Jean-Claude Van Damme once looked up to Sylvester Stallone as one of his idols. The next big action hero couldn’t help but look up to Van Damme even before he rose to fame. Van Damme wanted to introduce himself to Stallone so strongly that he broke into his home. Van Damme, however, soon realized it wasn’t a smart idea to break in.

Van Damme was merely attempting to break into the martial arts action movie business before he became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. He broke into Stallone’s house as one of his attempts to get into Hollywood. He intended to go face-to-face with his hero and persuade the Rocky actor to work with him.

Van Damme remembered to Yahoo, “I was around his house, and I see this blonde lady — it was his first wife [Sasha Czack] — coming out with a bicycle.”

When Van Damme realized this, he took advantage of the situation.

“I attempted to get over his wall. When [Czack] noticed that, she dialed 911. They arrived immediately. But I did say, “I’m a huge fan.” All I want is to practice karate with Stallone. They perceived my innocence in my eyes and [heard] my accent. “They said, ‘Go on,'” he claimed.

Later, in The Expendables 2, Van Damme would be able to work with his hero at last. But not after giving Stallone a horrible impression.

“I wanted to make one more martial arts movie called Tower at that time,” Van Damme said. I heard [Stallone’s] voice and Expendables when he called. But I have something for you, I said! This film, Tower. So I’m begging Stallone to star in my film, and he’s calling to ask me to participate in Expendables. He then gave the producers a call. “You know this guy’s got smashed.” I guess I made a mistake. Thus, he avoided talking to me.