With his impressive martial arts prowess and magnetic personality, Jackie Chan burst onto the big screen and quickly established himself as a legend.
Chan’s first credited performance was as a child (he was 8 years old then) in the 1962 movie, Big and Little Wong Tin Bar. He continued to develop and eventually became one of Hong Kong’s most notable action stars, appearing in several fight movies each year.
The Hong Kong actor was not known to a large segment of the American public until the 1995 movie, Rumble in the Bronx, which saw a wide release in this country. In the years that followed, more and more of his films appeared on American movie screens.
Between all of Chan’s American endeavors was Kevin Donovan’s 2002 action comedy The Tuxedo, in which the actor co-starred with Jennifer Love Hewitt. It is a spoof on the spy genre, involving a unique tuxedo that bestows special powers on whoever wears it.
How Jackie Chan Mastered His Role in The Tuxedo?
Although Jackie Chan is best known for his mastery of the martial arts, he is also renowned for his legendary capacity to hypnotize audiences with gravity-defying feats. The action star was forced by The Tuxedo to leave his comfort zone and try new things, though.
The Dragon Lord actor once discussed about what parts of playing the hardest-working man in show business were simple and what parts were challenging in an interview with Crosswalk. It was particularly challenging to sing the lyrics. According to Chan:
“[Doing the] Split[s] it kind of easy. Singing for me, it not difficult. I have my own album in Asia but different kind of song. I sing like country song. I like this kind of song. When I listen to American song, I like, ‘You are always on my mind, you are always on my mind,’ I like this kind of song. Never like a James Brown; What’s that? When I listen to rap song, I only use the beat for me to train, what are they saying? I don’t know. So I never listen towards of song, I only listen to music for my training.”
Moreover, he had to repeat the process several times:
“Of course! Yes I did! Because when I see … I was a big fan of his, the way he dances. Then after, I know I have to do that kind of movement, and it makes me scared. I was in the islands and the teacher send me the video. And I look at and I know I have to do his dancing. Dancing. Okay. I like dancing, but I have to sing and remember every lyric! Every day I’m getting tired.”
However, the Kung Fu Yoga actor was really helped to push himself to the limit by The Tuxedo producer, John H. Williams, who composed for a number of acclaimed movies, including the first three Harry Potter films:
“We work on it for three months! I practice! At the end of the month, the producer came and said, ‘Jackie don’t feel bad, but we don’t like that song.’ So I learn another song, and we get along fine, and I do it in movie. It turned out pretty good.”
Jackie Chan Loves Playing James Bond On Screen
Jackie Chan typically portrays supercops, so playing a spy was a slight change of pace for him. He gushed when asked if he enjoyed the James Bond genre:
“Yes I do! When I was younger, I always dreamed of being in James Bond movie. I loved watching and dreamed about being him when I was younger. I wanted to be like him. I dreamt about saving the world, saving people, so I wanted to be like him and do those things. So in this movie, I get to be James Tong, and it was fun to dress in a tuxedo and be cool and have all the toys that make a spy cool. I had agood time making this movie because of that.”
And which Bond was Chan’s favorite? Although the actor didn’t know him by name, he said:
“Who the older one with the gray beard? … Yeah that’s right! Sean Connery! He’s the best Bond for me, and the only true Bond as far as I’m concerned.”
For the unversed, The Tuxedo made a total worldwide box office revenue of $104.4 million despite receiving generally unfavorable reviews from critics upon release.
Chan will next be seen in Rush Hour 4, the upcoming installment of the Rush Hour film series, also starring Chris Tucker.
Meanwhile, you can stream The Tuxedo on DIRECTV.
Source- Crosswalk
