Jackie Chan accepts his fighting days on the big screen are set to come to an end because he is too old to be an action man.
The 63-year-old actor’s career is now in its sixth decade and he is famous and loved for performing his own outrageous stunts and meticulously choreographed martial arts fight scenes.
As he approaches his 70th birthday he knows he can’t keep putting his body through the rigours it could once take and it’s time to reinvent himself as an actor.
Speaking to the new US issue of GQ magazine, he said: "I know I’m not young anymore. I cannot continue to make ‘Rush Hour 1, 2, 3, 4, 5’. If I’m [to] continue on in the film industry. I have to change. "Otherwise, you’re gone. You see in Japan. Korea. America. China. Hong Kong. How many action stars are all gone? Only a few can stay around."
To fulfil his dream of becoming an action star, Jackie followed a gruelling training regime in his formative years and worked out every day when he attended the Chinese educational institution in his youth.
Describing his workout, he said: "You get up five o’clock in the morning. Training until five o’clock. We would never take off the shoes. You don’t have time to take off the shoes. Tough training. Very tough. Hours – a thousand punches, 500, kicks. Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa. Turn-around, kick, hundred. Left side, hundred."
And Jackie – who is trained in Kung Fu and Hapkido – has bemoaned the current trend in Hollywood where movies rely on stunt doubles and special effects rather than training their actors to fight properly.
He said: "The new action star doesn’t know how to fight. They can use a special effect, like Spider-Man. Everyone can be Spider-Man.
"One of my team members [was] Wonder Woman’s double. They go, ‘Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa.’ Then (Gal Gadot) came back, just pretty, just standing there. Ha! Easy."
Jackie Chan’s action man days are numbered
