The last action hero? Jackie Chan admits that might sadly be the case
Lightning-quick martial arts maneuvers, insane death-defying stunts on set, and a knack for making everything look as easy as shuffling a pack of cards.
It’s safe to say that there likely won’t be another Jackie Chan. At least not for another generation.
The 68-year-old action star agreed as much when asked in an interview recently if there were any potential successors to his throne.
Chan even got emotional when answering, lamenting the lack of demand for action stars in today’s cinema world.
“I used to really want to find a second Jackie Chan but it’s very difficult,” he said, adding that if there is no demand for them, it wouldn’t matter how good actors were in martial arts because they wouldn’t succeed anyway.
He added that the industry now tends to seek out only good-looking actors, regardless of whether they could do action scenes, or even act for that matter.
As long as they are attractive and have sufficient popularity, all they need to do is to “stand in a corner and watch the stunt actors risk their lives for their scenes”.
“For those who are good at martial arts, is there a boss out there who’s willing to find a good director, and fork out 50 million yuan ($S9.6 million) to 60 million yuan to produce a movie [for them]?
“They won’t,” he said, before pausing for a moment as tears welled up in his eyes.
Chan, who is promoting his new movie, Ride On, said that though he’s saddened by the status quo of martial arts actors and movies, he hopes there will be a new dawn for the genre in the near future.
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