Jackie Chan is one of the most promising action stars in the world who quickly garnered global attention with his slapstick acrobatic fighting style. Being known not only for action but also for his comedic timing, he has established himself as one of the most popular stars of all time.
Being a global action icon, one would be surprised to know that he has quite an admiration for successful filmmakers including Steven Spielberg. However, he was rejected by the latter to star in his famous $6 Billion franchise, Jurassic Park.
Jackie Chan Was Refused to Star in The Jurassic Park Franchise
The 69-year-old actor, Jackie Chan is quite a big fan of Steven Spielberg’s works. He has often shown interest in the latter’s projects. In a 2001 interview with BlackFilm, he opened up about his interest in working with the filmmaker on his famous franchise, Jurassic Park.
He shared,
“I also want to do something like Jurassic Park. I want to walk with dinosaurs.”
Having Chan in the franchise would only have benefitted the extinct dinosaur fictional world which is why the interviewer asked him whether he shared this idea with the latter or not. To that, he opened up that Spielberg turned down the idea.
He shared,
“He[Spielberg] said No! What we like you in is Jackie Chan action. That’s what we like.”
Though the duo didn’t get to star together in the $6 billion franchise, they worked together in the 2002 film, The Tuxedo with the latter working as executive producer in the film.
How Jackie Chan Felt After Meeting Steven Spielberg?
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In an interview with The Tribute, the actor explained how he eventually met the filmmaker. Initially, his manager contacted him about “this DreamWorks movie by Steven Spielberg and said, he[director] wants to meet you.”
He went to Hollywood to meet two famous filmmakers, one the latter and the other being George Lucas, whom he called geniuses.
Sharing that he was so excited when he met the Schindler’s List director, he was amazed to see his down-to-earth nature.
“He was just like a normal person.”
He opened up about being so happy as “the first time that he saw me, he held out his hand and said, ‘Jackie, hi, can you give me your autograph because my son just loves you.'”
He was impressed with the director, who was his only reason to work in the $104.4 million, The Tuxedo which received negative reviews from critics upon release.
Source: BlackFilm, The Tribute
