial arts expert
05:13with a ponytail.
05:14In other words, Steven Seagal.
05:16"...I have something in my pocket right now that will completely clear up that bruise
05:20on your forehead."
05:21"...What bruise?"
05:23He ruled the box office for years with huge hits like Hard to Kill, Above the Law, and
05:27Under Siege.
05:28But tastes changed, and eventually, he faded from movie star prominence.
05:32So whatever happened to Steven Seagal?
05:34Seagal's contract with Warner Bros. ended with the release of the environmentally-themed
05:38thriller Fire Down Below in 1997.
05:41"...Crack my wood, that's no good."
05:43He still makes action movies, though.
05:44It's just that most of them have gone straight to DVD or streaming.
05:48In fact, Seagal has churned out more than 30 movies in the last two decades, with awesome
05:52titles like Urban Justice, Out for a Kill, and Half Past Dead.
05:56Awesome!
05:57In the late 80s, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana Sheriff Harry Lee asked Seagal to train his
06:01force in martial arts, eventually enlisting Seagal as a reserve deputy.
06:05In 2009, Seagal's side gig became the basis for a reality show on A&E called Steven Seagal
06:11Lawman.
06:12"...This is not good."
06:15It was similar to Cops, except that Steven Seagal was there, which had to be really weird
06:19for the criminals.
06:20"...Seagal!
06:21My white love, you!"
06:22"...I don't like that one, man."
06:24"...My white love, you!"
06:26Sadly, Seagal reportedly resigned from the force after he found himself the subject of
06:31an internal affairs investigation that, according to the Phoenix New Times, sought to uncover
06:35the truth about allegations of sex trafficking and sexual assault.
06:39But in 2011, Seagal used the lemons life gave him to make lemonade with the action series
06:44True Justice, which he created and starred in as Elijah Cain, head of an elite undercover
06:49Seattle task force.
06:50It ran for 26 episodes on the network Reels before being canceled.
06:54From 1999 to 2007, Seagal owned a 995-acre lavender farm in Northern California, where
07:01he grew the raw materials for Diamond Lotus Essentials, a line of therapeutic oils.
07:06And he currently owns an estate in California's Santaniers Valley, where he grows carbonate
07:10grapes that he then sells to other wineries.
07:15"...You've done well."
07:20Plus there's Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt, a line of canned energy drinks that was proudly
07:24marketed as the first of its kind to contain Tibetan goji berries and Asian cordyceps.
07:29Seagal has been married four times.
07:31His third and most prominent marriage was with another nostalgic icon, model and actress
07:35Kelly LeBrock, most famous for being the dream woman created by team scientists in Weird
07:40Science.
07:41LeBrock divorced in 1996 after he reportedly had an affair with their nanny, and she got
07:46pregnant.
07:47In 2009, he married his personal assistant, Udun Tuyebatsuk.
07:51But a year later, another of Seagal's former personal assistants, Caden Nguyen, sued Seagal
07:55for $1 million, alleging he sexually harassed and abused her.
07:59Those allegations were corroborated by two other female ex-employees who alleged similar
08:03treatment by the actor, but the suit was dropped later in the year.
08:07In 2007, Seagal's pal Jackie Chan is rumored to have suggested that Seagal play the villain
08:11in Rush Hour 3.
08:13After that fell through, in 2010, Sylvester Stallone offered Seagal a part in the action
08:17flick The Expendables, which was chock-full of 80s action heroes.
08:21Seagal refused, though, due to a feud with one of the film's producers, and missed out
08:24on what would have been one of the biggest hits of his career.
08:28Steven Seagal was once among the biggest action stars in the world.
08:31Now, though, he's among the biggest caricatures in the world thanks to his many ill-advised
08:36antics.
08:37For instance, he was a historically awful Saturday Night Live host, often ranked as
08:41the worst host ever.
08:43He made horrible movie after horrible movie, and that's not even mentioning the truly gross
08:47behavior, such as his support of oppressive dictatorships and the numerous people who
08:52have accused him of sexual assault and rape.
08:55But even Seagal can't get away with this kind of behavior forever, which is how Steven Seagal
08:59got targeted by the mob.
09:01It sounds like something out of one of his movies, but according to The New York Times,
09:05Seagal and his producer Julius R. Nasso got involved in an acrimonious legal dispute over
09:10a reported half a million dollars Seagal owed his business partner.
09:14Things escalated from there, and Nasso finally brought in the big guns — literally — as
09:19he asked the Gambino family to shake down Seagal, old-school style.
09:24Things reportedly came to a head when mafia types ordered Seagal to step into a car and
09:28drove him to a Brooklyn restaurant where an alleged Gambino captain called Anthony Ciccone
09:33had a little talk with him, ordering the movie star to resume his working relationship
09:37with Nasso — and to pay a cool $150,000 for every film he'd made with the producer.
09:43Seagal says that after Nasso and the mob paid him another visit in his L.A. home, he ended
09:47up paying $700,000.
09:50If you wonder why Seagal didn't simply glare at his tormentors and throw the entire concept
09:54of organized crime through a window like he does in his movies, well, these guys weren't
09:58acting.
09:59Seagal claims that after he left the restaurant meeting, one of Ciccone's men told him,
10:04"...if you would have said the wrong thing, they would have killed you."
10:07This all came to light when Seagal was called to witness by the authorities in a 2003 racketeering
10:12trial of several notable gangsters.
10:14Seagal was called in precisely because of his history with Ciccone, and his testimony
10:19revealed the gravity of the situation.
10:21He revealed that Ciccone told him,
10:23"...look at me when I talk to you.
10:24We're proud people.
10:25Work with Jules and we'll split the pie."
10:27Seagal also stated that he hadn't contacted the authorities in his struggle with the mob
10:32because he feared what might happen to his life or career.
10:35He said,
10:36"...I'm a movie star.
10:37If you want to keep making movies, you don't want to start a war with these people."
10:40He also revealed in his testimony that he had carried a gun during his meetings with
10:44the mob.
10:45But while Seagal portrays himself as being cool and collected, the mobsters apparently
10:49didn't think so.
10:50Audio from a wiretapped restaurant in Brooklyn reveals that the mafia had a significantly
10:54different view on how things went.
10:57According to prosecutors, the suspects could be heard laughing about their meeting with
11:00Seagal, and how, quote, "...petrified the actor had looked."
11:03Ouch.
11:04The time the mob went after Steven Seagal was actually just one short part of the actor's
11:09copious misadventures with Julius R. Nasso.
11:12According to the Los Angeles Times, in 2002, Nasso slapped Seagal with a whopping $60 million
11:18lawsuit, alleging that the actor had walked back on an agreement to work together on four
11:23more movies.
11:24In 2003, the producer was arrested and pled guilty on charges of conspiring to extort
11:28the martial arts star, and received a one-year prison sentence.
11:32However, their legal battle raged on until 2008, when they ultimately settled out of
11:36court.
11:37Neither Seagal nor Nasso commented on the size of the settlement sum, though the Los
11:41Angeles Times reports that Seagal had to pay roughly $500,000 to his former producer.
11:46While this may seem peanuts compared to $60 million, Nasso seemed pleased, telling Staten
11:52Island Live,
11:53"...I got a lot more than I expected.
11:55I am very pleased."
11:56Nasso has said that he also acquired something more precious than money, a letter from Seagal
12:01to the Office of the Pardon Attorney which read,
12:03"...I am writing this letter to indicate that I have no objection to, and would support
12:07the application, when it is timely, of Julius R. Nasso for a presidential pardon."
12:12Hey, if it's good enough for turkeys, it's good enough for Steven Seagal.
12:16Whatever your opinion of Steven Seagal may otherwise be, his black belts are very real.
12:21Yes, that's belts in plural.
12:23Though Seagal is mainly known for his Aikido wizardry, he's also the proud owner of black
12:28belts in karate, kendo, and judo.
12:31Seagal has been heavily into martial arts since he was a small child, and he moved to
12:34Japan when he was 17 to study Zen and hone his martial arts skills.
12:39He ended up spending around 15 years in Asia doing all sorts of Steven Seagal things, such
12:44as studying Eastern philosophy and working as a martial arts choreographer.
12:48As chuckle-worthy and, or worrisome as Steven Seagal's antics might be these days, if you
12:53ask his old Aikido cohort, Hauro Matsuoka, Seagal is, or at least used to be, the real
13:00deal.
13:01According to Black Belt Mag, Matsuoka was one of Sensei Seagal's favorite students in
13:05the 1970s, and Seagal even recruited him as his uke, the guy all those Aikido moves are
13:11demonstrated on when he set out to conquer Hollywood.
13:14Matsuoka and the article both make Seagal's brand of Aikido seem like a fairly ruthless,
13:19brutal, and street-ready affair that drew heavy influence from Japanese swordsmanship.
13:24Apparently, Seagal held great influence within Aikido circles, and was on great terms with
13:29at least some of the higher-ups.
13:31Matsuoka even points out that Aikido had an extremely hard time in the West, until Seagal's
13:361988 breakthrough movie Above the Law caused the art's popularity to explode virtually
13:41overnight.
13:42On the other hand, Matsuoka points out that Seagal's new-fangled famous-person ways ultimately
13:47estranged the two, and caused him to fall out in 1997.
13:51Fittingly, that's around the era that Seagal started moving from box office successes like
13:56Under Siege to direct-to-video fare like The Patriot.
13:59Steven Seagal may be an Aikido master, but his reported Judo prowess might be a bit less
14:04impressive, at least if you believe the story of his altercation with a man nicknamed Judo.
14:09Gene Judo LaBelle, a bonafide martial arts legend, apparently taught Seagal some humility
14:15while serving as the fight choreographer for the Seagal Vehicle Out for Justice.
14:20When Seagal boasted that he simply couldn't be choked out, LaBelle happily took up the
14:24challenge.
14:25As a result of this very brief altercation, Seagal passed out so hard that he, well, evacuated
14:31his bowels.
14:32In front of about 30 stuntmen and crew members, if you believe LaBelle.
14:37Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
14:40To be entirely fair, LaBelle is perfectly cordial about the incident and says he respects
14:45Seagal as a martial artist, though he points out that the Aikido master would do well if
14:50he abstained from speaking in potential foot-in-mouth situations.
14:54It should also be noted that LaBelle has been known to tell a tale or two in his time, and
14:58Seagal himself vehemently denies this ever happened.
15:01Still, one would probably be forgiven for not betting on Seagal in a judo match.
15:06Karate might not be the first martial art you associate with Steven Seagal, but it turns
15:11out he started his studies as a karate kid.
15:14That's not clever wordplay, either.
15:16He actually studied under Fumio DeMura, a man who also trained Pat Morita, who played
15:21Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid movies, and brought a lot of DeMura to the role.
15:26According to the Daily Beast, DeMura has played a part in inspiring legends such as Dolph
15:30Lundgren and Chuck Norris.
15:32He even worked with Bruce Lee, who he briefly tutored on the use of nunchaku.
15:36Seagal is happy to sing his old master's praises.
15:39"...DeMura sensei is the real thing."
15:43His Aikido skills may have gotten him to the top of late-'80s action cinema, but they can't
15:47save Steven Seagal from DVD bombs, sexual assault lawsuits, and Vladimir Putin.
15:53The 80s saw the rise of the muscle-bound martial arts ass-kicker, who roundhoused entire warehouses
15:58full of B-movie bad guys that couldn't aim.
16:00Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone are the most notable names, but guys like
16:04Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris weren't far behind.
16:07In 1988, a new name joined the ranks of these shredded badasses, Steven Seagal, star and
16:12co-writer of the crime thriller Above the Law.
16:15The story follows Nico Toscani, played by Seagal, a former CIA operative who uses martial
16:20arts to help Chicago cops take down a heavily armed drug ring.
16:24It wasn't great.
16:25Rotten Tomatoes gives it a lukewarm 50 percent, based on 20 reviews, but it still ranks among
16:30Seagal's best and most well-known films.
16:32More importantly, it was an effective launchpad for his career, establishing him as a chisel-jawed,
16:37no-nonsense name to watch.
16:38Roger Ebert even gave the movie three stars, and heaped praise on the leading man himself,
16:43writing,
16:44"...he does have a strong and particular screen presence.
16:46It is obvious he is doing a lot of his own stunts, and some of the fight sequences are
16:50impressive and apparently unfaked.
16:52He isn't just a hunk, either.
16:53He can play tender and he can play smart, two notes often missing on the Bronson and
16:57Stallone accordions."
16:59By the time Seagal had karate-chopped his way to the top of the action B-movie pile
17:03in the early 90s, the craze was already winding down.
17:07But he still had one bullet in the chamber.
17:091992's star-studded Under Siege, Seagal stars as Casey Ryback, a Navy SEAL who removes the
17:15chef's hat to thwart Tommy Lee Jones' William Stranix, a bitter terrorist who commandeers
17:20the USS Missouri with help from inside man Commander Peter Krill, played by Gary Busey.
17:25The initial takeover goes well, until the bad guys realize Ryback is stealing through
17:29the ship's corridors, taking out their accomplices one by one, in the lead-up to an epic final
17:34showdown.
17:35As Roger Ebert points out in his three-star review, the formula is die-hard goes-to-sea.
17:40The renowned film critic praised the cast, saying the villains were superb, vile, and
17:44deliriously insane.
17:46As for Seagal?
17:47He makes a convincing cook.
17:49He can hit a target with a carving knife at 20 paces.
17:52In the end, Under Siege is Seagal's highest-ranking movie, nabbing a well-earned 79 percent on
17:57Rotten Tomatoes.
17:59The success of any given Saturday Night Live episode often comes down to the comedic chops
18:03of its celebrity guest hosts.
18:05Sometimes you'll get a Tom Hanks or Steve Martin who leads the cast in a hilarious round
18:08of comedy.
18:09Other times, like in April 1991, you end up with a Steven Seagal, who is widely considered
18:14to be the single worst host in the show's history.
18:17Yes, indeed, after decades of nearly weekly episodes and no shortage of lousy hosts, Steven
18:22Seagal bottoms the list.
18:24According to Tom Shale's book, Live From New York, the complete, uncensored history of
18:28Saturday Night Live as told by its stars, writers, and guests, Seagal was exceedingly
18:32difficult to work with, shot down almost every idea the writers had prepared, and refused
18:36to appear in any skit that didn't frame him as a macho, tough guy.
18:40Furthermore, he had his own sketch ideas.
18:43Seagal's relates one particular observation from cast member Julia Sweeney at the time.
18:47Some of his sketch ideas were so heinous, so hilariously awful, it was like we were
18:51on candid camera.
18:52She wasn't alone.
18:54SNL chief Lorne Michaels agrees with the dismal sentiment.
18:57Well, they probably think I'm the biggest jerk who's ever been on the show.
19:01No, no, that would be Steven Seagal.
19:06After making a name for himself in Above the Law and Under Siege, Seagal's career took
19:10a turn away from anything truly notable.
19:13Sure, there was 2010's Machete, where he played Rogelio Torres, criminal and former partner
19:18of Danny Trejo's titular character.
19:20It was just self-aware enough to sell the schlock, and came away with a 71 percent on
19:24Rotten Tomatoes.
19:26But in the years leading up to Machete, Seagal avoided the big screen and instead prowled
19:30the dank basements of direct-to-video purgatory.
19:33Sixteen of the 24 films he starred in between 2001 and 2009 went straight to on-demand or
19:39DVD, without even a limited theatrical release in major markets.
19:43Furthermore, almost all of his direct-to-video films suffered from the exact slate of issues
19:47one might imagine — low budgets, lazy writing, plots centered around cliched locations such
19:52as abandoned warehouses, and with a handful of recyclable prop guns.
19:56The biggest issue with getting the word out about these so-bad-they're-really-bad bombs
20:00is that almost nobody has bothered to watch — and therefore review — the vast majority
20:04of them.
20:05So there's no Rotten Tomatoes score or reputable review to cite.
20:08But you can probably get the gist by glancing at a cover and seeing a past-his-prime Seagal
20:13scowling in front of a Photoshopped explosion.
20:162003's Out for a Kill is so lazy, Seagal actually performs an entire fight scene sitting down.
20:22There's also 2016's Sniper Special Ops, which sounds like a fun shoot-'em-up video game,
20:27but fails to deliver any fun at all, according to John Noonan at Filmmake.
20:312005's Black Dawn doesn't even star Seagal in any fight scenes, owing to him leaving
20:36the production halfway through filming.
20:39Over the course of his career, Steven Seagal has been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple
20:43women.
20:44Back in 2002, Die Another Day Bond Girl Rachel Grant claimed the star pulled her top down
20:49and forced her onto his bed in a hotel room.
20:51As reported by Sky News, Grant further alleged that after she rejected Seagal, she didn't
20:55get the part she'd been auditioning for in Out for a Kill.
20:58In an interview with Movieline, Jenny McCarthy described an incident in which Seagal allegedly
21:02ordered her, who was auditioning for a role in Under Siege 2, to undress before grabbing
21:07her and ordering her to stay silent after she protested.
21:10And in 2010, Seagal was sued by his former personal assistant, Caden Nguyen, for repeatedly
21:15attempting to grope her and even forcibly drugging her.
21:18In the same lawsuit, Nguyen alleged that Seagal was engaged in sex trafficking because he
21:22was attended to around the clock by young Russian women who were to fulfill his every
21:26need.
21:27TMZ reported that Seagal had a habit of luring women to his home under the guise of discussing
21:31movie roles, only to make sexual advances on them.
21:34Ray Charles' granddaughter, Blair Robinson, claimed she fled one supposed film opportunity
21:39after Seagal said they should mutually massage each other.
21:42Russia faced near-universal global condemnation after launching the February 2022 invasion
21:47of Ukraine.
21:48But while the hammer of international sanctions and isolation hit hard, they weren't left
21:52completely alone.
21:54Steven Seagal maintained his friendly public stance towards Russia's Vladimir Putin, one
21:58which was controversial even before the war.
22:00As reported by Newsweek, the cinematic action hero has concrete ties to the Kremlin.
22:05And while viral rumors that Seagal was actually on the ground in eastern Ukraine fighting
22:09with the Russians were untrue, he has fostered a relationship with Russia for decades.
22:14Seagal hasn't backed off since the war began, either.
22:16If anything, his warmth towards Putin's regime has only grown.
22:20In April 2022, a clip surfaced on Twitter in which Seagal gave a motivational speech
22:24to high-ranking Russian officials.
22:26Another Newsweek article reported that Seagal condemned the Ukrainian use of HIMARS, or
22:30high-mobility artillery rocket system, and even seemed to back up Russian talking points
22:35about the need to de-Nazify Ukraine via invasion.
22:38In October of 2022, Seagal wished Putin a very happy birthday on Instagram, saying,
22:43"'Today is President Putin's birthday.
22:45I just think that we are now living in very, very trying times.'"
22:49There's an infamously embarrassing story about what Steven Seagal supposedly did to
22:59himself after crossing a legendary stunt coordinator, and that's far from the only time he's offended
23:04pretty much everyone he ever met.
23:07Charlize Theron is quite the thespian and action star.
23:10She won an Oscar for 2003's Monster, and she's kicked butt in the likes of Atomic Blonde,
23:15The Old Guard, and Mad Max Fury Road.
23:18But one thing she hasn't quite cracked is how to get along with Steven Seagal.
23:23During a 2020 interview with Howard Stern, Theron criticized Seagal's fighting skills,
23:28or lack thereof, by referencing viral videos of him clumsily pushing around bumbling opponents.
23:33As she put it,
23:34"'He's just incredibly overweight and pushing people.
23:38He's overweight and can barely fight.
23:40It's ridiculous.'"
23:41Theron also referenced the numerous allegations of sexual assault and improper behavior against
23:46Seagal that have been made by the likes of Portia de Rossi, Jenny McCarthy, and others.
23:51As she explained,
23:52"'I have no problem talking s**t about him because he's not very nice to women.
23:57So f**k you.'"
23:58Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme were two of the biggest action stars of the 1990s.
24:04They sported two very different combat styles, so a fight between them would have made for
24:08an interesting match.
24:09And it almost came to pass during a party thrown at the residence of none other than
24:13Sylvester Stallone.
24:15As Stallone recalled to Ain't It Cool News in 2006,
24:18"'Van Damme was tired of Seagal saying he could kick his a** and went right up to him
24:23and offered him the chance to step outside.
24:25When Seagal declined and left, Van Damme followed him to a nightclub and made his offer again,
24:31but then Seagal vanished."
24:32Van Damme verified this story in 2023 in an interview with The Telegraph, adding that
24:37he only tracked Seagal down at the nightclub because he left him waiting outside for two
24:42hours before chickening out.
24:43He also noted,
24:44"'People told me he doesn't speak so nice about me.
24:47I don't know why.'"
24:49It seems like it would take a lot to get on the bad side of someone as affable as Bob
24:53Odenkirk, but Steven Seagal somehow managed that feat during the notorious time that he
24:57hosted Saturday Night Live in April 1991.
25:01Odenkirk was a writer on SNL at the time, and decades later, he was still confounded
25:06by the humorlessness and cluelessness displayed by Seagal that night.
25:10As he recalled during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show in 2022, his attitude the
25:15whole week was, he kept saying,
25:17"'I've never seen your show.
25:18I don't know what you do here.'"
25:20"'Like, really?
25:21You've never seen Saturday Night Live?
25:24Where do you live?'
25:25Odenkirk described one sketch in particular, written by Seagal, in which he invaded an
25:29Exxon board meeting to beat up everyone present before angrily proclaiming,
25:33"'This is what happens when you pollute the planet!'
25:37According to Odenkirk, the audience was mystified.
25:40When Stern asked how SNL producer Lorne Michaels could have allowed this fiasco to happen,
25:45Odenkirk explained that by the time that everything was going off the rails during rehearsals,
25:49it was too late to do anything.
25:52You can add the late, great martial arts legend Bob Wall to the list of people who definitely
25:56weren't fans of Steven Seagal.
25:59In the mid-1980s, before Seagal became famous, he was trash-talking what he perceived to
26:04be the sorry state of martial arts in America.
26:07Wall took this personally, and a serious feud began to take shape that was fueled in
26:11part by dueling interviews in Black Belt magazine.
26:14Wall publicly panned Seagal's debut feature film, 1988's Above the Law, to which Seagal
26:19responded,
26:20"'If Mr. Wall has anything bad to say about me, let him come say it to my face.'"
26:25By 1991, Wall had put together a squad of famous martial artists known as the Dirty
26:30Dozen, whom he claimed were all ready and willing to fight Seagal in the ring.
26:34And he made it clear what he thought of him by declaring,
26:37"'I know five dozen guys who could whip Seagal tight.
26:40There's not just one guy who can embarrass Seagal.
26:43There's dozens.
26:44I only picked 12 of them.'"
26:46Chuck Norris is another famous martial artist who didn't exactly harbor fuzzy feelings toward
26:50Steven Seagal.
26:51As Bob Wall's former instructor, Norris was doubtless aware of the beef between him and
26:56Seagal.
26:57During a 1993 appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, the host asked Norris how good of a
27:01martial artist Seagal was.
27:04Norris hemmed and hawed at first by explaining,
27:06"'Most of Seagal's movies, his action is done close-up.
27:10Everything is real quick cuts, so you don't get a chance to really see exactly what he's
27:13doing.'"
27:14When Cavett then relayed a story about a martial artist who responded threateningly when he
27:19tried to introduce himself at a bookstore, Norris asked if it was Seagal.
27:24Cavett responded that it wasn't, but he opined that Seagal looked the part.
27:28Then he asked Norris,
27:30That menacing, really rotten kind of guy image that he projects, it's largely acting, is
27:34it or not?
27:36Norris shook his head before replying,
27:38"'It carries over into his whole life.'"
27:41When Cavett then asked Norris, in an odd turn of phrase, if Seagal had ever crunched his
27:45instep, he replied,
27:47"'No, he wouldn't dare.'"
27:49Comedian Tom Segura's distaste for Steven Seagal was plenty clear in a lengthy bit from
27:53his 2014 Netflix special Completely Normal, in which he called out Seagal as one of the
27:58phoniest and most unlikable people on the planet.
28:02Segura's evidence largely consisted of episodes of the A&E reality series Steven Seagal, Lawman,
28:08as he took Seagal to task for being a self-proclaimed expert on topics which he obviously had little
28:13knowledge of.
28:14"'Okay, I'll pass, because that's ridiculous.
28:15I don't want to be a part of that.'"
28:17Segura revisited the topic of Seagal during a conversation with Talib Kweli on the latter's
28:21podcast in 2021, as he revealed,
28:24"'All the stories I've heard about Seagal are pretty terrible, consistently terrible.
28:29You go on a movie set, and you're like, tell me about Seagal, and people are like, look,
28:33I don't talk s**t about people, but I will talk s**t about him.'"
28:37"'They're like consistently saying what a terrible person he is.'"
28:41In addition to being an MMA champion, Randy Couture has established a respectable career
28:46as an actor and a stuntman.
28:48Now, Steven Seagal has long had a reputation for not exactly being gentle with the stunt
28:53performers in his movies.
28:54That might explain why in 2012, Couture jokingly named Seagal when Jay Glazer asked him if
28:59he would come out of retirement to fight anyone.
29:02Seagal didn't take this as a joke, though.
29:04Instead, he declared,
29:06"'If Randy really wants to fight me, he can fight me anytime he wants.
29:10It'll be for free, and it'll be someplace where there are no witnesses.'"
29:13Couture was basically able to laugh off Seagal's aggressive response.
29:17During a 2021 interview with MMA Junkie Radio, he explained,
29:21"'Everybody knows the rumors and all that stuff regarding stuntmen getting injured.
29:25I got started in stunts.
29:26I was lucky enough to get some real acting gigs.
29:29For all the stuntmen out there, I will stick to my guns and say Seagal would be that guy.'"
29:34Brian Cox may be a tremendously talented actor, but even he has starred in a few absolute
29:39stinkers, like the 1996 buddy cop action comedy The Glimmer Man, which also starred Steven
29:45Seagal.
29:46In Cox's 22 memoir Putting the Rabbit in the Hat, he offered his unvarnished opinions of
29:51several of his past co-stars.
29:53And he saved his most hilariously poetic description for a certain notorious martial artist.
29:58As Cox put it,
30:00"'Steven Seagal is as ludicrous in real life as he appears on screen.
30:04He radiates a studied serenity, as though he's on a higher plane to the rest of us.
30:08While he's certainly on a different plane, no doubt about that, it's probably not a higher
30:13one.'"
30:14Julianna Margulies has a pretty personal reason for her negative opinion of Steven Seagal.
30:19When she was an up-and-coming actress, she was up for a part in Seagal's 1991 movie Out
30:24for Justice.
30:25So, she met with him in his hotel room to discuss the part.
30:28What allegedly happened next was bizarre and a little threatening.
30:32During a 2021 interview on Q with Tom Power, Margulies explained how when she sat on the
30:37couch, she felt something hard under the cushion.
30:39"'And he said, oh, oh, that's my, sorry, I must have left my gun there, and he took out
30:46from under the cushion this big black pistol.'"
30:49Seagal then allegedly put the gun on his nightstand and asked to read Margulies' palm.
30:54She then blurted out that she had to leave and virtually sprinted out the door.
30:58While recounting the same story to podcaster Jenny Hutt in 2017, Margulies revealed that
31:03she later turned down a similar hotel room meeting, with none other than disgraced mogul
31:08Harvey Weinstein.
31:10There's a legendary story in the martial arts community about an incident that allegedly
31:14took place on the set of Out for Justice, on which the late judo master Gene LeBell
31:18was a stunt coordinator.
31:20The story goes that Steven Seagal told LeBell that as an aikido master, he could get out
31:24of any hold that LeBell could throw at him.
31:27LeBell then promptly put Seagal in a chokehold that he couldn't escape, causing him to pass
31:31out and soil himself.
31:33One of LeBell's former students was MMA icon Ronda Rousey, who made it clear that she was
31:38familiar with the story when she offered her opinion of Seagal during an interview in 2012.
31:44As she put it,
31:45Obviously, the guy's a liar.
31:46Gene LeBell would destroy Steven Seagal again.
31:49I'd still put my money on him to this day."
31:51Rousey also couldn't resist, adding,
31:53"...I would beat the crap out of Steven Seagal.
31:56I would have to make him crap his pants a second time."
31:59Late rap legend DMX dabbled a bit in acting, including a pair of Steven Seagal movies,
32:052001's Exit Wounds and 2019's Beyond the Law.
32:09The latter effort was probably nothing more than a paycheck for both of them.
32:13After all, Seagal isn't generally known to abide people who trash-talk him.
32:17And after DMX's experience on Exit Wounds, he talked enough to overflow a landfill.
32:22For his part, though, Seagal had nothing but good things to say publicly about DMX after
32:27their first movie wrapped.
32:29Following Exit Wounds' premiere, he told IGN,
32:31"...I kind of investigated him a little before we began, and there were no surprises.
32:36DMX was a gentleman with me.
32:38He's reflective, thoughtful, gentle.
32:40He respects me, and I respect him."
32:43DMX, however, remembered things a little differently.
32:46In an interview with Raptor, he declared in no uncertain terms,
32:49"...Steven Seagal is a f-----.
32:51He's a f----- s-----head, with spray-on hair.
32:54He talked like he was an old slave master."
32:56DMX went on to describe how he and his wife joked about Seagal's alleged appalling behavior
33:01behind his back.
33:02And then he called him an ass---- for good measure.
33:04Eventually, though, it seems that his anger apparently cooled, at least if their latter
33:09collaboration in Beyond the Law is any indication.
33:13In 2018, the Kremlin appointed Steven Seagal as a goodwill ambassador to improve cultural
33:18ties between Russia and the U.S.
33:20That's weird enough on its own, but how did we get here?
33:23Odd as the two may seem together, it's not the first time a nation's figurehead has teamed
33:27up with a pop culture icon.
33:29One other example is former NBA player Dennis Rodman and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un,
33:33who have appeared in the past to have an unexpected friendship.
33:37Another example is the relationship between Steven Seagal and Russian President Vladimir
33:41Putin.
33:42While his box office stock has fallen off significantly in recent years, Steven Seagal
33:45made a fair pile of money for the movie industry back in the 90s, and still makes movies to
33:49this day.
33:50You're still a loser.
33:53I remember you.
33:58He's even done reality TV for A&E on Steven Seagal Lawman, which relayed his adventures
34:02as a reserve deputy in Louisiana.
34:05His action hero status is based, at least in part, on his expertise in the martial art
34:09of Aikido.
34:10Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is a former KGB agent who has professed an affinity for judo.
34:15But even having a shared interest in martial arts, the question remains — just how did
34:19Vladimir Putin and Steven Seagal end up as seemingly close friends?
34:23NPR gives credit to Bob Van Runkle and his company, Doors to Hollywood.
34:27Van Runkle's company has a very special business niche of bringing Hollywood celebrities to
34:32Russia.
34:33There are powerful figures in Russia who try to enhance their image as major players by
34:36developing relationships with American celebrities.
34:39According to his website, Van Runkle was responsible for bringing Richard Gere to Russia in 2018
34:43so the actor could speak at a global forum.
34:46Van Runkle also brought Arnold Schwarzenegger for another global forum held in St. Petersburg.
34:51The list of guests he has taken to Russia is extensive and wildly diverse.
34:54It includes celebrities ranging from Paul Anka to Jim Carrey and Katy Perry to John
34:59Malkovich.
35:00Van Runkle lived in Moscow for 15 years, says the Washington Post.
35:03But he currently resides in the United States, while he still works to offer his own brand
35:07of United States-Russian diplomacy.
35:09As far as his motives are concerned, Van Runkle lays it out clearly, telling the Washington
35:13Post,
35:14"...I'm not a political guy.
35:15I'm a deal guy."
35:16In Russia, Seagal reportedly met Putin at an after-party, and the two became fast friends.
35:21Putin even gave Steven a Russian passport in 2016.
35:24In speaking about his admiration for Putin, Seagal has said,
35:27"...Vladimir Putin is one of the greatest world leaders, if not the greatest world leader
35:31alive today."
35:32According to NPR, in 2017, Seagal stood up for Putin amid claims that the Russian government
35:37had meddled in the 2016 United States presidential election, telling British TV,
35:42"...for anyone to think that Vladimir Putin had anything to do with fixing the election,
35:46or even that the Russians have that kind of technology, is stupid."
35:49"...I think that this whole thing with Russian collusion and the president of the United
35:52States being involved in Russian collusion and all this, I think it's all a fantasy."
35:56In 2018, Russia named Seagal an unpaid official representative so that he could deepen cultural
36:01ties between the two nations, while assisting in improving humanitarian relations between
36:05Russia and the United States.
36:07Van Runkle has said,
36:08"...for Steven Seagal, Russia is a place to rebrand himself."
36:11Steve Hall, the CIA's former head of Russian operations, said these relationships not only
36:16benefit of celebrities' branding, but also Russia's.
36:18Hall told NPR,
36:19"...it looks very good for Russia because it shows that they are not alone in the world.
36:23They haven't been isolated.
36:24They indeed have these cultural connections.
36:26And they use it to basically increase their validity to the West.
36:30And it's a very clever move that they've done for a long time."
36:32However, business has died down for Van Runkle in recent years due to economic sanctions,
36:37oil prices, and the value of the Russian ruble.
36:40Van Runkle admitted to NPR,
36:41"...Russians that would give me a million dollars to bring Mariah Carey, Kiss, and a
36:45lot of others like that, they didn't have the money.
36:47It would cost them twice as much in rubles."
36:50In a real-life reversal of his typical vigilante roles, Seagal himself was once embroiled in
36:55a controversy brought forward by one of the United States' chief legal authorities, the
37:01FBI.
37:02One could say the FBI were out for justice.
37:05They thought that Seagal considered himself above the law.
37:10But even though Seagal was under siege, and may have had a journalist's car marked for
37:17Ultimately, the FBI made an executive decision not to attribute the car's bullet-hole exit
37:23wounds to him.
37:24Okay, enough joking around.
37:27Officially, Seagal was never charged, but he was also never cleared, and has been all
37:31but blacklisted in Hollywood ever since.
37:34But even though Seagal never got the apology he believes he deserved, he will, to himself,
37:41always remain the ultimate badass.
37:43Seagal's extended saga with the law began with Anthony Pelicano, who was once Hollywood's
37:48chief detective to the stars.
37:50But really, Pelicano was always more of a strong arm than an investigator who, as The
37:55New York Times says, would drive around Los Angeles with a baseball bat in his trunk,
38:00in case he needed to conduct some impromptu intimidation.
38:04In 2019, Pelicano was released from prison after a 15-year sentence for operating a vast
38:10surveillance network that conducted illegal wiretaps on actors such as Sylvester Stallone.
38:16Pelicano worked with a lot of people, including Chris Rock, Courtney Love, and, yes, Steven
38:21Seagal.
38:22That is, until the early 90s, when Seagal said they stopped being on speaking terms.
38:27A decade or so later, in 2002, Anita Bush, reporter for Variety, The Hollywood Reporter,
38:33and later The New York Times, was working on a story covering, quote, "...unflattering
38:37information about Seagal and a former business associate."
38:41At the time, per The New York Times, Bush was also collaborating with the Los Angeles
38:45Times in a piece about, quote, "...organized crime links to the entertainment industry."
38:50On June 20th, Bush found a note taped to her car in the morning telling her to stop the
38:55investigation, beside a dead fish and rose in a tin tray on the windshield.
39:00However, more disturbingly, Bush also found what appeared to be a bullet hole in the windshield,
39:05next to the troubling note.
39:07When Bush first reported the incident, she received little but mockery, especially from
39:11New Times in Los Angeles, a rival Los Angeles newspaper that has since gone out of business.
39:17In fact, she was even accused of having made up the entire incident.
39:21As Bush herself put it to The New York Times,
39:23"...I was telling the truth and no one was believing me.
39:27People started questioning whether I had somehow lost my mind."
39:30Eventually, the FBI approached Seagal as a suspect in the case, and the actor immediately
39:35said it was absurd that he would hire Pelicano to terrorize Bush.
39:39"...It's not something that, uh, credible people talk about too often."
39:44In a public statement, Seagal blamed this accusation for crippling his career, saying,
39:49"...these kinds of inflammatory allegations scare studio heads and independent producers,
39:54and kill careers."
39:55Admittedly, Seagal passed a polygraph test that indicated he was telling the truth, though
40:00some saw this as more of a publicity stunt than a demonstration of innocence.
40:05The investigation moved to Pelicano himself.
40:07Six years later, in 2008, Bush finally took the stand in a trial whereby Pelicano and
40:13six associates were brought up on no less than 110 charges of spying and illegal wiretapping.
40:20As a result, Pelicano served time in prison all the way until 2019, when he was released.
40:26Seagal, for his part, got off completely free.
40:29It seems he really might be hard to kill, after all.
40:32Sorry, he couldn't resist.
40:35People who didn't closely follow the fortunes of actor Steven Seagal may have been surprised
40:39on May 5, 2017, when The Guardian reported that Ukraine had forbidden his entrance for
40:43five years, citing him as a threat to national security.
40:47In a letter announcing the Seagal embargo, the Ukrainian Security Service wrote that
40:50the actor had "...committed socially dangerous actions that contradict the interests of maintaining
40:55Ukrainian security."
40:56One of those actions was his receiving Russian citizenship in 2016.
41:01Seagal was given his Russian passport by none other than strongman President Vladimir Putin
41:06himself, who said he hoped that their, quote, "...personal relationship will remain and continue."
41:09That special relationship came about in part because of Seagal's support to Putin's annexation
41:13of Crimea.
41:15In an interview Seagal gave to Russia Today, the Kremlin's media outlet, he lambasted U.S.
41:19opposition to the move, while endorsing Putin's actions.
41:22His desire to protect the Russian-speaking people of Crimea, his assets, and the Russian
41:26Black Sea military base in Sevastopol is very reasonable.
41:30Seagal's vocal support earned him both the position of Russian envoy to the U.S., as
41:33well as an eventual path to Russian citizenship, and more.
41:36About Putin's evaluation of Seagal, Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesperson, said,
41:41"...I wouldn't necessarily say Putin is a huge fan, but he's definitely seen some of
41:44Seagal's movies."
41:45Crimea, of course, was part of Ukraine until Russia invaded and annexed it, so their unhappiness
41:50with Seagal is understandable.
41:52But they aren't alone.
41:53In 2014, AFP reported that Estonia had canceled Seagal's appearance at a blues festival after
41:58popular outcry.
42:00Estonian Foreign Minister Ormas Pott said,
42:02"...Steven Seagal has tried to actively participate in politics during the past few months and
42:06has done it in a way which is unacceptable to the majority of the world that respects
42:10democracy and the rule of law."
42:11In other words...
42:12"...Now get your ugly white ass out of here, and don't come back."
42:16Pott also called Seagal's support of the Russian annexation of Crimea, quote, "...mindless
42:21praise of a move that many, from the Brookings Institute to the EU to the U.S. Embassy in
42:25Ukraine, consider to be illegal."
42:28That mindless praise included Seagal calling Putin, quote, "...one of the greatest world
42:31leaders."
42:33Estonia can empathize with Crimea, as the Baltic Republic was itself subjected to Russian
42:37occupation during the Cold War.
42:38It broke away from the USSR in 1991 and later joined NATO in 2004 in defense against Russian
42:44influence.
42:45And Seagal's support for Russia's exploits extends further than television appearances.
42:50Just a few weeks after Estonia canceled his gig, The Guardian noted that Seagal played
42:54at a pro-separatist concert in Sevastopol, an annexed port city in Crimea.
42:58In a move to double down on his support of Putin's actions in Crimea, the action star
43:02appeared onstage wrapped in the flag of the Ukrainian pro-Russia separatists.
43:06He was also seen sporting a Putin t-shirt that the concert's organizer gave him.
43:10Oh, and there was also a section where bikers danced in the shape of a giant human swastika
43:14as a Hitler speech played in the background, so there's that, too.
43:18But while Seagal may talk the talk in public, behind closed doors, he doesn't seem to want
43:22to be a responsible Russian citizen.
43:24In December 2020, the Moscow Times reported that the actor's Russian bank account had
43:28been frozen for his failure to pay taxes in the country.
43:32A spokesperson for Seagal told the Russian-language news outlet Moskva, quote,
43:36Most likely, this is some kind of mistake.
43:38The Russian Federal Tax Service, however, said they were justified in the decision to
43:41suspend his financial activity in Russia.
43:44And the fact that Seagal would want to be a Russian citizen without paying his fair
43:47share of taxes really comes as no surprise.
43:50His support for Putin reveals a lack of ethics and respect for human rights.
43:54An appearance on the same stage as a bunch of swastika-dancing bikers doesn't help redeem
43:58him, not to mention all the other accusations against him.
44:02There's only one way to describe Seagal and his tattered reputation these days — under
44:06siege.