The transcript below is from the video “He Met Steven Seagal And Told Me The Truth” by Martial Arts Journey.

Jesse Enkamp:

That’s actually the way he is. He is the characters in his movies.

Rokas (Martial Arts Journey):

My friend has met Steven Seagal. So I asked him how Steven Seagal is in real life as he also shared some surprising things about Steven Seagal that nobody knows.

Jesse Enkamp:

Some people left comments why is he speaking with such a weird voice, he’s just faking it. But from the very first minute I met him to the very last minute, he was the exact same. Now, if you’re able to stay in character for so long, you should have an Oscar. And he doesn’t have any Oscar as far as I know. That’s actually the way he is. He is the characters in his movies, which made me realize he doesn’t act in his movie, he’s just being himself. That’s literally the way he is. But of course, much more than that because in many ways, he’s like a martial arts nerd. And he told me himself that he lives like a recluse. He doesn’t want money and fame and all of that. He’s been there, done that. So now he just loves to study the martial arts, the history, the philosophy, he reads a lot. In many ways, I could see that he was a martial arts nerd just like you and I are. He just happened to have a Hollywood career a couple of years ago as well. I think that’s why he invited me to come there because he’s known for so many things but what he really cares about is the martial arts. And I was blown away by his knowledge because I had no idea. I thought it was a Hollywood superstar martial arts actor, someone who does it for the screen. But that seems to be a very tiny part of the way he views the martial arts.

Rokas (Martial Arts Journey):

I then asked Jesse what he was allowed to film.

Jesse Enkamp:

You might think that there was a lot of rules and regulations, you can film this but Mr. Seagal doesn’t want you to film that. There was none of that. Obviously, he had a big scary bodyguard, his assistant and stuff there was some kind of structure and security around him but there were no real rules about what I could film or not film. So I just filmed everything but I could tell that his assistant was not used to somebody filming him eating because she said nobody had ever filmed him eating before. So I was like, oh, should I maybe turn off the camera? Did I do something wrong? But he was like, no, keep rolling. He was fine with it. In fact, because he’s a director as well, he even told me the best angles like, hey, maybe this you should shoot from that angle or this angle. And afterwards. when I showed him the footage. He even gave me some great pointers on how I could color grade the footage, how I could edit it together so it would be a great story. I think that is also a major factor to why the video was so good because Steven Seagal is the executive producer of my YouTube video.

Rokas (Martial Arts Journey):

The big controversy about Steven Seagal is his recent weight gain but what I learned from Jesse about it, surprised me.

Jesse Enkamp:

So this is what he told me. He has some thyroid disorder and I know some people who have this. And if you take the medication needed for this, a side effect is that you easily gain weight. And during the pandemic, a lot of us had trouble working out and I think he had the same and he said that when he grew up, there was some air pollution and his whole family has this. So I think it’s genetic, this disorder. Maybe he doesn’t want to say this to people. Some people were like, oh, he’s so lazy, he should work out, he’s a martial artist but he does work out. He’s definitely not lazy. He was taking phone calls, going to meetings and working all the time when we were there. A lot of people commented that he needs to stop eating pizza and hamburgers but actually everything we ate was super healthy, super fresh, like organic vegetables and salmon. Again, it’s not about his lifestyle, it’s about his thyroid disorder.

Rokas (Martial Arts Journey):

Then there was another big criticism that Jesse addressed.

Jesse Enkamp:

If we’re talking about criticisms, one of the main ones that I saw was that his old stuntmen would become kind of upset that he was so harsh and maybe you saw in the video was that he didn’t hold back a lot. But actually, he did hold back a lot. The thing is he has such a natural build for tremendous power that he doesn’t even have to try to hurt you. So I can imagine being a stuntman working in one of his movies back in the days when he actually tried to be fast and powerful, that would probably be over the top for most people who are not experienced martial artists. So I can see where that criticism comes from and I understand it because he had tremendous power. I mean, just his hand was so big, the mass alone would like fracture everything in your body if he put some power behind it. But he was actually very relaxed and smooth in his movements. But because he has excellent technique then that means he has great leverage and he has great structure in his body. And I think that is a little bit of the reason why he has some criticism for this.

Rokas (Martial Arts Journey):

Many people also have the opinion that Steven Seagal is arrogant but this is what Jesse had to say about that.

Jesse Enkamp:

Some people think that he’s arrogant or full of himself but I think there’s a thin line between arrogance and confidence because he knows what he’s good at and he’s not afraid to show it. But at the same time, he’s also humble because he invites me, he gives us plenty of nice food, he shows us around, he gives us private lessons and he’s always very respectful to not hurt us and to make sure that we’re comfortable and have everything we need. That aspect of humility, even though some people think he didn’t show any in his techniques because he was so brutal, but I think that’s because he wanted to show the techniques the way they’re supposed to be done and that’s why he flew in. He’s okay, the guy he’s demonstrating with just to demonstrate these things because he didn’t want to hurt me or Oliver. It turns out some of the stuff was very painful, so I’m glad he did that. But the fact that he just thought about these things and even brought me a nice gift, the makiwara, the wooden punching board, that just goes to show that one martial artist can respect another even if they’re from totally different generations and different parts of the world.

Rokas (Martial Arts Journey):

A lot of people were also wondering what’s Steven Seagal’s opinion of Aikido since during the video, he barely mentioned it, and here’s why.

Jesse Enkamp:

It turns out he’s not really fond of modern Aikido or rather he thinks the original form of Aikido is more effective. So that is perhaps where his interest lies these days even though he’s known as an Aikido master and so he loves to go back in history and look at the way the samurai would fight on the battlefield and then he tries to bring that knowledge back and kind of revive or reinterpret Aikido or Aiki Jutsu, or there are many different terms for this kind of movement. So that’s why we didn’t mention a lot of Aikido, except sometimes he would show this move is what they do in modern Aikido but the original way you would do it is like bam and it would be like straight to the point and not this circular slow soft movement which we usually view today.

Rokas (Martial Arts Journey):

That also brought up that Steven Seagal doesn’t like a currently very popular martial art Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and he had a very interesting reason as to why.

Jesse Enkamp:

He spoke a lot about how the samurai never wanted to go to the ground and he was a little bit upset, maybe is the right word, that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was becoming so popular because he didn’t like that they called it Jujutsu. He thinks it should be called something different because Jujutsu came from the samurai and again, they never wanted to go to the ground on the battlefield with a heavy armor just trying to stand up in that thing as somebody shoves a knife in your side. So he was all about going back to the roots and staying true to the art as a killing method, not even a martial art but like a warfare battle stuff. And that’s why some of his techniques were pretty rough.

Rokas (Martial Arts Journey):

Another question that everybody keeps asking Jesse is how he got to meet and film with Steven Seagal to begin with and even if he had to pay Steven for the opportunity.

Jesse Enkamp:

There was no exchange of money at all.

Rokas (Martial Arts Journey):

He invited you?

Jesse Enkamp:

Yeah, that’s the way it went. Nobody was more surprised than me when he reached out to me. Obviously, I thought it was a scam or something because it was in Dubai. I didn’t know he lives in Dubai. I thought he lives in L.A or something. But obviously, he left Hollywood and all of that behind and has a different kind of lifestyle right now. But that was a total shock for me and a huge honor. I know that he has a reputation for many other things but I’ve never been interested in that. I am a martial artist. What I care about is the fighting arts. My thing is I don’t care about your religion, your ethnicity, your political views, and I didn’t ask even any questions about that because honestly, I couldn’t care less. What you do with your private life, that’s your business none of my business. Martial arts is my interest. And I’ve met many Karate masters, even in Okinawa, who are the complete opposite outside of the dojo. And some of them will almost be like douchebags. I’m sorry to say but here’s the thing, you don’t have to be a perfect human being to be a martial artist. None of us are, I’m pretty sure. And it’s our imperfections that define who we are. This is a quote by Aristotle. It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to hold two conflicting thoughts in your head at the same time. It’s possible to meet somebody with a reputation or with some characteristics you don’t agree with and still learn a lot because again none of us are perfect.