美国国家公共电台 NPR Jackie Chan Jumps Back Into The Action With 'The Foreigner'

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

You know, when you watch a Jackie Chan movie, come on, you know exactly what you're in for.

(SOUNDBITE OF FIGHTING SCENE)

GREENE: Which is why, when I got the chance to talk to him, I heard about this fact, and I was like, really? I wanted to start with something that might surprise people about Jackie Chan.

You hate violence.

JACKIE CHAN: Yes, I hate violence, but I make action film.

GREENE: Yeah. He does. Over five decades in the business - he has crashed through glass. He has tumbled down stairwells. He's landed on moving trucks. This is the kind of work that Hollywood doesn't typically honor. But Jackie Chan has made such a mark, it was hard to ignore. And last year, they gave him an honorary Oscar.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CHAN: Many thanks to all my friends, fans around the world because you - I have a reason to continue to make movies, jumping in window, kicking and punching, breaking my bones. Thank you so much. Thank you, Oscar. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

CHAN: And the 63-year-old star is still at it. His new film is called "The Foreigner." He is a dad in London whose daughter is killed in a terrorist attack, sending him on a search for justice.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE FOREIGNER")

CHAN: (As Quan Ngoc Minh) Twenty thousand pounds for the names of the bombers 1.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) That's not how we do things here.

GREENE: Oh, yeah. He's a dad who also happens to be a former Chinese special forces guy with some mad fighting skills.

(SOUNDBITE OF FIGHTING SCENE)

GREENE: All right. So Jackie Chan got his start in his native Hong Kong as a low-wage stuntman 3. He worked on a couple films with the legendary 4 master of martial 5 arts, Actor Bruce Lee. Lee's shocking death in 1973 left a huge void. And there was so much pressure on everybody to be the next Bruce Lee.

CHAN: I think after Bruce Lee died - those kind of action movies so popular. And they cannot find enough action star. Even myself - all the acting 6 all the skill, all the kicking just like Bruce Lee. You have to - exactly like Bruce Lee to face low - all Bruce. Even my name - Second Bruce Lee Jackie Chan.

GREENE: (Laughter).

CHAN: When you see the poster...

GREENE: It would say the second Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan?

CHAN: Yeah.

GREENE: How did you feel about that saying the second Bruce Lee?

CHAN: I'm not happy. In the poster, you never see my name. You only see Bruce Lee - Jackie Chan.

GREENE: (Laughter). So how did you make a name for yourself after he died?

CHAN: I'm very lucky. There's a producer - called me up. And let's do something different. I said, OK. Let's do some comedy. Bruce Lee never get hurt. I get hurt - pain.

GREENE: Your character's what experiences pain.

CHAN: Bruce Lee can fight 20 people. No, I only fight four people. More than that...

GREENE: (Laughter) Only four.

CHAN: ...I'm only - turn around and run away. That's my real life. I really fought in the street when I was young. I can fight, like, three or four people. Boom, boom, boom. But the more people come, I just run away.

GREENE: You're smarter. You're more realistic than Bruce Lee was.

CHAN: Yes. I just put myself in the movie.

GREENE: And that meant doing his own stunts 7. And Jackie Chan has the scars, the bumps, the broken bones to prove it. Of course, the scariest had to be his stunt 2 in the Hong Kong film "Armor Of God," where he made a death-defying jump from a castle to a tree and then hopefully to another tower.

CHAN: From the castle, I jumped to the middle of the tree. The tree bend to another castle. Between the castle, that's about, like, 35 or 40 feet high. But I jump. The tree break.

GREENE: Oh, no.

CHAN: Break, break, break, break.

GREENE: All the branches were just breaking down.

CHAN: Yeah. (Vocalizing). Then I just landed on my back, my head. The rock immediately hurt my skull 8.

GREENE: Did you think you were going to die?

CHAN: Yeah. Then I asked myself what I've done. What I'm doing for this...

GREENE: Why are you doing this?

CHAN: No. I just asked myself, if I die, what I'd done for this world. OK. Making a movie, fooling around at night, crashing a car in the morning. Buy another car in the morning. At night, crash another one.

GREENE: And how long ago was this?

CHAN: Thirty-some years ago. Then I said, if I can survive, I have to do something for the world.

GREENE: And there really is a depth to Jackie Chan. For one thing, he is very proud of his Chinese heritage, though his support for the communist government in China has gotten him into some trouble with critics in places like Taiwan and his Hong Kong home. Now Jackie Chan wants to find that depth and that complexity 9 on the screen.

CHAN: I've been doing my job for 57 years everyday in the studio, fighting, teaching people how to fight. And I always ask myself when I should stop. When should I retire?

GREENE: And you told people in 2012 that you were done with action movies.

CHAN: Yes, because I'm not as fast as before.

GREENE: It's OK.

CHAN: Yeah.

GREENE: (Laughter) I think people would be OK with that.

CHAN: If a true actor like Robert De Niro, like Clint Eastwood - everybody still acting. I'd rather be an actor who can fight. It's not a fighter who can act. Probably, you didn't see my Chinese film. When I go back to my own country, I can do whatever I want. I can do a drama. I can do comedy. I can do action. I change.

GREENE: There. But here, you feel the pressure still.

CHAN: Here, I always receive the script. Police from Hong Kong, police from China, CIA from Hong Kong, CIA from China. Always "Rush Hour 1," "Rush Hour 2," "Rush Hour 3." Then "Shanghai Noon," Shanghai Knights 10." Can I have something different?

GREENE: That's a lot of pressure, I feel like, if, when you make a movie in the U.S., you want to act. You want people to see you as an actor. But you've got to get that action scene, too, to...

CHAN: Yes.

GREENE: ...Keep people loving Jackie Chan in the same way.

CHAN: Yeah, I really, really hope one day I can make a drama film without one punch. I cross my fingers. I hope one day I can do that.

GREENE: You don't think American viewers are there yet to...

CHAN: Even in China - difficult. Yeah. They're just not used to it - to see Jackie - slow motion, the beach, kissing the girl.

GREENE: (Laughter).

CHAN: And I like to do that. But nobody hire me.

GREENE: So how important was that honorary Oscar that you got? What did that mean to you?

CHAN: That means to me - just, like, complete my life. I only make action movies, comedy. I would never get an Oscar. It's too far away. I never thought I can get an Oscar.

GREENE: I just think about that moment when you were - thought that you were dying and wondering what you had accomplished 11. And then 30 years later, you're holding that Oscar.

CHAN: Yeah. For me, there's so many miracles in me. Every - sometimes when I get up, watch the mirror, you know, brushing your teeth. I look at myself. Jackie, you're so lucky. Now I get an Oscar. Lucky boy.

GREENE: Jackie Chan, thank you.

CHAN: Thank you.

GREENE: Jackie Chan - his new movie is "The Foreigner."