Jackie Chan on His Career
Burn-out can definitely set in after 40 years of making films, but Jackie Chan tries to keep things fun when he tackles an acting job. And, stresses Chan, he wants everyone to realize there's more to him than just an action star."The last movie before, Shinjuku Incident, I know it’s too heavy. I make Spy Next Door and then I go back to China to make my own movie. It’s called Little Big Soldier. I hope you can see it because I have so many choices when I’m making a Chinese movie, but very few chances I can change an American movie because they choose me. In China, I want to make this, I want to make that. So in America, they will never let me make Shinjuku story. They will let Robert DeNiro do this kind of character, not me, but I can do it. So that’s why I’m so happy to make the movie Karate Kid, Kung Fu [Panda]. Mustache, white hair, old man like this [raspy voice.] I want the audience to know I’m not the action star. I’m the actor. I can act, but I can fight. I can do my own stunts."
"That’s why every movie is a different location, different character, different people. That makes it fun. The most fun job in the world is making a movie, really," admitted Chan. "For [me], today America, tomorrow Beijing. You see different people, then you see different movies, different costumes. Then every day is a different challenge. It’s fun, really, really fun and people pay you a lot."
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The Spy Next Door hits theaters on January 15, 2010 and is rated PG for sequences of action violence and some mild rude humor.
