Jean-Claude Van Damme comments on ‘strange’ Friends cameo: ‘I’m ashamed of myself’

In 1996, Jean-Claude Van Damme appeared in an episode of Friends, and it did not go well. For the first time in a long time, Van Damme commented on his cameo in “The One After the Super Bowl: Part 2,” the 13th episode of the second season of Friends.

In an interview with the New York Post, Van Damme shared what happened, from his perspective, and how he feels about it now. Here’s what Van Damme told the New York Post while promoting Old Oak, a new whiskey brand.

"“My acting is so bad. I look so like a ham. Like, ‘Hey, girls.’ […] It’s like, I’m ashamed of myself.”"

Van Damme complemented Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox, who appeared in Van Damme’s scenes in the show, but he recalled the ‘strange’ experience.

"“I didn’t know much about the show. So when I go to the show, I see those two beautiful girls and they say this is the hottest show right now in the world. So I was very glad.”"

The two-part episode aired after Super Bowl XXX and featured a bunch of other guest stars, including Brooke Shields, Fred Willard, Dan Castellaneta, Julia Roberts, and Chris Isaak. For Van Damme’s part in the episode, he played a version of himself who draws the eyes of Rachel (Aniston) and Monica (Cox). The gang accompanies Ross to the set of Van Damme’s new movie Outbreak 2: The Virus Takes Manhattan, which also stars Ross’s former monkey, Marcel, who was stolen from the San Diego Zoo. Rachel and Monica duke it out over who gets to make a run at Van Damme, also known as the Muscles from Brussels. Van Damme is from Belgium. Ultimately, they both try to get with Van Damme, but they ditch him in the end.

Overall, it’s not a particularly strong storyline, and honestly, it’s kind of wild that we’re still talking about it nearly 30 years later, but there’s been a lot of controversy surrounding Van Damme’s appearance on Friends.

In 2021, The Hollywood Reporter published an oral history of the Super Bowl episode. In the story, Michael Lembeck shared that he had to tell Van Damme to stop using tongue when kissing Aniston and Cox.

Here’s a portion of what he told THR about Van Damme:

"“We shoot him and Jennifer first. Then she walks over to me and says, “Lem, Lem, would you do me a favor and ask him not to put his tongue in my mouth when he’s kissing me?” I tell him everything is great but it’s a tight shot so maybe let’s not do that. Then we’re shooting a scene later with Courteney. Here comes Courteney walking toward me and saying, “Lem, can you please tell him not to put his tongue in my mouth?” I couldn’t believe it! I had to tell him again, but a little firmer.”"

Yikes!

It’s safe to say Van Damme is one of the worst guest stars in the show’s history and what happened behind the scenes confirms it.