Even as his body ages, the 59-year-old actor longs for Hollywood’s full embrace.
BEVERLY HILLS: Jackie Chan wasn’t in the mood for proclamations. The Hong Kong martial arts film star, who declared last year at France’s Cannes Film Festival that he was retiring from action films, now says that after more than a decade of contemplating quitting, he is going to let his body decide.
“When I was 40-something, the media would ask me and then I said another five years, and then five years and five years until now,” the actor said in an interview. “Six more months and I’m going to be 60. And I will [now] see how far I can go until my body tells me, ‘Stop’,” he stated.
Chan, famous for performing all of his high-flying and physically punishing stunts, has appeared in more than 100 films and now writes, produces and directs his own films in Asia. “I get hurt,” the actor said, after 50 years of flips, kicks and punches. “It gets really tiring. It’s not like it used to be,” he added.
Chan’s only real outward sign of aging are crow’s feet around his eyes. He is obviously in great shape still, but won’t reveal his secrets for staying that way.
But as Chan starts to enter his twilight years, he laments how Hollywood typecasting may force him to begin using a stunt double for his acrobatic scenes as he believes Hollywood studios would never cast him in dramatic roles. “I hope the audiences, after they say, ‘Jackie, that’s a double!’ forgive me,” Chan said, wearing his trademark grin.
Chan has already added “dramatic actor” to his resume with the 2011 Chinese historical drama 1911 about the revolution that overthrew China’s final imperial dynasty. “I really hope someday in Hollywood, some producer or director will hire me only to do drama,” Chan said. “I would really appreciate it.”
But that is never going to happen, Chan believes. “Why?” he asked rhetorically with a sigh. “It’s because the audience is just not used to seeing Jackie Chan doing drama,” he said.
“It’s just ... my English is not that good,” Chan explained. That also held him back from pursuing a role in The Interpreter, a 2005 thriller starring Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. Chan said his manager thought the role would be good but told him the amount of dialogue was too tough.
“I see so many action stars come and go,” Chan said. “Action stars cannot live too long. Drama and true actors like Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman, they live forever,” he exclaimed.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2013.
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