Was 1980s The Movie Channel host Michele Russell attached to play a sister character in the 1989 Van Damme classic Kickboxer?

Legendary drive-in movie critic and movie host Joe Bob Briggs (who currently has a show on the Shudder streaming service called The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs) has a Patreon account called The Lost Drive-In, where they share the hosting segments from his days on MonsterVision, a TNT show he hosted from 1996 to 2000, and Joe Bob’s Drive-in Theater, which he hosted on The Movie Channel from 1986 to 1996… and one of the recently shared hosting segments might have unearthed a bit of interesting trivia about the 1989 Jean-Claude Van Damme classic Kickboxer! Specifically, it seems that the makers of Kickboxer might have, at one point, been planning to include a sister character and to put her in jeopardy.

Joe Bob wasn’t the only host presenting movies on The Movie Channel in the ’80s. One of his fellow hosts was Michele Russell, who also had some acting credits to her name. She had roles in episodes of CHiPS, It Takes Two, CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre, The Magical World of Disney, and Sledge Hammer!, as well as the TV movie Goldie and the Bears and the action comedy Under the Gun. In April of 1988, Russell presented a showing of the 1982 James Woods drama Fast-Walking alongside Joe Bob – and during their hosting segments, it was revealed that Russell was leaving The Movie Channel to pursue her acting career, starting with a role in a movie called Kickboxer that was about to start filming in Thailand.

Russell said, “I’m going halfway around the world to make movies, I’m going to Thailand. … That’s what’s going to be fun. It’s a B movie that you’ll like, Kickboxer. I don’t play a kickboxer, I play the sister of a world class kickboxer who will actually lose the biggest fight of his life to save my life.” She figured that the movie was going to end up being rated R, and while she wouldn’t be doing a topless scene, she did guarantee the film would have lots of action.

The Van Damme film Kickboxer is indeed an R-rated action film that went into production in Thailand in 1988 – but if it’s the project that Russell was attached to appear in, it clearly underwent a major script rewrite between her April conversation with Joe Bob and the start of filming in August, because Russell is not in the movie (or any other kickboxing movie) and there is no sister character in it at all.

Directed by David Worth from a screenplay written by Glenn A. Bruce (who was working from a story crafted by Van Damme and producer Mark di Salle), Kickboxer has the following synopsis: Eric Sloane is an American kickboxing pro, helped by his brother, Kurt, in his quest for glory. But when the two go to Thailand to take on legendary Tong Po, the opponent viciously beats Eric and leaves him paralyzed. Swearing vengeance, Kurt tracks down master Xian Chow and begins learning the sport himself while also getting caught up in criminal intrigue involving thuggish crime boss Freddy Li. Van Damme is joined in the cast by Dennis Alexio, Dennis Chan, Michel Qissi, Ka Ting Lee, Rochelle Ashana, and Haskell Anderson.

Rather than a sister character being put in jeopardy, the film does have Van Damme’s Kurt falling for a young woman named Mylee, Ashana’s character, who is put in jeopardy toward the end. So if Russell’s Kickboxer was the same Kickboxer we know and love, the sister was replaced by a love interest.

Unfortunately, Russell’s acting career didn’t go very far after her Kickboxer role fell through. The only credit she has after Under the Gun in 1987 is an appearance in the 1993 comedy Hexed.

Lionsgate recently gave Kickboxer a 3-Disc SteelBook 4K UHD and Blu-ray release that includes commentaries with producer Mark di Salle, director David Worth, and actor Haskell Anderson, as well as interviews with other cast members (including Van Damme), so maybe a lost sister character is mentioned somewhere in there – but I haven’t had the chance to go through that release’s bonus features yet, and when I saw Michele Russell talking about her Kickboxer acting role in 1988, I found it to be very interesting.

Do you think a sister-in-jeopardy element would have worked for Kickboxer? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.