Steven Seagal Believes Someone Is Paying Tom Arnold to Badmouth Steven Seagal

According to new reports, professional badass Steven Seagal is not happy with Tom Arnold, which isn’t all that surprising because 1) Who is Steven Seagal happy with? and 2) Who isn’t unhappy with Tom Arnold? But that’s not stopping Arnold from trotting out his old Seagal stories, including this weekend at Comic-Con. Arnold thrilled the crowd with one anecdote in particular that seems to get Seagal’s goat.

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Arnold has told this tale of Seagal schadenfreude a few times but for those who haven’t heard it, it’s a pretty good one. Here goes: 

Arnold and Seagal were working together with DMX and Anthony Anderson on the 2001 classic Exit Wounds, the gritty tale of “a tough cop in an inner-city precinct who discovers a web of dirty cops and corruption.” We’re sure it just missed the short list for the 2001 Academy Awards. 

Seagal’s trouble began when he refused to rehearse a scene on a houseboat, despite director Andrzej Bartkowiak’s insistence that he needed to set the cameras. "Steven Seagal goes, 'I don't want to rehearse.' He never wanted to rehearse," Arnold confided to the Comic-Con crowd. "He just sat in his chair the whole time for 45 minutes. He could have it rehearsed it, blocked it, done everything."

Instead, Segal simply ordered Bartkowiak to yell “Action!” The scene called for some typical stone-faced Seagal emoting, after which he was supposed to get up and exit through a door that led to the dock.  The problem, according to Arnold? Seagal had spent so much time arguing with the director, he’d forgotten which door he was supposed to exit. 

When Seagal started heading toward the wrong door, Arnold “looked at Anthony Anderson and I was like, 'Should I tell him?' He goes, 'No.' And (Seagal) opens the door and he goes, 'Oh, f---' and disappeared in the ocean.” According to Arnold, Seagal actually had to be fished out of the drink. 

Arnold told Entertainment Weekly that mutual friends have sent word that Seagal is not pleased with Arnold’s continued insistence on telling the story to crowds of strangers. That same friend offered to set up a meeting between Seagal (who now lives in Russia as a full citizen) and Arnold. “I go 'No, don't do that,'” Arnold says. “He goes, 'Well, he wants to know who's paying you to badmouth him.'”

We wouldn't put it past the jealous Hollywood Elite to fund an anti-Seagal campaign, but Arnold is doing it for free. Or at least for the attention. "If (Seagal) had a sense of humor at all, he'd know that everybody I do movies with, I do a story — Arnold (Schwarzenegger), people I love, all these different people. You don't have to pay me to tell stories. The problem with him is he's got so many." 

Isn’t Arnold afraid that Seagal is going to return to America to kick his ass? After all, according to Wikipedia, the action star has a 7th-dan black belt in aikido. According to John Leguizamo, that martial arts business really hurts! But Arnold isn’t scared. "I'm like, 'Okay, well, f--- him,” he says. “Really f--- him.'"