A while back, a terrific book about the golden age of action stars called “The Last Action Heroes” came out (buy it here). Written by Nick De Semlyen, the book takes a very affectionate look at all of the icons we grew up with in the 80s and 90s, with one notable exception. Steven Seagal does not come off well in the book – at all. One of the wildest stories from the book recounts a time when Seagal grew outraged over the fact that a meeting room he wanted was being occupied by the legendary Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.
The two actors, who would have been in their late sixties then, were participating in a read-through for their hit comedy Grumpy Old Men. According to the book, the vibe in the room was light, with the two old pros cracking up their director, Daniel Petrie and assembled guests. One of them was William Osborne, writer of Twins (and – well – Stop or My Mom Will Shoot), who said the read-through was interrupted by a loud thumping at the door. In walked Seagal, who thundered at the director Petrie, “What’s going on?” Petrie answered that they were trying to do a read-through with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, to which he responded, “Well, I don’t care. I have the room.”
As Osbourne remembers, “It was just classic Steven Seagal. He finally stepped out and closed the door. But he was an absolute nutcase. He made those absolutely banging early action films and then went completely batsh*t crazy.”
While it’s pretty funny to think of what Lemmon and Matthau must have thought of the pony-tailed Seagal yelling at them must have been like, there’s a tragic dimension to this story. As Osborne states, those early action movies he made were total classics. I’d wager his first five films, Above the Law, Hard to Kill, Marked for Death, Out for Justice and Under Siege (in which his screen time is surprisingly limited), are all action classics. Yet it was all downhill after that as hubris took over. For a more positive look at Seagal, check out his fantastic interview with fellow action star Scott Adkins. It’s Seagal at his best rather than his worst.
While his standing in the industry has no doubt changed a lot (and not for the better), Steven Seagal still did contribute a lot to the craft of action movies. It’s just too bad that he fell off so badly, with many pegging On Deadly Ground as the moment that really opened to the door to the other, more ego-driven side of the actor. Check out this funny story about Seagal’s reaction to a backhanded compliment from Michael Caine at the premiere.
As for Seagal, his acting days seem to be long behind him now, with him having not made a movie since Beyond the Law in 2019. While his IMDB credits list a couple of movies in pre-production, including Above the Law 2, it seems unlikely those will happen on a very large scale, with his connection to Vladimir Putin following the Invasion of Ukraine especially polarizing to fans. At any rate, one would be hard-pressed to remember the last truly decent Seagal movie. One could say maybe some of those early DTV movies like Belly of the Beast and Into the Sun were pretty good, but in terms of box office, most people would list Exit Wounds as his last hurrah, although he memorably played a villain in Machete.