Steven Seagal enjoyed great success in the 1990s, but even though he played the lead role in this film, he was not seen at all for a large portion of its running time.
What movie is it about? Under Siege is one of Steven Seagal’s most famous films. In English it is called Under Siege. It was released in 1992, the decade in which Seagal was probably most successful.
Red Alert is actually the actor’s most commercially successful film, grossing around $156 million worldwide (via boxofficemojo.com).
What’s strange is that although Seagal plays the leading role, he only appears for about 41 minutes in the film, which lasts 98 minutes.
Steven Seagal in the trailer for his most successful film: Red Alert
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The villain steals the show
Why does Seagal have so little screen time? In the film, Seagal plays Casey Ryback, who has to defend himself against an attack by terrorists on a US Navy ship. Seagal even made it into the game World of Warships, probably because of this role. Ryback’s main antagonist and opponent is William Strannix, played by none other than Tommy Lee Jones.
Compared to Seagal, Jones appears much more often. According to Nick de Semlyen and his book “Last Action Heroes”, the reason was simple: Seagal was not really convinced by the project at first and doubted whether he should even sign on to it.
So the villain, and therefore Jones, was given more space in the script. Jones received a lot of praise for his performance and his own career was boosted. Just one year later, he received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film The Fugitive.
But despite his limited screen time, the film was worth it for Seagal. Not only did it make a lot of money worldwide, it also made the actor even more popular. And ultimately, in Hollywood, it’s not really important how long you’re on screen.
Some great actors even received their Oscar for roles in which they only appeared for a few minutes. A well-known example is Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs.
Seagal didn’t win an Oscar for his performance in Red Alert. But he went down in film history and is one of the great action stars of that time. Viewers voted to find out who the greatest action star is today – read on MeinMMO who came first.