He's a mystical, stone-faced martial arts expert with a ponytail, and in the '90s, he
was kind of a god.
Steven Seagal ruled the box office for years with huge hits with dangerous names, like
Hard to Kill, Above the Law, and Under Siege.
But tastes change, and Seagal faded from movie star prominence.
Here's a look at what he's been up to since vanishing from the spotlight.
"This is unexpected.
I think the only thing unexpected is I'm still alive."
Still making movies
Seagal's contract with Warner Bros. ended in 1997 with the release of the environmentally-themed
thriller Fire Down Below.
But he still makes action movies today, and he still puts them out at a rapid clip…
except they mostly just go directly to DVD now.
"I've decided that I'm gonna stick around for a while."
"I've also decided, if you don't like it, that's tough s---."
Among those projects: The Patriot, Exit Wounds, Half Past Dead, Out for a Kill, Into the Sun,
Submerged, Black Dawn, Attack Force, Urban Justice, Kill Switch, and Driven to Kill.
In all, Seagal has churned out more than 30 movies in less than 20 years.
In 2016 alone, he starred in seven films which either saw minimal theatrical release, or
never made it there at all.
Looks like Seagal may no longer be The Perfect Weapon.
"Hey, looks like that guy has the hiccups, somebody get that guy a glass of water."
The ratings for these films don't help much, either.
Two Seagal films — The Foreigner and Contract to Kill — earned a score of 0 percent on
Rotten Tomatoes.
That means that not a single critic that saw either film liked them.
The AV Club criticized Contract to Kill specifically, writing that Seagal, quote,
"...gives the kind of performance traditionally associated with stars who died during filming.
And yet, Seagal is in almost every scene."
37 of his direct-to-DVD movies since 2001 haven't even been seen by enough people to
be rated yet, while 2002's Half Past Dead only managed to eke out a 3 percent, despite
its amazing title.
"Is that the best you got, boy?"
Still, Seagal is moving forward in his career by reaching into the past.
In the works is Under Siege 3, completing his popular trilogy.
Also in development: Above the Law 2, a sequel to Seagal's 1988 debut film.
Lawman
Starting in the late '80s, Seagal took a side job as a police consultant in Jefferson Parish,
Louisiana, alongside mega-fan, sheriff Harry Lee.
Lee asked the action star to train his force in martial arts and marksmanship, and eventually
enlisted Seagal as a reserve deputy.
In 2009, Seagal's side gig became the basis for a reality show on A&E called Steven Seagal:
Lawman, a strange riff on Cops that usually entailed Steven Seagal hanging out in a police
car observing the actual officers from a safe distance.
During filming in 2011, Seagal drove a SWAT tank used to raid the home of Jesus Llovera,
an Arizona man suspected of holding cockfights.
Llovera sued for $100,000 in damages; he also wanted Seagal to write a letter to his kids
to apologize for killing their puppy.
Llovera ultimately pled guilty to the cockfighting charges.
After a change of attorney and a failure to submit paperwork, a judge dismissed the lawsuit
against Seagal.
Seagal reportedly resigned from the force after he found himself the subject of an internal
affairs investigation that sought to uncover the truth about, quote, "allegations of sex
trafficking and sexual assault."
That wasn't the end of his crime-busting career, however.
Seagal took his cop act to TV with his 2011 action series True Justice, which he created
and starred in as Elijah Kane, head of an elite undercover Seattle task force.
"This does not make sense.
It just doesn't make sense."
The show ran for a total of 26 episodes.
He missed his comeback
Seagal is reportedly good friends with fellow martial arts movie star Jackie Chan, so while
Rush Hour 3 was entering production in 2007, Chan is rumored to have suggested that Seagal
play the film's villain.
He didn't end up in the role, and the rewritten part went to Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada.
That wasn't Seagal's only big miss.
Sylvester Stallone's 2010 hit The Expendables showed that there was still a big audience
out there for '80s-style action heroes.
But conspicuously absent from the movie's long list of aging-but-able action stars is
Seagal.
Stallone reportedly offered Seagal a spot in the ensemble, but he turned it down.
The reason: Seagal reportedly hates one of the movie's producers, Avi Lerner, with whom
he worked on several of his direct-to-video features.
He's an entrepreneur
Seagal's interests go far beyond just kicking criminals in their justice buckets.
There's a far gentler side to Seagal that most never get to see.
For instance, he owns a California estate where 200 acres are set aside to grow Cabernet
grapes, which are sold to wineries.
In 2007, he sold his 995-acre lavender farm in northern California where he grew and processed
plants for Diamond Lotus Essentials, a line of "therapeutic oils," which sound like they
may just come in handy after a savage Seagal beatdown.
"Boring"
And in 2005, this happened.
"Hey there… we want to tell you about Steven Segal's new energy drink.
It's called Lightning Bolt.
It's 100% natural and it's just great."
Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt was a line of canned energy drinks which was proudly
marketed as the first of its kind to contain "Tibetan Goji Berries" and "Asian Cordyceps."
Flavors included Cherry Charge, Root Beer Rush, and — this is 100 percent real, a
flavor called "Asian Experience"… whatever that means.
"Everybody, just see that?"
He even teamed up with a Cold Steel, a California knife manufacturer, to create the "Steven
Seagal Series" of knives and swords.
A katana sword with sheath costs a mere $1099.99, while a shorter "Steven Seagal Helmet Breaker"
is a bargain at $499.99.
Romantic rollercoaster
Seagal has been married four times.
His third and most prominent marriage was with another icon of pop-culture nostalgia,
model and actress Kelly LeBrock, most famous for being the dream woman created by teen
scientists in Weird Science.
Seagal and LeBrock divorced in 1996 after he reportedly impregnated their nanny.
In 2009, he married his personal assistant, Erdenetuya Batsukh, to whom he's still married
today… but that's not without its troubles either.
Remember when Seagal resigned from the force?
In 2010, another of Seagal's former personal assistants, Kayden Nguyen, sued Seagal for
$1 million, alleging he sexually harassed and abused her.
Those allegations were corroborated by two other female ex-employees who alleged similar
treatment by the actor.
The suit was dropped later in the year.
He gets around
Seagal lives a very full life outside of making movies and hanging out with cops.
He also spends a lot of time traveling around the world to visit his friends who live far
away.
Incongruously, he's spent time both with Buddhist spiritual leaders… and Russian president
Vladimir Putin.
Seagal also gained citizenship in Serbia in January 2016 when he offered to set up a martial
arts studio there.
Seagal isn't welcome everywhere, however.
When he told a Russian state-run newspaper that he supported Putin's controversial intervention
in Crimea, Seagal was dropped from a gig performing at a blues festival in Estonia.
After Putin personally granted Seagal a Russian passport in 2016, the actor was banned from
entering Ukraine on the grounds that his actions, quote, "...contradicted the interests of maintaining
Ukraine's security."
And with moves like this, who could blame them?
The national anthem
Seagal wears his politics on his very tight sleeves, and he made his voice heard during
a September 2017 appearance on Good Morning Britain, accepting host Piers Morgan's invitation
to weigh in on professional athletes protesting racial injustice in America by opting to kneel
during the national anthem.
From Seagal's point of view, it's all very simple.
"I don't agree they should hold the United States of America and the world hostage"
"people are tuning in to watch a football game and imposing their political views."
"I think it's outrageous, I think it's a joke.
It's disgusting."
As patriotic as his words may have seemed from a particular point of view, they were
delivered via remote feed... from Moscow, of course.
The weird Russian video
Seagal is no longer the athletic martial arts master of yesterday.
That's why some were a little skeptical of a viral video of Seagal demonstrating aikido
at the 2015 International Youth Sambo Tournament, held in the Russian city of Saratov.
"Steven Seagal!"
When cornered by TMZ, Seagal laughed off accusations that the fighting in the viral video was fake.
"I've been doing martial arts all my life, how could it be fake?"
After the TMZ reporter suggested that the guys up against Seagal flopped a little too
hard, Seagal explained that,
"...when you're about to break someone's arm or wrist, usually they like to go with it
so it doesn't snap."
Then again, this is a man who can turn a dishtowel into a deadly weapon, so anything is possible.
Seagal vs. Foreman
It's been years since action thriller fans were actually wowed by a new Steven Seagal
fight scene, but boxer George Foreman might just be the one to get Seagal back into fighting
shape.
The fighter, who knows a thing or two about climbing back in the ring, challenged Seagal
to a fight in October of 2017, tweeting an offer to go ten rounds with his would-be opponent
in a no-holds-barred Vegas match, during which he'd stick to boxing, but Seagal could, quote,
"use whatever."
Seagal didn't immediately respond to Foreman's challenge, but that didn't stop it from making
headlines.
It's not so hard to understand why people would want to watch these once-mighty fighters
wail on each other; if you've ever struggled to make your way through a recent Seagal movie
or burned yourself on a Foreman Grill, the idea of either guy being punched for your
enjoyment must be pretty tempting.
"Today I got up I stepped onto the grill and it clamped down on my foot that's it.
I don't see what's so hard to believe about that."
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