When asked, how, for example, has the 'Muscles from Brussels' brokered dreadful action vehicles like Double Impact and Universal Soldier into a career where he looks poised to challenge the top ranks of Hollywood action stars? Surely not through modesty? The answer is determination, a lot of smarts - and a clumsy, probably misinterpreted, self-belief.

He's been polished and buffed up for the press now, but the drive is still there. 'I'm not perfect. I make lots of mistakes every day. And I am learning every day to become a different person,' he says. It would be foolhardy now not to believe him, when he has his pick of Hollywood scripts - 'I'm getting the choices I always wanted now,' he says. 'I've got all these great people talking to me, directors, and good scripts coming to me. It's a different ballgame. I'm very happy.' Van Damme already has two pictures in the bag to be released after Timecop - both made last year when he was still firmly on the B list. There's Streetfighter, based on a comic strip and co-starring Kylie Minogue, and Sudden Death - 'like Die Hard on ice,' he explains.

In spite of his young age - he is now 32, according to the official bio - Van Damme's success has been a long time coming. There was his career as a body-builder and five years spent training in ballet (he turned down an offer from a professional ballet company; now his 'arms have become too big, it looks funny'); years as a cab driver, a waiter and a night-club bouncer in Hollywood; many, many low-budget films (two shot in Hong Kong); four marriages (some messy divorces, including the most recent which involved a lawsuit), two children; and a lot of patience.

Part of his slow progress was a collaboration last year with John Woo on the Hong Kong director's first American film, Hard Target. Rumours were rife that Woo and Van Damme fought over the star's close-up quota, but Van Damme is gentlemanly. 'The only problem with John is that they rushed him into production too fast.

'I know he likes to take his time to prepare a movie really well, and Hard Target was a great movie, but the script came down too fast. He came into America without knowing all the people and weapons he needed for that movie. Now he's in better shape. It's like me coming to Hong Kong, not knowing anyone, who I should work with.' Van Damme did come to Hong Kong to make three films (Kickboxer, Double Impact and Bloodsport), forming an enduring alliance with Wang's Salon Films and a determination to shoot in China. And he is in Hong Kong this week on a talent-spotting mission.

Quest, he explains, has become an obsession over the years, and he'll finally start casting (85 per cent Chinese actors, he claims) in Hong Kong and Beijing in March. 'It's an epic,' he says. 'Shot in 1929, where I'm playing a kid, an immigrant who goes from France to New York. I'm like a white Mike Tyson, wanting to build a dream, and my destiny will take me all the way from New York to China, Thailand, Tibet, into a very big adventure with pirates.

'Timecop was really an elevation in my career because it was more complex than those low-budget movies I have done in the past,' he explains. 'It was not just action, action, action. I was not just a muscleman, wham, bam, bam. That's not my future,' he says. But he adds: 'I think Timecop will be very appealing in Hong Kong - it's got great fight scenes.' For aficionados, he explains that his martial arts style is a peculiar mixture of East meets West. 'When I was 11, I started with Shokoban karate, which comes from Okinawa. But from there, I touched all types of styles and developed my own. I did ballet for five years, until I had to make the choice between that and martial arts. I did body-building. It's all in there.' However, he no longer does all his own stunts - 'Even if I wanted to, it became impossible with all the insurance. If something happened to me, then the movie would be immobilised for days, weeks, and we'd lose a lot of money.' With careful preservation, Van Damme is looking forward to a long career in movie-making. 'Today, with all the equipment, and careful direction, we could work up to (the age of) 75. Some nice cutting, blue-screen work, a good director . . . Anybody can look good in action.' Maybe, he admits, Quest will be a 'big mistake' - it will take him out of Hollywood for at least a year. But at least it will bring him back to Asia, a place he loves dearly.