Steven Seagal is a terrible, terrible person. There are hundreds of bits of information about him on the internet that prove this, and now to add to the list is a highly believable accusation of antisemitism from his former Exit Wounds co-star, Michael Jai White.
Now, if Seagal were just your run-of-the-mill terrible actor, you could argue that this charge of antisemitism is overblown, or perhaps unrealistic. After all, people who make dumb, bad movies aren’t necessarily bad people. But Seagal is genuinely a monster, who’s only managed to avoid more ire because his career is so terrible. In fact, he’s done so much terrible stuff, you can make a two-hour-long podcast out of it and still not scratch the surface.
White made the claims in an interview with the Ukrainian-American interviewer Vladimir Lyubovny on his website, and it’s hard not to believe them given the actor’s history. This includes some really harrowing things, like several credible sexual assault and kidnapping claims, as well as some funnier stuff like embarrassing lies — mostly about his martial arts prowess. Then there’s his inability to keep his bowels in check when actually in a fight, which doesn’t have much to do with his personality but is just funny to make sure people know about. So, a bit of bigotry isn’t exactly a stretch, especially from a man who is friends with some questionable people who are likely to hold some negative and stereotypical views of Jewish people.
The worst thing about much of the errant star’s behavior is that he’s somehow managed to convince numerous people he’s a law-and-order type of man, mostly thanks to his (now thankfully defunct) reality television show Steven Seagal: Lawman. It showed Seagal serving in his largely ceremonial role as a reserve deputy sheriff in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, during the first two seasons, and in Maricopa County, Arizona, for the third and final season — but he did manage to murder a puppy while in the alleged line of duty, so you can’t say he didn’t have an impact, even if he wasn’t really an accredited officer as he portrayed himself to be.
As is almost always the case in Hollywood, people have known about Seagal’s terrible behavior for quite some time. When he somehow hosted SNL at the height of his career, a comic on the show, Tim Meadows, had this to say of his efforts:
“The biggest problem with Steven Seagal was that he would complain about jokes that he didn’t get, so it was like — you can’t explain something to somebody in German if they don’t speak German. He just wasn’t funny, and he was very critical of the cast and the writing staff. He didn’t realize that you can’t tell somebody they’re stupid on Wednesday and expect them to continue writing for you on Saturday.”
Julia Sweeney didn’t have anything better to add:
“When we pitched our ideas for Seagal at our Monday meeting, he gave us some of his own sketch ideas. And some of his sketch ideas were so heinous, but so hilariously awful, it was like we were on Candid Camera.”
When you add the dozens of sexual assault accusations, from stars like Portia de Rossi and Julianna Margulies (who claims Seagal turned up to her alleged audition with a gun, forcing her to flee), you’re not exactly getting the most charming portrait. So, would you really be surprised to find antisemitism thrown into the mix?