“It was just rough in general”: the movie shoot Steven Seagal called amateur
His name hasn’t become synonymous with cinematic excellence or polished productions, but given that he’s been able to churn out so many movies on a regular basis dating back decades, Steven Seagal does at least know what constitutes an economical shoot.
Sure, the vast majority of those films are more likely to be spotted in the bargain bin than on the big screen. Still, when he was averaging multiple credits per year from the 1980s right through to the 2010s, the industry’s most unpopular aikido expert had plenty of experience of being a cog in a well-oiled machine.
Seagal didn’t even make his film debut until he was in his late 30s, with 1988’s Above the Law setting the template for his entire career in his process. ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is a cliché for a reason, with director Andrew Davis inadvertently laying down the playbook for almost everything that would follow.
Does Seagal play a character with a ridiculous name? Nico Toscani says yes. Is he a current or former member of law enforcement or the military? Both, with the protagonist a CIA agent now working as a Chicago cop. Does he treat himself with the utmost seriousness despite the backdrop being a silly B-tier actioner? Looking at the film’s most unintentionally hilarious quote, that one answers itself.
It was classic Seagal before classic Seagal was even a thing, but on the plus side, the actor managed to get what he called “the most difficult movie I did” out of the way very early after outlining to JoBlo the unfortunate scenario he found himself in that resulted in a trip to the hospital.
“I remember they had a scene where my hands were tied to a chair. Somebody was standing behind me with his chest against my head and had plastic wire around my neck or something. So, you really couldn’t move,” he explained. “They filled a glove full of lead. Now, why you would have that as a prop, I don’t know, because the audience can’t see inside that glove. It could have been Styrofoam, you know?”
When the lead-lined glove was swung at his face, Seagal shattered his nose and was ushered to a nearby medical facility. “That’s the kind of shit we did on that movie,” he sighed. “It was a rough schedule and just rough in general.” How rough? Well, he claimed “the production didn’t have the right support team in place,” with Above the Law “made on a shoestring budget”
According to Seagal, “In many ways, it was an amateur hour on that movie,” but he presumably forgave and forgot when his first-ever major role helped put him on the map in under 100 minutes.
