Jackie Chan is one of the most well-respected and successful actors in the film industry. Being not only an actor but also a stuntman, filmmaker, and martial artist, he has made a name for himself starring in many massively successful projects like the Rush Hour film series, The Karate Kid, The Drunken Master films series, and Kung Fu Panda.
Even though the star has made an identity for himself in the industry, being unique in his capabilities, this was not always the case. When Chan started off his career, he was forced to step into the shoes of another legendary martial artist, Bruce Lee, even being advertised as his replacement.
Jackie Chan Worked With Bruce Lee In The Past
Before being the successful actor that he is today, Jackie Chan was a small-time stuntman, who worked in all types of films. In this, he also sometimes got the opportunity to work with the Hollywood legend, Bruce Lee, before his passing. One of these times, while working with the star, Chan talked about an incident that occurred, which ended with Lee feeling terribly guilty about hurting Chan. Elaborating on this, the actor revealed that while filming a scene, Lee ended up actually hitting him during a staged fight.
“As a stunt guy you can get hit every day,” Chan said according to Variety. “It doesn’t matter. I pretend I’m hurt then he comes to help me. ‘I’m sorry,’ he says. The whole day and the whole night, every time I turn around, I see Lee looking if I’m okay. I wanted him to hit me again.”
While this is quite a common occurrence in the job of a stuntman, Chan decided to play up the level of pain he was experiencing as a way to gain sympathy from Lee. This ended up working a little too well as Lee ended up staring at the actor the whole day to make sure that Chan was okay. Chan revealed that because of the attention he was getting from the actor, he wished that he would get hit again.
Jackie Chan Does Not Like Being Compared To Bruce Lee
Despite having known Bruce Lee when he was alive, after his passing, Jackie Chan was advertised and groomed into the industry as the successor of Bruce Lee. While this did get him a number of different jobs, the star wasn’t always all too keen about losing his own sense of self in trying to fit into someone else’s shoes. He revealed that he tried his very best to be as fundamentally different from Lee as he could.
“I said: I am not Bruce Lee. So, if Bruce kicked high; I kick low. Bruce fights like this. I do it the opposite. That’s Jackie Chan. I just do myself.” he went on to say according to Variety
Elaborating on this, he revealed that if he knew that Lee kicked high, he would kick low. If Lee had a specific fighting style, Chan would make sure that his own was different, opposite, in every possible way, adding that he wanted to stand out on his own as a performed are not try to be someone else, however successful they were.
Source: Variety
