Even Jackie Chan’s son hadn’t been immune to daddy issues.
For someone who could pass as sunshine incarnate, Chan had a staggeringly estranged relationship with his son, Jaycee Chan. The two didn’t so much as get along at first and the Rush Hour star used to be cold and distant toward the 40-year-old singer and actor, unwilling to help him out and pushing him to fend for himself. And as if their equation hadn’t been rocky enough, Jaycee ended up going to prison for six months in 2014, further aggravating the matter.
This is the part where a knight in shining armor enters the plot and helps to smooth down the bitter creases of their relationship into something fresh and hopeful. And that’s exactly what happened as Will Smith made Chan realize the error of his ways.
Jackie Chan Warmed Up to His Son After Seeing Will Smith’s Love for Jaden Smith
Besides being renowned for his remarkable stunts and comic performances, Jackie Chan is immensely popular for his blissfully carefree attitude toward things. But when it came to his son, Chan was not easygoing in the least; the Vanguard actor was anything but that.
Chan used to have a particularly bitter relationship with his son, Jaycee Chan. From taunts and rude remarks to the silent treatment, the latter had often been on the receiving end of his father’s disapproval and contempt. But after seeing Will Smith’s unconditional love for his son in the remake of The Karate Kid, Chan realized just how harsh he’d been to his blood.
Jaden Smith, the Men in Black actor’s son who starred in the Harald Zwart-helmed action/drama, was only 11 years old at the time. And after witnessing the Oscar-winning star “helping his son to be in a movie, every day on the set,” Chan was overwhelmed with emotion.
“I say why am I so stubborn? I have to help my son,” he told Associated Press. He even remarked that he would apologize to Jaycee for disregarding him when he was a kid. “I say, ‘Sorry, I was busy at that time.'”
A Look Into Jackie Chan’s Complicated Relationship With His Son
Jackie Chan and his wife, a former Taiwanese actress named Joan Lin, welcomed their eldest son, Jaycee Chan, in 1982. Similar to his father, Jaycee too made a name in the film industry, starring in an array of films including 2009’s Mulan, Ding Sheng’s Railroad Targets wherein he worked side-by-side with the Police Story actor, and action/crime film Invisible Target, to name a few.
But merely following in his father’s footsteps didn’t seem to earn Jaycee any considerable sway where Chan was concerned. Instead, the two had a rather caustic relationship with each other wherein the actor and martial artist chastised his son to no end, constantly asking him to not “live in his shadow” and to “take care of himself.” In fact, the Drunken Master star used to be so stringent with and alienated from his son that he decided to not leave him a single penny out of his $400 million. “I would rather donate my fortune to charity than give it to Jaycee,” Chan told NewsAsia in 2011.
Chan’s gruffness toward Jaycee only increased when the latter was incarcerated in China for a drug offense. But six months in prison transformed the latter into a better, more mature person, and his relationship with his father was soon salvaged.
The Karate Kid can be streamed on Netflix.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
