The actor Steven Seagal accused of being paid to badmouth him: “You don’t have to pay me”
Steven Seagal is not somebody you want to mess with. As well as being highly skilled in the martial art aikido, he is also friends with some incredibly dangerous people. In 2018, he was appointed Russia’s special envoy to the United States by Vladimir Putin, following years of public support for the controversial leader. If all that isn’t scary enough, he’s also released an album of reggae music. Truly terrifying stuff.
All of these combustible elements have contributed to Seagal picking up a number of high-profile enemies throughout his career. Charlize Theron hates the man with a burning passion, calling him ‘overweight’ and saying he could ‘barely fight’. It probably doesn’t help that he’s been accused of several counts of sexual assault throughout his life and that several stuntmen who have worked with him have said he is unsafe, with a tendency to hit people for real.
Another person who has spoken out publicly against the star of Under Siege is Tom Arnold. The comedian appeared in one of Seagal’s movies, Exit Wounds, and told a story about a funny mishap he had whilst on set. “Seagal goes, ‘I don’t want to rehearse.’ He never wanted to rehearse,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “He just sat in his chair the whole time for 45 minutes.” This refusal ended up backfiring in a big way when he forgot which door he was supposed to exit a scene through. “He starts heading to that door and I looked at [co-star] Anthony Anderson and I was like, ‘Should I tell him?’ He goes, ‘No,’” Arnold continued. “[Seagal] opens the door and he goes, ‘Oh, fuck’ and disappeared in the ocean.”
After allegedly being rescued from the water by four people, Seagal turned his ire towards Arnold. “A mutual friend we have said, ‘Hey, I talked to Steven and I’m gonna set up a [meeting],’” Arnold revealed “I go ‘No, don’t do that.’ He goes, ‘Well, he wants to know who’s paying you to badmouth him.'”
Apparently, Seagal grew paranoid that somebody was funding Arnold to tell that embarrassing story about him. This wouldn’t have been the first time powerful forces had conspired against him – he was once almost extorted by the mafia – but according to Arnold, this was just how he was. “If he had a sense of humor at all, he’d know that everybody I do movies with, I do a story,” he said. “You don’t have to pay me to tell stories. The problem with him is he’s got so many.”
Exit Wounds sees Seagal take up the mantle of Orin Boyd, a Detroit police officer working as part of the city’s most notorious precinct. It wasn’t just one of the big names who suffered an accident on set. During a scene gone wrong, stunt performer Chris Lamon died after a serious head injury. He was supposed to roll out of a van that was being towed upside down, but struck his head during the manoeuvre. Another stuntman suffered a concussion during the same shoot.
It’s clear that years of warranted scrutiny have turned Seagal into a paranoid mess. As Arnold put it, it’s hard not to tell funny stories about a man who is constantly embarrassing himself and making people not like him. Maybe he’ll learn one day, but then again, he almost certainly will not.
