10 Actors Who Stupidly Turned Down Video Games

It's not exactly a huge secret that Mortal Kombat's Johnny Cage is basically a parody of martial artist movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme, though originally Midway did actually approach Van Damme himself to appear in the game.

Back before it became Mortal Kombat in earnest, Midway was creating a fighting game intended to be a grittier version of Street Fighter II, with Van Damme's potential digitised presence as its major selling point.

Franchise co-creator John Tobias pitched the idea to Van Damme, but he turned it down while considering other video game offers, causing Tobias and co-creator Ed Boon to rework their concept into what would become Mortal Kombat.

And because they could no longer include Van Damme in the game in any official way, they instead created Johnny Cage as a wink-wink thumbing of the nose at the actor, with his clothing even imitating that worn by Van Damme in his film Bloodsport.

Van Damme's other video game offers didn't pan out, though in a feat of possible karmic justice, two years later he starred in the flop movie adaptation of Street Fighter as well as its 1995 video game adaptation.