Hong Kong and international movie icon Jackie Chan acquired a Profession Leopard award on Saturday night time and an enthusiastic welcome on the 78th version of the Locarno Movie Competition in Switzerland. And on Sunday morning, the legendary multi-hyphenate shared insights into his profession throughout a chat on the pageant that drew a big crowd that began lining up exterior the cinema effectively forward of time.
Chan recalled working as a younger stunt man with Bruce Lee on Fist of Fury. “Bruce Lee tapped my shoulder [and said] ‘nice’,” after a number of takes of a scene stuffed with ache, he advised the viewers.
Chan additionally shared how he earned a lot respect from folks at a bowling alley when he introduced Bruce Lee there, including that he himself was a extremely good bowler.
After Lee’s dying, Chan was requested to remake Fist of Fury, but it surely was the “improper script, improper character,” he felt. “The movie simply didn’t make any field workplace.” The filmmakers wished him to turn into the brand new Lee, with the poster even saying “the brand new Bruce Lee [in big letter] Jackie Chan [in very small print,” the star said. “The directed wanted me [to do] all the pieces like Bruce Lee. I’m not Bruce Lee.”
One in all Chan’s suggestions for trade longevity: At all times be open to and look to alter and evolve. For instance, he stated he realized to sing as a result of every time he confirmed up for TV interviews, hosts would ask him to do a combat sequence with them. “Singing is less complicated,” Chan stated to laughs.
Later in his profession, “I wished to be an Asian Robert De Niro,” the star shared, explaining that TV and different hosts would all the time introduce him whereas making a martial arts gesture. “No one introduces Robert De Niro” with a martial arts gesture, Chan stated, incomes laughs.
So he wished to turned appreciated as “an actor who can combat,” not merely an motion star recognized for his stunts. “Solely now they are saying: ‘Jackie is an efficient actor’,” Chan provided. “And that’s why you gave me this award.”
Will Smith and the Karate Child remake gave Chan that likelihood to depart the preventing to the following era. “I had turn into a grasp,” Chan stated about his function.
Chan has all the time made motion scenes look straightforward, however he all the time had respect for the chance. “I’m not a Superman. I’m scared each time I do a stunt,” he shared.
Chan on Sunday additionally mentioned how studios at the moment are targeted on enterprise and cash greater than the artwork of movie, saying he hopes his profession noticed him make one thing greater than cash. “Proper now, numerous massive studios should not filmmaker, they’re enterprise guys,” he stated. “Immediately, it’s very troublesome to make a great film.”
Whereas he has been recognized for his self-discipline, Chan shared that he was “lazy and naughty” and “I preferred preventing once I was younger.”
Preventing was additionally a theme the day earlier than. ”I’m 71. I nonetheless can combat,” the star had stated in his Saturday awards acceptance speech to the delight of the group. “Additionally, this 12 months I’m within the movie trade for 64 years.”
As a part of a tribute to his profession, Chan additionally got here to Locarno to introduce his movies Undertaking A (1983) and Police Story (1985), on each of which he labored as star and director.
“As a Hong Kong cinema fan — I’ve written three books on Hong Kong — Jackie Chan is a dream come true,” Locarno inventive director Giona A. Nazzaro just lately advised THR.
Once they first unveiled Chan as this 12 months’s Profession Leopard honoree, Locarno organizers lauded him as an “Asian megastar, grasp filmmaker, and Hollywood mainstay beloved for motion movies that bridged the hole between East and West.”
Added Nazzaro: “Director, producer, actor, screenwriter, choreographer, singer, athlete, and daredevil stuntman, Jackie Chan is each a key determine in up to date Asian cinema and one whose affect has rewritten the principles of Hollywood cinema. From his years on the China Drama Academy beneath Grasp Yu Jim-Yuen, working at a really younger age as a stuntman in King Hu’s masterpiece A Contact of Zen, Chan has regularly reinvented martial arts cinema and far past it.”