Most fans of director John McTiernan’s 1987 sci-fi action classic Predator (watch it HERE) are aware by now that the creature played by Kevin Peter Hall in the finished film was a mid-production replacement for a much less cool – in fact, it looked ridiculous – creature that was being played on set by Jean-Claude Van Damme. It’s just not clear exactly why Van Damme exited the project when the decision was made to change creature designs. While Van Damme has said he felt wearing the creature suit was dangerous to his health, others have said he was fired for wanting to make the creature pull off some kickboxing moves or because he was behaving badly because he didn’t like the idea of being hidden under a costume. In a new interview, Predator cast member Bill Duke has sided with Van Damme’s version of the story, saying he was fired for being dehydrated.
Duke told the Murder Master Music Show,
We were in the jungles of Puerto Vallarta and Palenque for a long time. I don’t know if you know this story or not, but the Predator that you saw was not the original Predator. The original Predator was a much smaller creature and they were going to put the special effects on his body in post-production. So he had a stealth suit on and they put him on wires and he flew up in the trees with the wires on his back like he was flying. He had passed out twice from dehydration, and the producer came over to him and said, ‘If you pass out again, I’m gonna fire you.’ And the guy said, ‘I’m not passing out on purpose! I’m dehydrated!’ The producer said, ‘Don’t pass out again.’ Two weeks go by, and the guy passes out. The producer goes over and fires him. That person was Jean-Claude Van Damme.”
It’s unfortunate that Van Damme got the boot, but in the end everything worked out just fine. He went on to become a major action star himself, and Kevin Peter Hall’s version of the Predator is one of the coolest creatures in cinema history.
Scripted by Jim and John Thomas, Predator has the following synopsis:
Dutch, a soldier of fortune, is hired by the U.S. government to secretly rescue a group of politicians trapped in Guatemala. But when Dutch and his team, which includes weapons expert Blain and CIA agent Dillon, land in Central America, something is gravely wrong. After finding a string of dead bodies, the crew discovers they are being hunted by a brutal creature with superhuman strength and the ability to disappear into its surroundings.
In addition to Bill Duke, the characters who were being hunted by Van Damme and then Hall were played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Elpidia Carrillo, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Landham, Richard Chaves, and Shane Black.