In the '80s and '90s, Steven Seagal was one of the most recognizable action stars in the world, gaining prominence with movies like Above The Law, Hard to Kill, and Under Siege. Seagal continued his successful action movie career into the 2000s, but he was accused by multiple women of sexual harassment and assault. The accusations took a toll on his career, and he is mostly stuck making direct-to-video action movies these days. What has the former action star been up to since his heyday in the '80s and '90s? Here's a look at what Steven Seagal has been up to lately.
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00:00He's a mystical, stoned-faced martial arts expert with a ponytail, and in the 90s, he
00:05was kind of a god.
00:06Steven Seagal ruled the box office for years with huge hits with dangerous names, like
00:11Hard to Kill, Above the Law, and Under Siege.
00:14But tastes change, and Seagal faded from movie star prominence.
00:17Here's a look at what he's been up to since vanishing from the spotlight.
00:19This was unexpected.
00:20I think the only thing that's unexpected is that I'm still alive.
00:25Still making movies
00:26Seagal's contract with Warner Bros. ended in 1997 with the release of the environmentally-themed
00:31thriller Fire Down Below.
00:33But he still makes action movies today, and he still puts them out at a rapid clip.
00:37Except they mostly just go directly to DVD now.
00:40I've decided I'm gonna stick around for a while.
00:43I've also decided that if you don't like it, that's tough s***.
00:49Among those projects?
00:50The Patriot, Exit Wounds, Half Past Dead, Out for a Kill, Into the Sun, Submerged, Black
00:55Dawn, Attack Force, Urban Justice, Killswitch, and Driven to Kill.
01:00In all, Seagal has churned out more than 30 movies in less than 20 years.
01:05In 2016 alone, he starred in seven films which either saw minimal theatrical release or never
01:11made it there at all.
01:12Looks like Seagal may no longer be the perfect weapon.
01:14Hey, looks like he got the hiccups, so I'm gonna get that guy a glass of water.
01:22The ratings for these films don't help much, either.
01:25Two Seagal films, The Foreigner and Contract to Kill, earned a score of zero percent on
01:31Rotten Tomatoes.
01:32That means that not a single critic that saw either film liked them.
01:36The A.V.
01:37Club criticized Contract to Kill specifically, writing that Seagal, quote, "...gives the
01:41kind of performance traditionally associated with stars who died during filming."
01:46And yet, Seagal is in almost every scene.
01:49Thirty-seven of his direct-to-DVD movies since 2001 haven't even been seen by enough people
01:54to be rated yet, while 2002's Half Past Dead only managed to eke out a three percent, despite
02:00its amazing title.
02:02Is that the best you got, boy?
02:05Still, Seagal is moving forward in his career by reaching into the past.
02:09In the works is Under Siege 3, completing his popular trilogy.
02:13Also in development?
02:14Above the Law 2, a sequel to Seagal's 1988 debut film.
02:19Lawman
02:21Starting in the late 80s, Seagal took a side job as a police consultant in Jefferson Parish,
02:26Louisiana, alongside mega-fan Sheriff Harry Lee.
02:30Lee asked the action star to train his force in martial arts and marksmanship, and eventually
02:35enlisted Seagal as a reserve deputy.
02:38In 2009, Seagal's side gig became the basis for a reality show on A&E called Steven Seagal
02:44Lawman, a strange riff on cops that usually entailed Steven Seagal hanging out in a police
02:49car observing the actual officers from a safe distance.
02:53During filming in 2011, Seagal drove a SWAT tank used to raid the home of Jesus Llovera,
02:59an Arizona man suspected of holding cockfights.
03:02Llovera sued for $100,000 in damages.
03:05He also wanted Seagal to write a letter to his kids to apologize for killing their puppy.
03:11Llovera ultimately pled guilty to the cockfighting charges.
03:14After a change of attorney and a failure to submit paperwork, a judge dismissed the lawsuit
03:19against Seagal.
03:20Seagal reportedly resigned from the force after he found himself the subject of an internal
03:24affairs investigation that sought to uncover the truth about, quote, allegations of sex
03:29trafficking and sexual assault.
03:32That wasn't the end of his crime-busting career, however.
03:35Seagal took his cop act to TV with the 2011 action series True Justice, which he created
03:41and starred in as Elijah Cain, head of an elite undercover Seattle task force.
03:45This does not make sense.
03:47It just doesn't make sense."
03:49The show ran for a total of 26 episodes.
03:53He missed his comeback
03:54Seagal is reportedly good friends with fellow martial arts movie star Jackie Chan.
03:59So while Rush Hour 3 was entering production in 2007, Chan is rumored to have suggested
04:04that Seagal play the film's villain.
04:06He didn't end up in the role, and the rewritten part went to Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada.
04:12That wasn't Seagal's only big miss.
04:14Sylvester Stallone's 2010 hit The Expendables showed that there was still a big audience
04:18out there for 80s-style action heroes.
04:21But conspicuously absent from the movie's long list of aging-but-able action stars is
04:26Seagal.
04:27Stallone reportedly offered Seagal a spot in the ensemble, but he turned it down.
04:31The reason?
04:32Seagal reportedly hates one of the movie's producers, Avi Lerner, with whom he worked
04:37on several of his direct-to-video features.
04:40He's an entrepreneur
04:41Seagal's interests go far beyond just kicking criminals in their justice buckets.
04:47There's a far gentler side to Seagal that most never get to see.
04:50For instance, he owns a California estate where 200 acres are set aside to grow Cabernet
04:56grapes, which are sold to wineries.
04:58In 2007, he sold his 995-acre lavender farm in Northern California where he grew and processed
05:05plants for Diamond Lotus Essentials, a line of therapeutic oils, which sound like they
05:11may just come in handy after a savage Seagal beatdown.
05:15And in 2005, this happened.
05:20Hey there, we want to tell you about Steven Seagal's new energy drink.
05:25It's called Lightning Bolt.
05:26It's 100% natural, and it tastes just great.
05:30Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt was a line of canned energy drinks which was proudly
05:34marketed as the first of its kind to contain Tibetan goji berries and Asian cordyceps.
05:40Flavors included Cherry Charge, Root Beer Rush, and — this is 100% real — a flavor
05:46called Asian Experience.
05:48Whatever that means.
05:49He even teamed up with Cold Steel, a California knife manufacturer, to create the Steven Seagal
05:58series of knives and swords.
06:00A katana sword with sheath costs a mere $1,099.99, while a shorter Steven Seagal helmet breaker
06:09is a bargain at $499.99.
06:13Romantic rollercoaster
06:15Seagal has been married four times.
06:18His third and most prominent marriage was with another icon of pop culture nostalgia,
06:22model and actress Kelly LeBrock, most famous for being the dream woman created by teen
06:26scientists in Weird Science.
06:28Seagal and LeBrock divorced in 1996 after he reportedly impregnated their nanny.
06:35In 2009, he married his personal assistant, Erdene Tuya Basuq, to whom he's still married
06:40today, but that's not without its troubles, either.
06:43Remember when Seagal resigned from the force?
06:46In 2010, another of Seagal's former personal assistants, Caden Nguyen, sued Seagal for
06:51$1 million, alleging he sexually harassed and abused her.
06:56These allegations were corroborated by two other female ex-employees who allege similar
07:01treatment by the actor.
07:02The suit was dropped later in the year.
07:05He gets around
07:06Seagal lives a very full life, outside of making movies and hanging out with cops.
07:11He also spends a lot of time traveling around the world to visit his friends who live far
07:16away.
07:17In Congressly, he's spent time with both Buddhist spiritual leaders and Russian President Vladimir
07:23Putin.
07:24Seagal also gained citizenship in Serbia in January 2016 when he offered to set up a martial
07:30arts studio there.
07:32Seagal isn't welcome everywhere, however.
07:34When he told a Russian state-run newspaper that he supported Putin's controversial intervention
07:39in Crimea, Seagal was dropped from a gig performing at a blues festival in Estonia.
07:45After Putin personally granted Seagal a Russian passport in 2016, the actor was banned from
07:50entering Ukraine on the grounds that his actions, quote, "...contradicted the interests
07:55of maintaining Ukraine's security."
07:57And with moves like this, who could blame them?
08:00The National Anthem
08:01Seagal wears his politics on his very tight sleeves, and he made his voice heard during
08:06a September 2017 appearance on Good Morning Britain, accepting host Piers Morgan's invitation
08:12to weigh in on professional athletes protesting racial injustice in America by opting to kneel
08:17during the National Anthem.
08:18From Seagal's point of view, it's all very simple.
08:21"...I don't agree that they should hold the United States of America or the world hostage.
08:26People are tuning in to watch a football game and, you know, imposing their political views.
08:33I think it's outrageous, I think it's a joke.
08:36It's disgusting."
08:37As patriotic as his words may have seemed from a particular point of view, they were
08:42delivered via remote feed from Moscow, of course.
08:46The weird Russian video
08:48Seagal is no longer the athletic martial arts master of yesterday.
08:53That's why some were a little skeptical of a viral video of Seagal demonstrating Aikido
08:58at the 2015 International Youth Sambo Tournament, held in the Russian city of Saratov.
09:03"...the first in class, Steven Seagal!"
09:11When cornered by TMZ, Seagal laughed off accusations that the fighting in the viral video was fake.
09:16"...man, I've been doing martial arts all my life, how could it be fake?"
09:19After the TMZ reporter suggested that the guys up against Seagal flopped a little too
09:24hard, Seagal explained that
09:26"...when you're about to break someone's arm or wrist, usually they like to go with it
09:30so it doesn't snap.
09:31Then again, this is a man who can turn a dish towel into a deadly weapon.
09:36So anything is possible."
09:38Seagal vs. Foreman
09:40It's been years since action thriller fans were actually wowed by a new Steven Seagal
09:44fight scene, but boxer George Foreman might just be the one to get Seagal back into fighting
09:49shape.
09:50The fighter, who knows a thing or two about climbing back in the ring, challenged Seagal
09:53to a fight in October of 2017, tweeting an offer to go to ten rounds with his would-be
09:58opponent in a no-holds-barred Vegas match, during which he'd stick to boxing.
10:03But Seagal could, quote, "...use whatever."
10:06Seagal didn't immediately respond to Foreman's challenge, but that didn't stop it from making
10:10headlines.
10:11It's not so hard to understand why people would want to see these once-mighty figures
10:15wail on each other.
10:16If you've ever struggled to make your way through a recent Seagal movie or burned yourself
10:20on a Foreman grill, the idea of either guy getting punched for your enjoyment must be
10:25pretty tempting.
10:26"...today I got up, I stepped onto the grill and I clamped down on my foot.
10:30That's it.
10:31I don't see what's so hard to believe about that."