Typecasting is a word that has an impact strong enough to limit the careers of the biggest stars, including that of Jackie Chan. The actor is widely known for his action movies and expertise in martial arts. His skills are one to admire dearly and respect at the same time with the amount of vigor he shows in his movies.
Some actors lose roles offered to them first for some reason or another and then regret it afterward. Others wish to play a part that was never offered to them in the first place. Some even try out for it, but things don’t go the right way. Something similar happened with Jackie Chan when he showed interest in a Steven Spielberg movie.
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Jackie Chan Could Not Get Into A Steven Spielberg Movie
Jackie Chan has often expressed his love for Steven Spielberg’s work and how mesmerized he gets by his movies. He has even talked about not caring about pay if he ever got a chance to work with the director. Spielberg’s movies are always a way of bringing the crowd together for a masterpiece that can always leave the audience wanting more. So when he got an opportunity to try out for a Spielberg movie, Chan did not want to miss it at all.
“I want to walk with dinosaurs. This kind of movie is one audience.”
The actor found an opportunity to work in Jurassic Park and he rushed to get a role in the movie. He even went as far as to ask the director for a role directly. However, he said no directly. While the actor was not happy with the response, the follow-up to that was that everyone was used to seeing Chan as an action hero who would take care of the bad guys with his breathtaking martial skills.
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Jackie Chan Did The Tuxedo Thanks To Steven Spielberg
Jackie Chan did one movie with his hero and that was The Tuxedo. The only reason he was even part of the film was that Steven Spielberg was involved in the making of it.
“I wanted to do this movie because it was different from the scripts I usually get. My character wasn’t a policeman or a martial arts expert. In Asia, I made whatever movie I wanted to. But in America, all the scripts I receive are about the police, police, police! I read this script and thought it would be fun.”
The movie was a step towards him fighting his image as an action hero who would do everything without the need for a body double or special effects. He had always wanted to do roles outside of his comfort zone and break a typecast he was not much fond of. He would always be pushed into roles that were far from what he wanted and would only be stuck with roles that would show him as an action hero.
Source: The New York Times
