Self professed Jackie Chan fanboy Edgar Wright, hot off his smash hit “Baby Driver,” sat down with one of his filmmaking heroes for a far ranging conversation covering all things cinema, overcoming insecurity and Chan’s elusive retirement. “I’ve been a huge fan for a many years,” Wright said eagerly, “in your new film ‘The Foreigner‘ I think audiences will be surprised to see a side of you not often seen — this is dark and brooding Jackie not silly and fun Jackie. The grittier role in this film was appealing for Chan, whose worked hard in recent years to expand his body of work beyond just action films by taking on more complex character portrayals.
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From China to the United States, Jackie Chan has had the kind of international career that many stars dream of having, but it wasn’t always an easy road. “The first time I came to the US it didn’t work, so I went back to China,” he recalls when discussing his career in the 1980s. “My English wasn’t that good, the scripts weren’t right and I didn’t have many choices [with material] so I went back.”
Wright noted that the interesting thing was that rather than go back to China feeling discouraged with “your tail between your legs,” he started directing, making his own films, true to his vision. Chan said that his time on American film sets in his early years allowed him to learn what to do as well as what not to do, so he took that knowledge and incorporated it into his own directing style specifically catered to his brand of action films. Wright was clearly somewhat stunned by this saying, “It’s amazing that once you did achieve success in the US with ‘Rumble in the Bronx,’ you were able to do it on your own terms.” Chan agreed and said, “This film I made for the Chinese market! When it became successful in the US we were shocked!” Just before its success, Chan considered hanging it all up. “I was forty and I was thinking I was going to retire soon, then something happened with the American market. ‘Rush Hour‘ came along then ‘Shanghai Noon‘ and ‘Shanghai Knights.’ Then I went back to China and I again I said, ‘I am going to retire soon,’ then boom! The Chinese market [opened up], now I don’t know when I will retire!”
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Over the course of his illustrious 50 year career he says he spent 20 of it slowly letting “the audience accept me not only as an action star but an actor too.” With roles in films like “Little Big Soldier” and “Dragon Blade” he was able to show audiences that he was more than just an impeccable set of martial arts skills. “I know an action star’s life is short,” he continued, “look at the history around the world. How many action stars are left? Not many. A star is forever, stars like Clint Eastwood, Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman are still acting and they don’t have to fight! The most important is the acting and I want the audience to know, Jackie is a star actor who can fight – not a fighter who can act.” Edgar Wright said he was far to modest and said, “You were always an actor. You’ve always shown incredible range straight through the beginning of your career until now.” To which Chan warmly replied, “Thank you, I just try to be unique and be myself.”
For more about Chan’s adventures in directing, the development of “Rush Hour 4,” learning from James Cameron and finally getting an Oscar, check out the awesome Talkhouse podcast with Edgar Wright below.