by Paul Fischer
by
Paul Fischer
Jackie Chan is not
the easiest man to talk to. Warm and amiable on the one hand, 
Chan's
broken English and speedy demeanour always make for an entertaining audience
with this master of physical acrobatics. Ironically, while he loves entertaining
the press, he is not a fan of his American films, putting it mildly. He
barely tolerates his latest film, The Tuxedo, and clearly loathes
earlier Hollywood films such as the two Rush Hour films that
really catapulted him to a mainstream level of stardom. Chan is only too
aware than to retain a broad visibility he must succumb to a Hollywood
sensibility. "It's important to do at least one American film a year,"
he argues. The Tuxedo is as mainstream as they come, a somewhat
screwball action comedy, a James Bond spoof that casts Chan as a former
taxi driver who discovers the powers of a tuxedo owned by his current
boss, a playboy agent now out of action. Chan teams up with Jennifer Love
Hewitt on the trail of a madman out to poison the world's water supply.
When asked why this film, as one of a plethora of projects he gets to
choose from in Hollywood, Chan is not a man who comes with simple responses.
"Why this film? A few years ago, I told my manager I wanted to do something
different. I'm tired. You like it, but I'm tired of doing Rush Hour
1, Shanghai Noon, a Hong Kong film, Police Story? I want to do something
different. I like action, but I try something new. I fly to New York to
find Ang Lee. Ang Lee was doing something, writing a
script. Then I fly to China [to see] Zhao Yimou, I want
to do something and Zhao Yimou says, 'I'm writing. Right now I'm doing
something.' The latest is I'm flying to Taiwan to find younger talent
doing the same thing. I'm tired of Rush Hour 1, Rush Hour 2,
3, 4, 5, 6...I'm tired." Yet as tired as he is of doing Rush Hour, that
doesn't stop Chan working on another one. "Yeah, right now we're talking
2004 for Rush Hour 3. After Rush Hour 3, we're talking
about Shanghai Dawn. Shanghai Knights is the best American film
I've made so far," he says of the Disney sequel to Shanghai Noon.
Chan has been a huge star in his native China for some three decades
since 1977's Jackie 
Chan's
Bloodpact. Hollywood would eventually come calling and reluctantly
agreed to shoot the first Rush Hour. "Something I don't like?
Rush Hour. I make the movie," he recalls as he comically makes
a disgusted face while miming the reading of the script. "I tell my manager,
'See? I told you? I never make these kinds of movies.' Rush Hour 1?
Ugh. Then I go back to Asia and make an Asian film. They call me. Big
hit and success! My manager says: 'They're talking about Part 2! Lot of
money! $20 million'. Okay, so we make Rush Hour 2. I hate it,
worse than Part 1! Now, I slowly, slowly realized I have a Chinese mind.
My hometown mind. [Rush Hour] is American culture. That's American dialogue.
From that time, I really listen. Whatever Owen Wilson
tells me to say. Whatever Chris Tucker tells me to say.
Okay, I say it funny! Everything I think is not funny is funny. "What's
up, nigga, huh?" for example."
Watching Chan and laughing hysterically as he tries to imitate his co-stars,
one realises that Chan lives to entertain, despite cultural differences.
Chan has difficulty understanding American vernacular, which is why he
finds it unfathomable that his films make money here – in China,
his Hollywood films flop. In The Tuxedo, there is an amusing
reference
to Love Hewitt's breasts with the code name 'Nice Rack' used. Chan admits
he had no idea why that was remotely amusing. "No, I don't understand.
With Asian films, I'm right. Rush Hour was released in Asia and
bombed. Nobody went to see it. Only $12 million. My movie, I make a Hong
Kong film, $50 million. You see the difference? If Rush Hour
wasn't starring Jackie Chan in Hong Kong, I think, half-million? That's
all." This is why Chan ensures that he goes back and forth between the
two continents. "Right now, I'm making a film for the American market,
but every year, I go back to make a film for Asian market, so right after
Rush Hour 2, I go back to make The Accidental Spy and
Gorgeous. Now what am I doing? Next movie after I do Around
the World in 80 Days I go back and make Titanium Ring. It's
a Hong Kong for the Asian market. But Asian market can't be released in
American markets. Only direct-to-video even though I think The Accidental
Spy is ten times better than Rush Hour 2." In fact, he says
with much pride, "Even my nude scene is better than Rush Hour.
I have an extended nude scene. Brett Ratner looked at
Accidental Spy and went, 'I want to make the massage parlour'.
I have the massage parlour scene in Accidental Spy and I do the
scene totally naked, fighting the whole thing. Be sure to see it! You
don't see anything because I'm covering up with a cup. Compare Accidental
Spy to Rush Hour 2, and tell me which one do you like better,"
he says emphatically.
While on Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon, he works with male partners, on The Tuxedo, he shares the screen with the beautiful Jennifer Love Hewitt, but concedes that he had no idea how sexy she was till well after the film wrapped. "She so crazy," he says laughingly. Everybody said, 'Oh, you're working with Jennifer. She's sexy.' 'What? She's sexy?' I never found out she's sexy. Nothing. She's just there. Of course, better than Chris Tucker and Owen Wilson. Every morning, we wake up. Five o'clock. Sometimes you're haggard. But then she'd put on her music and I tell her to 'Shut off what you're playing!' 'But that's my new album!' Oh, God. I don't want to hear anymore! You've been singing again and again and again. She wanted to learn kicking and punching. She jumped on my back. I'm only full of energy on the set. She? On the set, always lazy. Yesterday, somebody said, 'Jackie, look at these? Rolling Stone." I looked at them. 'Oh, yeah, nice.' 'You know who she is?' 'No, I don't know.' 'Jennifer.' WHAT? WOW! Let me see her again! Tonight, I'm dating her! NOW she's sexy!" he concludes laughingly.
Chan may not be a fan of his own work, but audiences continue to lap them up and there is no sign of them abating.