Nearing sixty years old, and having announced that he's retiring from action movies, it looks like Jackie Chan is ready to tell everyone how he really feels. While he's earning the wrong kind of headlines for declaring that Hong Kong is "a city of protest marches" and that "we should have rules dictating what [issues people] can march for, and which they can't," flying slightly below that are his thoughts on his own filmography. Particularly when it comes to his work in Hollywood.
While Chan may have been all smiles and happy to do the press rounds for the "Rush Hour" movies, it turns out they are not pictures he regards very highly. "I have reasons to do each film, I have something to say. Unlike 'Rush Hour' – there was no reason [in making it], you just give me the money and I'm fine. I dislike 'Rush Hour' the most, but ironically it sold really well in the U.S. and Europe," the actor said. There is no word yet on this thoughts on 2002's "The Tuxedo," but we'd guess they probably aren't much different.
But, if anything, Chan has maintained his decades-spanning career by not messing with the formula too much. Over the summer he revealed that fellow aging action star Sylvester Stallone had offered him a part in what we assume was probably "The Expendables 2," that he had to turn down due to "scheduling." And it seems Stallone wanted Chan to play a villain, but having earned his bread and butter by being the good guy, it wasn't something that was ever going to happen. "I don't like to be looked [down] upon by foreigners," the actor explained. "Once [Sylvester] Stallone asked me to be in a film and play a drug baron who turns good at the end. I didn't go."
What other wacky things will Chan say now on the promo circuit for his latest, "Chinese Zodiac"? Who knows, but he's not pulling any punches. [THR]