Jackie Chan’s life is not just for kicks
“Jackie Chan: The Movie” might initially seem like a stretch for the martial arts living legend, now 64.
But this life story, as told in the star’s impossibly colorful memoir “Never Grow Up” (Gallery Books, 333 pp., ★★★☆), would have Charles Dickens speed-dialing Chan’s film agent for movie rights – with tales of Chan’s impoverished youth (from age 6, enrolled in the abusive China Drama Academy), lost loves, undying ambition fueled by his insecurity over his upbringing, true bravery and eventual glory.
All of its is told with Chan’s blunt speaking style, which makes the revelations powerful – from his legitimately deadly screen stunts to his prattish star behavior toward a string of brokenhearted loves. Chan even discusses how he “screwed up royally” cheating on his wife Joan Lin. “In 1999, I made a serious mistake,” Chan writes talking about the child he fathered with another woman.
Chan pulls back from the candor only with his eventual Hollywood success (he was granted an honorary Oscar last year). For example, the section detailing 2010’s “The Karate Kid” with Will and Jaden Smith is disappointingly thin.
But here are five bone-crushing moments:
1. Young Chan played the best dead guy.
After the impoverished stuntman was assured by the angry father of his first love that he would never amount to anything, Chan was obsessed with making it big. Besides risking his life with dangerous martial arts stunts, Chan also enthusiastically acted dead as an extra in battle scenes. During one rain-soaked shoot, the director noticed that only Chan excelled. “That guy is the best corpse, make sure we get him in tomorrow as well!” the director barked. Chan was “now in demand as the best corpse in kung fu.”
2. That painful Bruce Lee run-in.
Chan toiled for $65 a day as a stuntman and relished the opportunity to spar on screen with screen legend Bruce Lee in 1973’s “Enter the Dragon.” In one scene, Lee hit Chan too hard with a stick, “knocking me to the ground.”
“It hurt, but I was honored to have been hit by Bruce Lee!” Chan writes. “Afterwards, he apologized effusively, told me I was doing a great job and that I was very brave. It was an incredible moment for a young kung fu artist, and one I will never forget.”
3. ‘Cannonball Run’ was a bomb for Chan.
It seemed like destiny when Chan got the call from Hollywood to star in the 1981 cross-country car race comedy “The Cannonball Run.” Not only would it give the Hong Kong superstar a chance to act for Americans, but “Cannonball” was his childhood nickname.
But Chan was not comfortable playing a Japanese race-car driver and the bevy of Hollywood stars – from Burt Reynolds to Farrah Fawcett to Roger Moore – didn’t notice him. “In Hollywood, I was nobody,” Chan writes. Only Sammy Davis Jr. interacted. “He spoke Japanese to me every time we met, and I didn’t bother correcting him.”
4. Chan was petrified performing his famed ‘Project A’ stunt.
Chan’s fall from a clock tower in 1983’s “Project A” is one of the most famous stunts in martial arts. The planned descent, broken only by two flimsy awnings, was so dangerous that director Chan found reasons to hold off from filming for six days. Compelled to action on day seven, Chan held onto the clock minute hand for as long as possible before letting go. “I just went smack on the pavement and my neck twisted sharply. But I didn’t die,” Chan writes.
The perfectionist immediately called for a second take to improve the shot. Dazed from impact, Chan managed to give his lines and complete the scene.
5. ‘Crazy Rich’ Yeoh gets a stuntman’s shoutout.
Chan gives props to Michelle Yeoh, his co-star in 1992’s “Super Cop.” Yeoh excelled in the action, even insisting on doing her own motorcycle stunt hurtling toward a moving train.
“Not many people can match me in my willingness to go for it,” Chan writes. “Michelle Yeoh is one of them.”