One of the coolest “what ifs” in movie history is that Jean-Claude Van Damme was nearly the Predator in John McTiernan‘s 1987 sci-fi horror classic. In fact, he was the actual alien creature before exiting the project for one of a handful of possible reasons. While everyone involved has their version of the story (I’ve heard it was because he wanted to get fired feeling he was about to become a star with Bloodsport), JCVD offers his truth in a fun new interview with THR. His explanation? He was constantly being put in danger.

“I came to the studio and they made me run around and I jump, and they say, ‘This guy can jump very high so yes, he’s in,'” said Van Damme about getting cast.

He had trouble breathing. He was becoming overheated. And that was just the start of his problems.

“I go to this place and they put me on sticks and woods and they start to melt all the cast on me, and it’s boiling hot. I like to breathe, you know? They’ve got to do my head and everything.”

“I’ve got my friend next to me and I said, ‘Man, I ain’t going to make it,'” he continues. “They put in my mouth a tube, and at that time I was just a stand guy. I was covered in that cast for at least 20 minutes.” They told him, “‘If you feel like you cannot breathe, just go like this with your finger [gestures with his finger] and I’ll put it away from you.” They wanted him to go five more minutes but he could not.

The final costume saw Van Damme standing on stilts, explains the site. The costume also reduced his mobility so much that he felt the stunts the production demanded of him would be too dangerous.

“My feet were in these casts. When Joel [Silver] asked me to jump, I knew it was going to be a bad one. I said, ‘This is impossible, Joel. I think we’re going to have a problem.’ Then he replaced me,” recalls the 58-year-old actor. “The guy who did my stunts, something bad happened to him and then they did the more safe outfit.”

“I was happy that I listened to my intuition.”

Here’s the full video which carries all sorts of fun stories directly from JCVD’s own mouth.