Great part of an interview with Stephen Quadros, former PrideFC commentator.
People say that Seagal is hard to work with. Did you find this to be true?
I was hoping you wouldn't ask that question. But, since you did ... (laughs) He is on his own wave length, let's just put it that way. Before filming started Dion Lam had co-ordinated all the major fight scenes that involved Seagal with his double, Joe Bucaro, and DMX's double Errol G. All the producers came to Toronto to sit with Seagal to watch, critique and possibly change the fight scenes. The 2 stunt guys ran through the fights and everyone, including Seagal agreed they would work fine. Well a month and a half later it was time to shoot the fight scene with Seagal and DMX. Dion's guys ran through the same fight scene to remind Steven and DMX of the moves. Suddenly Seagal said these moves would not work and they had to change things to fit his 'style'. Then for at least an hour, Seagal, Dion Lam, director Andrej Bartkowiak and co-producer Dan Crachiollo argued and yelled at each other. Seagal left the set then came back and they started working on the fight scene, exactly as choreographed by Dion! Unfortunately Segal injured DMX's shoulder during the fight so X had to take a few days off. Another time we were filming this scene in this strip club with hundreds of extras. Seagal would show up late, shoot one take then while they were resetting the lights he would leave the set and get shuttled back to his trailer. Moments later people on the set would be looking for him to do the next shot but he wasn't there. So they had to call him back in his trailer EACH TIME. The whole journey back and forth between shots took at least 20 minutes minimum and we were getting way behind. Finally one of the producers called Seagal on his cell phone and just SCREAMED at him. The whole thing was like a Saturday Night Live parody. But it was real. They had to add a whole extra day of shooting in the club which, when you consider camera crew, lighting, building rental, food, extras, actors, it get kind of expensive to say the least.
What kind of interaction did you and Seagal have?
OK, if you have to know ... I had heard all the horror stories about how he would hurt actors and stunt performers, dislocated shoulders, kick guys in the nuts to see if they were wearing cups, etc. I had heard about Gene LeBell. So 2 weeks before we started shooting I was training DMX on the soundstage one and Seagal showed up and was throwing a few guys around on some mats on the other side of the stage. So I waited till he was finished and walked over and introduced myself. I figured why wait, he's going to see me around anyway. But I wasn't wearing a cup. I had left it in L.A.!!! So I stood kind of sideways just in case he decided to suddenly kick me in the family jewels. During the conversation he moved to where he was standing square with me. So while I was chatting with him I slowly moved back to where I was semi sideways again. He moved again to square up with me. I'm thinking, "This is not happening." So I switch to where my right foot was forward, turning sideways again the other direction. I was doing this very subtly. He had that 'look' in his eyes as he squared up with me again. I smiled, folded my hands in front of my groin and said I had to get going and walked away. It was VERY weird.
Another time I told him I worked as commentator for the Pride Fighting Championships in Japan. I was wearing the Grupo Chute Boxe t-shirt that Vanderlei Silva had given to me after he defeated Bob Schreiber in the January 2000 Pride. Seagal told me he didn't think the fighters in Pride were very good and that he couldn't understand why Kazushi Sakuraba kept winning because he thought he was not very good either. I obviously didn't agree but felt it was not the time or place to get into it with Seagal. So I said, "But at least they test themselves on a regular basis." Then I told him I had heard that he had a student who he thought could defeat Sakuraba. He said he did. I said if he needed help putting the match together I may be able to help him but his guy might be asked to get some experience before going to Japan. We never spoke on the subject after that. I asked him if he would like for me to conduct an interview with him for Black Belt magazine. He declined.
I kind of steered clear of him for the most part. But one time he came on the set and started walking right towards me. I thought, "****, I don't have my cup on!" So he walks close to me and my radar was up. Then he grabbed my wrist. I am not an Aikido guy and I'm not saying I am better than Seagal at wrist locks but my first instructor was Korean and had taught us Hapkido which included many techniques that were similar to Aikido. So I reversed his grab to were my hand was on his wrist. He grabbed the same wrist with his other hand. I reversed him again. This little game went on for about a minute. I was really trying not to upstage the guy because on a movie set it's a no win situation to do that to the star, especially him. But I for sure was not going to let him get me into a compromising position physically. I know guys he has hurt to the point of having to have surgery. He suddenly stopped and pointed at me and said, "You're good." I didn't know what to say so I just smiled. He walked away.
