Jackie Chan seeking more roles in dramas
I want to change people’s thoughts. I am not an action star or action-comedy star anymore, I am an actor. I can do so many things, just like Robert De Niro. I am waiting for the next drama film, so Hollywood—please hire me!
HONG KONG: Jackie Chan, 63, is seeking more serious roles in dramas.
At 63, he’s more or less done with fighting bandits while cracking jokes.
Jackie has done some 130 movies, featuring mostly his wisecracking persona and a jaw- dropping acrobatic fighting style.
Pleaded Jackie: “I want to change people’s thoughts. I am not an action star or actioncomedy star anymore, I am an actor. I can do so many things, just like Robert De Niro. I am waiting for the next drama film, so Hollywood—please hire me!”
He found it quite a challenge acting in STX Entertainment’s The Foreigner, in which he plays a grieving father seeking revenge for the death of his daughter.
He explained it was a stretch for him because of the sometimes difficult dialogue and the need for him to cry real tears at one point. “I have to speak English from my heart and the tears go down and it’s so difficult,” he said. “When I go home and everybody sleeps, I practise my English and I practise the dialogue.”
Jackie Chan, superstar
He is happy with the outcome. “I think I did a pretty good job,” Jackie said with a grin. “All these years, I wanted to do something different and show the audience another side of Jackie Chan.”
His next film will be Rush Hour 4, a return to the crowd-pleasing, fanciful action franchise in which comedy is a mainstay and in which he will once again collaborate with Chris Tucker.
Partly because of his fractured English— he has been trying to improve it by watching CNN— Jackie’s explanations are sometimes confused and confusing.
Said Jackie:“In the old days, I worried about the box office, but these days, no, no more. You cannot worry if this movie makes 100 million or 200 million. No. And sometimes making a movie is like gambling. You don’t know if the movie is good or bad. I just know that every movie I make, I do the best I can. I just follow my schedule because I know next year I will have Rush Hour 4, so I did The Foreigner. And then after Rush Hour 4, I cannot do Rush Hour 5 and I have to change, maybe to another drama or some other style.”
On why he is seeking more roles in dramas, Jackie explained: “All the action stars are gone after a certain age, so I’m preparing for my future. If you follow my movies over the last 20 years in China and America, you can tell— different characters, different scripts and different kinds of acting. I’ve been slowly, slowly letting the audiences accept me.
“Now I really want to be in a film where the whole movie is drama and not one punch—just drama. But I am really scared if the audience would like it. I am not there yet, but a few years ago I made Shinjuku Incident and step by step I let the audience know that I am not an action star anymore, I am an actor. And now The Foreigner. But between that, of course, I have Chinese Zodiac and Dragon Blade and I have Kung Fu Yoga and I want to show that Jackie is a multi-talent and can do so many things.
After reflecting for a moment, Jackie laughed and joked: “Of course, if a director hired me to do La La Land— Part 2, yes, I am going to do it. Actually, I am not a good singer, but I have a very good voice.”