Daniel Wu recalls Jackie Chan’s candour
CALIFORNIA-born martial arts actor Daniel Wu can still vividly recall the moment Jackie Chan offered to manage his career.
In the same week that he was offered a movie role, he was invited to a party.
A group of Hong Kong stars were in attendance, including superstar Jackie Chan, his childhood idol.
“I just wanted to see him, I’m not that kind of person who’s like, ‘ I gotta meet my idol.’ I like to admire from afar,” Daniel said.
Eventually, his friend just dragged him over to Jackie and she introduced Daniel:
“This is my friend. He just arrived in Hong Kong, he’s teaching me martial arts.”
Jackie then looked Daniel up and down and said, “You have a phone number?”
Daniel then gave him his phone number and he took it and walked away. Two days later, he got a call from Willie Chan, Jackie’s manager at the time, and asked him to come down to the office.
“We were having a discussion, he’s like, ‘ You know, Jackie really likes you and wants to sign you to the company, but frankly, there are no jobs right now.’ And I go, ‘Well, I have this script. I got this movie.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, okay. We’ll manage you then,’” he said.
Daniel has been in the limelight for his hit AMC martial arts drama Into the Badlands. The great storytelling, drama, and beautifully choreographed fight scenes have created a legion of fans all over the world.
In the past, there have certainly been stars from Asia who have crossed over to Hollywood — notably Jet Li, Chow Yun Fatt, and Jackie Chan — however, while they’ve starred as the lead role for most of their Western movies, they’re still emasculated to a certain extent.
However, making Asian men more “macho” and “desirable” isn’t Daniel’s agenda — well, not directly at least. But before getting into that, lets look at his background.
Born in Berkeley, California, Daniel was raised in Orinda by parents who emigrated to the US from Shanghai after the communist revolution in 1949.
“We spoke Shanghai- dialect growing up, which nobody spoke here, so it was like a very secret language that we had,” Daniel said. “And then I spoke more Mandarin, because they spoke it to their friends as well as my Kung Fu teacher.”
Growing up, he idolised quicksilver fighters like Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen who inspired him to study wushu when he was 11.
As a graduation present, Daniel’s parents paid for him to go to Hong Kong in 1997 to witness the city’s handover from British rule back to China. His plans were to travel around Asia then look for a job when he came home.
Daniel had around US$ 2,000 to last for three months. However, he had to cut his trip short after spending nearly all his money in Japan. In a stroke of serendipity, he was scouted and offered US$ 4,000 to do a TV commercial.
“That commercial came out a month later and then the director of my first film saw it, and that’s how he auditioned me for the lead role in his film,” Daniel recalled.
Although things just seemed to fall into place for Daniel, his success hasn’t come without challenges. On the outside, he looked just like everyone else in Hong Kong, but he was American on the inside.
“There’s a huge difference between Asian-American and Chinese-American and Chinese. If you’re Asian-American and you go to Asia, they don’t look at you as Asian. You’re white to them,” Daniel complained.
When asked what the biggest differences are between working in Hong Kong versus Hollywood, Daniel summed everything up to efficiency: “We don’t waste money in Hong Kong — we do things quickly and fast. In the West, I think they’re spoiled with big budgets, so they drag their feet a lot on a lot of things and overspend. There are certain things where I see a lot of wastage and I feel like, it’s dumb to waste money on that.”
We were having a discussion, he’s like, ‘You know, Jackie really likes you and wants to sign you to the company, but frankly, there are no jobs right now.’ And I go, ‘Well, I have this script. I got this movie.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, okay. We’ll manage you then. Daniel Wu, actor