The only actor who enjoyed working with Steven Seagal: “I got along very well with him”
It is very difficult to find an actor in Hollywood who no one will defend. There will be some people out there who read that statement and want to shout about ‘cancel culture’ and the ‘woke mind virus’ or whatever, but consider the facts. Kevin Spacey still has friends in the industry. Johnny Depp is making movies again. And even Armie Hammer, the man accused by multiple women of – and this is not a joke – actual cannibalism, has found enough support to get a starring role in an upcoming film.
So yes, it’s challenging to name an almost universally despised actor. Even Jared Leto and Mel Gibson have friends in high places. But if there is one man who pretty much everyone can agree is bad news, it’s Steven Seagal. Even if you do not take his mystifying forays into music into consideration, this man is hard to like. Most actors who mention him are nothing short of scathing, and that includes ones who haven’t worked with him.
If you are blissfully unaware of Seagal’s reign of terror in Hollywood and subsequent slouch into obscurity, allow me to ruin your day. He’s a martial artist from Michigan who made his film debut in the 1988 action movie Above the Law, which was enough of a success that he followed it up with several more smashy-punchy-kicky movies like Hard to Kill, Out for Justice, and Under Siege (perhaps you’re noticing a pattern with the subject matter).
When he’s not terrorising co-stars, Seagal is supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, patrolling the US-Mexico border, and getting his reality TV shows cancelled after human trafficking lawsuits. Oh, and he’s also a Buddhist. If all of this sounds wonderful to you, you’ll be glad to know that he sells a range of weapons and aftershave, presumably to be used in tandem, preferably on the person who purchases them.
Now, at this stage, you might be wondering who, exactly, found this man tolerable to work with. That distinction lies with one Bob Gunton, a seasoned character actor who you might know for playing the evil prison warden in The Shawshank Redemption, the evil dean in Patch Adams who hates joy, and the sarcastic wizard in Daredevil.
In a 2015 interview with the AV Club, Gunton admitted that he actually had a pretty okay time working with Seagal on the 1996 flop The Glimmer Man. Things got off to a rocky start when Gunton met the martial artist before production and noticed that he had a pistol strapped to his ankle. This may have helped their future relationship by setting the bar extremely low.
“I actually got along very well with him,” Gunton claimed. “And he never pulled the gun on me, so I’m grateful for that. At least, he never pulled it on me offscreen. He certainly did on-screen.” A low bar indeed. Gunton’s main takeaway from the film was that it was really fun to get (fictionally) shot in the head. “I can’t say I’d put that at the top of my résumé,” he said jovially, “But it was an adventure.”
