Jackie Chan single-handedly bridged two parts of the world together through entertainment. He is hugely responsible for revamping the action genre by incorporating comedy into his films that require him to go out of his way to perform life-threatening stunts. While today, Tom Cruise can pull off any stunt you put in front of him, he still needs to go a long way before he can beat Jackie Chan’s legacy. Let’s just say Jackie Chan walked so Tom Cruise could run!
While Jackie Chan was starting out in Hollywood, there were two people the actor dreamed of meeting – George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. However, when the chance came to meet the latter of the two, Jackie Chan couldn’t help but talk about the dangerous ways of his filming style which probably left Steven Spielberg spooked and stunned.
Jackie Chan Recalls His First Meet with Steven Spielberg
During his appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Jackie Chan was counting the places on his body where he obtained injuries, which were quite a lot. There are not many areas where Chan hasn’t hurt himself. He joked that in the earlier days, when he was performing all these stunts, no one cared about human life.
“The old day we don’t have a – we don’t care about the life, we don’t care about, you know, human rights, and we just do it.”
He then recalled his first meeting with Steven Spielberg and how he possibly shocked the filmmaker after describing his process of filming stunts.
Despite being a star of such high caliber, Chan was absolutely star-struck when he came face to face with Spielberg and found himself at a loss of words. He finally decided to ask the filmmaker a question about his Jurassic Park films and how he shot the humans and dinosaurs side by side with such perfection.
“I remember the first time I met Steven Spielberg…’Wow! Steven Spielberg!’ You know…’What should I talk to him?’ So exciting, and as soon as I see him, ‘Oh! I just see, you know, the dinosaur…how can you make that movie…human dinosaur jumping together?’ [Spielberg answered] ‘So easy, Jackie I just pushed the computer.”
Of course, a lot of technicalities go into making a film like Jurassic Park. But this was not the case for Chan’s action films which were as real as reality gets. The actor then talked about the question Spielberg had for him.
“Okay Jackie let me ask you…how can you jump from this building [to] that building? I said, ‘More easy! Rolling, jump, action, cut, hospital!’”
Clearly, Chan’s comedic timing is an absolute hoot! We cannot imagine Spielberg’s reaction to the Rush Hour actor’s hilarious candor.
Jackie Chan‘s Cares More about His Shots Than His Well-Being
Continuing to talk about how reckless the shooting could get at times, Chan stated that they did not have time to think or carry out calculations. For his films, it was always ‘Do first, think later.’ The actor stated,
“We don’t have, like a rehearsal, we don’t have time to rehearse, we don’t have money. We just do it. We guess…We think. In the U.S. they say, ‘Oh, the wind, the speed…’ We don’t know how to count! Just, ‘Yeah we can do it. Rolling! [mimics action sequences] Hospital!.”
Now that’s what we call a daredevil! In fact, Chan recalled how he horribly injured his foot while shooting for Rumble in the Bronx but didn’t care about his broken foot. He was more worried if the cameraman got the shot or not.
“I remember Rumble in the Bronx. I would jump from the bridge to the hovercraft…I hear the crack, I look at my feet, upside down. Then the cameraman [asked], ‘Are you okay?’ I said, ‘I’m okay, did you get the shot?’ If he didn’t get the shot I’d have to do it again!”
It was only after knowing that the shot had been captured perfectly by the cameraman that Chan told them to take him to the hospital. What’s more shocking is that the actor came back in the evening of the same day to film more scenes. There’s no stopping him, is there?
You can rent/buy Rumble in the Bronx from Prime Video.
Source: Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
