Jackie Chan Interview
-Part I
by John Little


INSIDE KUNG-FU: Obviously you are in very good shape. What do you do to keep in shape?

JACKIE CHAN: Before I used to run 45 minutes every day, but after Rumble in the Bronx I broke my ankle. Now, after I run 15 to 20 minutes, my ankle really starts to hurt.

JC: No, at a normal level. I can’t go too low or too high because of the ankle and the knee. I try to keep it as flat as possible. Even sometimes when I don’t have access to a Master Step I will walk on the street–but on a flat surface. The best is the grass because it is soft and absorbs the impact better. I’ll do this for one hour.

IKF: Do you do any weight training?

JC: Yes, usually after working out on the Master Step, I’ll do some light weight training. I use very simple movements like dumbbell laterals, dumbbell flyes, bench press–that type of thing. I don’t use heavy weights.

IKF: What kind of weight would you use, for example, on the bench press exercise? JC: I’d use about 45 kilos on each side. IKF: And for how many repetitions? JC: Twenty or thirty–done at a very quick pace.

IKF: How many sets of each exercise would you perform?

JC: I average around four sets per exercise.

IKF: Do you work out training different body parts on different areas?

JC: No, I just work out depending on how I feel like it, because we have very good basic training, so we really don’t need to train different body parts on a schedule. When you’re on a set, when we are fighting, there is already a lot of movement. We just cannot get too big especially on our shoulders and arms,

IKF: Your shoulders and arms are very well developed for someone who doesn’t do a lot of specialized weight training for them. Is this muscle development a result of your martial arts training?

JC: Yeah, I think when I was younger.

IKF: And gymnastics?

JC: Yeah, gymnastics is very good for strength and when you do things like flips and hanging upside down, it helps you also with your coordination.

IKF: You have a very good sense of body awareness. By that I mean, gymnastics have a great sense of balance and coordination. Is that something you can train for, or is it simply a genetic factor?

JC: No, you can definitely train for it. The most important thing is when you are young. When I was six and a half or seven years old, at that time we had a very good basic training. It didn’t matter how we felt–push-ups, knee bends, and so on. The basic training is very important. After all those years, it becomes very natural. It’s actually very hard to tell you how I train, because I just "know" what to do. When I lose my balance, you just know how to get it back. So, this way, when I do a stunt, I do get hurt sometimes–but less than some other people. IKF: Because of your conditioning. JC: Right.

IKF: I should probably make a note of what weight training exercises you do. You mentioned that you do bench presses, dumbbell laterals for your shoulders, dumbbells for your chest. Do you do any weight training for your legs?

JC: No, just kicking. I do kicking and punching exercises.

IKF: How do you train in this fashion? How many days would you perform punching and kicking exercises?

JC: Every other day. Every other day is hard training, like, really kicking and punching hard. Some other days it’s like fooling around–(begins to punch at the air) boom! boom! boom! boom! boom!, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick. Just depending upon how we feel on any given day. Some days we just lay down, we just don’t want to do it. Some other days, we are really kicking and punching hard for three minutes every round, then take 30 seconds rest, then another three minutes of punching, followed by another 30 seconds rest, followed by another three minutes. You just keep on punching–boom! boom! boom! boom! boom!–until your three minutes are up, no matter how slow or tired you get. You just finish up for three minutes, then you rest another 30 seconds.

IKF: So do you mix it up (i.e., three minutes of punching, 30 seconds rest, three minutes of kicking, 30 seconds rest, and so on in this fashion, or do you do combine punching and kicking for three-minute intervals followed by 30 seconds rest?

JC: No, it’s punch first–punch, punch, punch, then kick, kick, kick, then punching/kicking, punching/kicking.

IKF: And are the punches and kicks of any type (i.e.,
random combinations and techniques), or do you practice only certain kicks and punches for training purposes?

JC: No, they are of any type. Because we already have a solid basic training, the most important thing is to keep flexible and to keep the movements fluid.

IKF: So what do you train your kicks on–an airshield, a heavy bag?

JC: A bag. I use a standing bag.

IKF: How long would all of this take to complete all your three-minute intervals of punching and kicking?

JC: Yeah, more than a half-hour.

IKF: This would also be excellent cardiovascular exercise, too, wouldn’t it? After all, it gets your heart beating faster, you’re metabolism would increase... JC: Oh, yes.

IKF: Let me also ask you this: you say you used to run–now you step or walk, and you do your punching and kicking for cardiovascular fitness; you lift weights for strength fitness, but what do you do for flexibility? Do you stretch?

JC: When we’re on the set, we just put our leg up on something and stretch. Even when we’re talking, or having a conversation with my boys, everybody puts their leg up on a table, on a chair–we just put it up and stretch during conversations and breaks in between scenes.

IKF: Do you find any difference now in warming up, now that you’re older than you were when you first started in the industry?

JC: Yes. Before, a long time ago, I didn’t need to warm up, I’d just do it. But I’ve found out that it’s very easy to twist my shoulder, hip, knee, and "aaagh!" Now, before I do a scene, all my boys make sure that all of us stretch, stretch, stretch. So now I stretch everything before I shoot a scene involving kicking and punching.

IKF: In movies such as Rumble in the Bronx, where your physique is shown, do you have to engage in any different type of training, more specifically, bodybuilding or physique training to acquire such a muscular appearance. Or is this the kind of condition you are in all the time?

JC: No, I didn’t need any specialized training. That’s pretty much the condition I’m in almost all the time. Sometimes when I finish one movie, I’ll travel around and, after one or two months off, I always think to myself, "I’m getting fat, I’m getting fat, I’m getting fat." Always in my mind. So then I know that I’ve got to start training again.

IKF: How long can you go before you feel you "have" to work out again?

JC: After about two weeks or a month–at the most–I feel that I’ve got to workout.

IKF: How about your diet? What do you eat to keep so lean?

JC: I really don’t have a special diet–I eat everything. Of course, I’m watching not to eat things that are too oily. Mostly I eat vegetables and once or twice a week I’ll eat ice cream, but mostly I just stop myself from eating too much junk food.

IKF: You mentioned that sometimes you feel as though you are getting fat, but you must have a tremendous metabolism. Have you always been fairly muscular due to your years of training in gymnastics and martial art?

JC: I think so, yes. And also because I enjoy being I active. I would rather walk than take the elevator. I don’t want to take the escalator. If I can exercise, I’ll do it. If there is an opportunity for exercise, I’ll take it. For example, if I can walk up three flights of stairs, I’ll walk up three flights of stairs, rather than taking an elevator. In life, I’ve found that most people these days are very lazy. Like, they will get in the elevator, then in their car. Then, after car, they get on the escalator, then sit down in the restaurant, then get back in their car for an hour’s drive home, then when they get home they sit on their sofa, take hold of remote control, then, within a half-hour, they fall asleep. With such a lifestyle it’s very easy to get fat. So mostly I make sure that I take the time to just walk, walk, walk, walk.

IKF: Do you have an exercise machine in your house? JC: I do. Right now, yes. IKF: Do you bring anything with you to help you keep in shape when you travel?

JC: I just bring two pieces of exercise equipment with me–wherever I go around the world: a barbell set and a bench press. That’s all. Wherever I go, they break it down and pack it up. Like when I was recently filming in South Africa, they put it together in my room. I always have two rooms that interconnect when I travel, and one of those rooms is for exercising. I don’t really use dumbbells and weights that much, however. Mostly in these empty rooms I use them for practicing my punching and kicking. Punching, kicking, and jumping–these are more important than the dumbbells and the weights.

IKF: Do you consider yourself an expert in all facets of the martial arts?

JC: Right now, because I’m not training as intensively in the martial arts as I did before, I wouldn’t call myself a "martial arts expert." Before, I could say that I was a martial arts expert because I was actively training in everything: I learned southern style, northern style, hapkido, judo–everything. But after I started doing movies, I just mixed everything. Now if you asked me, "Jackie, do the bai-mei," I already have forgotten the routine! I only remember a part of it because I have mixed in so many martial arts into my training over the years for the movies. Right now I would consider myself an expert in "martial arts in the movies."

IKF: What are your thoughts on the martial arts you see performed in the movies these days by other actors?

JC: Right now, in the movies, they don’t really utilize martial arts anymore. Not classical martial arts, anyway. It’s action, action–it’s more than simply fighting these days. It’s more like boxing. Even the kicking is different. And also, right now too many people are kicking in the movies. So I don’t want to kick. I want to make myself special. Van Damme is kicking, everybody is kicking–that’s the big thing, apparently. So I want to make my movies different, so I’m not kicking so much. I do more difficult things like jumping on the sofa and going up to the roof. I do so many different things, like punching with a bicycle, or I flip kick with a motorcycle. I want to use some other thing, not just standing there–boom! High kick–like Bruce Lee.

IKF: In your fight scenes, one thing I do notice is that you make your fight scenes practical. Like, if there is something on a table that you can use to help you get out of a jam, then you incorporate it into your fight scene–rather than the typical North American method of simply "putting up your dukes" and delivering a punch

toward the camera, and then cutting the scene to show a close-up of an adversary taking the punch on the jaw. I think this is important because, while you still perform incredible feats of skill and martial arts mastery, you remain believable to the audience. Is this something that you’ve deliberately intended to infuse into your fight scenes, or is it something that just happened to evolve over time?

JC: I just don’t know. I went to the video store the other day to look at something and I was shocked at how many "biographies" there are on me! (laughs) There’s too many biographies on me. But seeing the boxes and, later, looking at my older movies, like, the ones I did 25 or 30 years ago, it’s almost like looking at a different person. I was almost pure classical kung-fu in my moves, doing techniques from different martial art styles. There would be no use of, for example, chairs in my fight scenes or other props, just hand-to-hand fighting in a very traditional manner.

IKF: How do you go about setting up your fight sequences? What’s the most difficult aspect of your choreography?

JC: For a stunt coordinator to choreograph all the fighting scenes, the most difficult thing is the initiation of the fight between two people–how do you land the first punch? That’s very difficult. Then you think about what are the reasons why the character is going to fight? What are his motivations for throwing that first punch? Then, when you start that first punch and kicking, it becomes very easy in terms of what camera angles to use, and things like that. When do the combatants separate, catch their breath, and then resume fighting–and then, what are the strikes or kicks that would be suitable for them at this juncture of the fight? Many things have to be considered when choreographing a fight scene, besides simply a string of techniques because we are not, like, say, two gentlemen fighting (adopts a John L. Sullivan pose) where it’s (adopts a polite expression): "Okay, now we will fight." That’s not how fights take place in these days. It’s more like, "You kill my sister, I’ll kill your father!"–(Jumps up and delivers several lightning-fast strikes) Aaaagh! As the fighter, you would have to think about going there ahead of time to fight this person and once there, you would look for something–anything–to get it going.

If you saw a table, you probably would kick it toward your opponent, because then it might hit him and hurt him, or, at the very least, it would distract his attention so that you could close the gap between the two of you with a technique–boom! (throws a backfist at an imaginary opponent). You make some move, or think about "how can I make that first contact?" That’s important. You must put both the thought process and emotion of the character into the fight sequence, particularly at the initiation of the fight. So this is the way that I choreograph my fight scenes. It’s a mixture of things. It’s not like, "Okay, I don’t like you. You don’t like me. So now we’ll go outside and have a fight. Come on. Now, are you ready? (puts up his hands in a fighting posture). Now I am ready."–Boom! boom! boom! (simulates punches being thrown, then steps back into his fighting stance once more) Now, let’s do it again." That’s a different kind of thing.

The way I choreograph fight scenes was actually a big help to me in becoming a good director, because when I teach people fighting, I am also teaching them the emotions and motivation behind their actions, like, why I am kicking the table, why I’m doing this, why I’m doing that. So later on, my martial art changed from martial art to action. Right now, it’s the 20th century, almost the 21st century; how can you justify fighting in this way? No, it’s ridiculous. Getting into classical, traditional kung-fu stances and gentleman-style techniques is okay for comedy (throws a series of wild man punches and then quickly attempts to adopt a classical kung-fu stance to make it look like the previous punches were part of his style and not simply wild swinging.) It’s not like before, though. I’m the one who really wants to change these types of things and make the fight choreography more up to date and modern. You see this in not only martial art, but with dancing, with the rhythm and everything.

IKF: You must notice a huge difference between your approach and that of your American counterparts in the film world? JC: A lot of American movies feature fighting that is, really, old-time martial art (assumes several classical and theatrical fighting stances and techniques). And that’s wrong. Now there is an audience for this type of fighting, but it’s small. Only a small amount of people make up that type of audience. Most audiences like to see the real thing, not the old traditional thing. They like the natural thing–the way fighting really is–natural comedy, too.

IKF: You mentioned that when you kick the table, for example, toward the opponent to initiate a fight, it brings a lot of emotion into your fight scenes, whereas Jean-Claude Van Damme, for example, seems to prefer using orthodox martial arts kicking which many filmgoers find unbelievable.

JC: I think every action star–not only Van Damme–like Stallone, Chuck Norris, whatever, are good fighters and martial artists. Or if not good fighters, at least good actors. The only reason that Jackie Chan has become special is because they don’t know how to choreograph, they only know how to fight. And when they make an action movie, maybe their director is not a martial artist, he is only the director. Which means that when they fight, everything’s wrong. So this way, when the action in the movie comes up, it doesn’t make sense sometimes. It doesn’t look as good as a Jackie Chan movie. Why? Because when I direct all the fighting scenes, I’m directing myself. And, most importantly, I use my own stuntmen. Even if I were making a movie where you were the director, when it came time to film the fight scene, you would go away and I would direct it. So this way, it makes my action movie more exciting than some other people’s. This doesn’t mean that I am better than Van Damme–no, because Van Damme is good. But because of the situation, the people here in America have to listen to one person tell them how to fight, and then if the actor wants to do this type of kick, but his stuntman doesn’t know how to do the proper reaction, and the cameraman who is a good photographer, but is unfamiliar with how to ideally film action scenes and the director is more drama oriented than action, all of these things combine to make the action scene not work. When you look at Jackie Chan’s action, it works. Why? Because I use my own cameraman, my own lighting man, my own stuntman, I’m the director, I’m the stunt coordinator–I’m the actor! So I do everything.

IKF: What do you look for when you select your stuntmen?

JC: I train them.

IKF: You train them yourself?

JC: Yeah. Like, a lot of people like him (points to a young protégé), when he was with me he was just a young kid, but he’s not in my group yet. He just hangs the pads, sets up the safety things, and does those kinds of things until I think he’s ready to join my group. Once I think he’s good enough, then I’ll bring him on my team. They know that if they keep at it, then one day they will have the chance to fight with me (on screen), which is so exciting to them. I mean, nobody else can fight with me in Asia. No matter how good the stuntmen they are just standing way in the back. If you are the actor here, and I’m talking to you, as soon as it is time to fight–"cut!"–you are out. As soon as the fight begins you are out, they replace you with a stuntman, they change his hair to look like yours.

But my stuntmen fight with me because when you fight with me–no matter how good you are–we’re unfamiliar with each other. So, when you kick or punch toward me, I’ll be pulling away too soon or maybe I’ll be worrying about getting hit and, believe me, I’ve been hit too much already. I’ve been hurt so many times from people who were not my stuntmen; my nose has been broken three times because I trust people;

my tooth is gone because you cannot control your technique as well as it needs to be. I’m not saying that I still don’t make mistakes, my own stuntmen have hurt me, too, but that’s okay–I trust them–and that’s an accident. If you hurt me or fight with me, then I’m scared (that an accident could happen). But with my stuntmen, the chances of my getting injured are greatly reduced. We can go full out–(throws punches and kicks) bam! bam! bam! bam! bam!–we know each other’s rhythm and timing!

If today, you find in America a very talented Caucasian stuntman, like you or, like anyone, to fight with me, it will be the worst-looking Jackie Chan fight scene of all time. Why? Because when you go to kick me, I’ll be already flinching and turning away from you. If the scene calls for you to hit me across the back with a stick, I’m already covering up and trying to get away from you because I’m really scared that you are going to hit me. But my stuntmen can hit me right across the back with a club–boom!–and you can actually see it touch my shirt, and I’ll stay there and take it because I know that he’ll pull it just enough to prevent me from getting hurt. That’s what we want in fight choreography. So that is why I always bring my stuntmen with me wherever I go. We have that timing together. Like, in Rumble in the Bronx, when they were throwing bottles at me–boom! boom! boom!–I trust them and tell them, "Come on, now, hit me right here on the arm with it," and they will. But if you throw the bottle, I’d rather be ten miles away because if I stand there, I might move because we’re not used to each other–or you might not throw it where I’m expecting it–and I’ll get hurt. So this is quite different from some of the other action stars who might use one set of stuntmen for one film, and then a second set of stuntmen for another film–how can you create realistic looking scenes this way? You must fully trust the people you are working with, and you have to know each other, anticipate each other and know each other’s rhythm and timing. This is essential. You could put two good fighters together in a fight scene, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be entertaining to watch in a movie. In the movies, it’s different fighting than what you would see, say, in a martial arts tournament or a boxing match. There, it’s bam! bam! bam! And that’s a good fight to watch, too, they’re really fighting and it’s exciting. But in a movie, it’s all rhythm, and that requires a different type of fighting. And even in the action star’s films, the actor doesn’t want to get hurt, and says "Don’t hurt my nose, don’t hit my face"–they’re already scared! And that comes across in their films and really compromises their ability to fully express their character’s personality or intention in their fighting scenes.

IKF: You have truly elevated stunt coordination and fight choreography into an art form. You have really infused an element of soul or honesty into your action sequences that keeps your character’s scenes very pure.

JC: Yes, well I like action, but I hate violence. That’s why in my movies you don’t find a lot of violence. If you say, "Your movies are violent," I’ll respond: "It’s good violence; I didn’t show the blood from the nose, there was no swearing" no, I never have any of this kind of dialogue. Also, I never have gunfights where there is someone shot–"Bang!"–and then blood comes pouring out of a guy’s mouth, his nose, and so forth. So that is why when I design fighting scenes, it’s more like an art, like dancing, rhythm. Like a tap dance, "ba-da-da-dum-dum, ba-da-da-dum-dum."

IKF: Is there a difference in the type of people that go to see your films, and the ones who go to see those made by other action stars in Hong Kong?

JC: One of my movies has been released right now in Asia and I just got the press reviews from Hong Kong. When they go to the theater to see my film, they are not surrounded by the young kids in the yellow hats with the earrings through their noses. These type of kids go to see the Triad-produced films. They want to see the Triad movies. But everybody can bring their children to a Jackie Chan movie, everybody feels comfortable bringing their children to a Jackie Chan movie. When I’m fighting on screen, all the children are smiling and laughing. The children are smiling and the big people are excited, saying "Oh, yeah! Look at that!" That’s my audience, and that’s the only audience I want.

IKF: That would explain the difference between "violence" and "art." The honesty and purity comes across the screen in what you do. I want to ask you, given your upbringing in the Peking Opera and its very tough regimen, and the fact that you personally put your life on the line in many of your stunts to give your audience 100 percent of your best in each and every film you make, when you see a lot of the North American stuntmen who complain about doing stunts that are quite minor in comparison, does it upset you? Does it cause you to think "These guys don’t know what hard work is?"

JC: (emphatic) No. I think differently. I really learned my action, my punch – a lot of my punches in the movies – I really learned from American stuntmen. From the beginning. Before, in the old days of the Hong Kong film industry, we were all fighting in a classical style–(performs a series of classical blocks and strikes) tung, tung, tung, tung, suddenly a movie came to Hong Kong to shoot in Hong Kong called, The Sand Pebbles and it used a lot of Hong Kong stuntmen. They taught us how to do the reactions to a punch. It was a movie about a boat and a gunfight, and they used some Hong Kong actors. It was an American-made movie.

IKF: How long ago was this?

JC: Oh, this would have been 35 or 39 years ago. The American stuntmen had to teach the Hong Kong stuntmen how to react properly to movie punches, and how to throw the punches. We learned how to do our reactions and our action from the American stuntmen.

IKF: And now it has come full circle as the Americans are looking to Hong Kong to learn new ways to do stunts.

JC: All those years ago we learned that much–reaction and punch. After that, we continued to create more things. However, in all of the years since then the American moviemakers have been concentrating more on computer graphics and these kind of things, staying away from what we were working on developing because of union things and insurance considerations.Later on, they went more for big stunts, parachutes, crashing cars, motorcycle jumps, and in those kind of things America is the best. We cannot do those kind of things–parachuting, motorcycle jumping–because we don’t have that kind of room in Hong Kong. Even if you had a motorcycle, there’s nowhere to jump!

Paragliding? Where? There’s no space! So we developed the smaller things, like, kicking and punching. For 50 years, almost non-stop, we’ve been working on improving our fighting action every day. Especially me. So, it’s like going to school every day, how many things every day can I create? Many things. Look at American movies–how many things are created by computers? And they are the best at this. So now, we learn from America the special effects, and America learns from us the punching and kicking, the small things.

IKF: Do you think that a lot of American stunt coordinators copy a lot from your movies?

JC: I believe right now that there are a lot of American stunt coordinators who watch my movies. I can tell when my movie is released in Asia, they are already looking at it. After that, they are releasing copies of my stunts and action sequences in their own films before mine are released in America.

IKF: What do you think of that? When you see stuff that you’ve created in your own mind and worked out with great effort and meticulous detail on the screen, then ripped off by your American counterparts with absolutely no credit given to you?

JC: (smiles) I’m happy.

IKF: Really?

JC: Yeah, because I first learned from American stuntmen. After that I created my own things. After I create my own things, somehow the technology comes up. I look at the videos of Buster Keaton and I think, "Wow!" I find out that Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, we have the same–not the talent–but the same kind of idea for making movies. Then I find out that I have the same kind of talent.

IKF: But doesn’t it upset you when you see, for example, Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell’s film, Tango & Cash, ripping off your bus stop crash sequence?

JC: No!

IKF: But that’s like your painting–something that you created! That doesn’t upset you?

JC: No, because I respect Stallone, I like him. He’s my hero. Also, Spielberg is my hero. When I look at Spielberg’s Indiana Jones Part II, I see that he totally copied my bicycle sequence from Project A–I used a bicycle, he used a motorcycle–I’m so happy that even the biggest director has learned something from me! That makes me happy. But I have also learned from other movies. I just create my own things. I think in the world of movies, everybody copies everybody.

IKF: You’ve always been original, however. And even when you were starting out and becoming famous, I remember you saying that "Bruce Lee did it this way, so I’m going to do it the opposite way"–like yin and yang–but you always did your own unique thing.

JC: Well, I always wanted to do something that was different from all the other movies. That’s what makes what I do special. Look at, right now, American movies–everything is a big explosion. "My explosion is going to be bigger than your explosion," type of thing. When I did explosions, that was ten years ago! Police Story Part II dealt with everything about explosions. The whole movie, you can find out, the explosions were hitting my body, in my eyes, in my head, then from the small explosions to, at the end, the big explosion.

Then, after that, I stopped doing it. In Police Story Part I, I did everything with breaking glass–glass, glass, glass–the whole movie was breaking glass things. Then, with The Miracle, I played with some other things. Then, I find out that in America, during these same two years, everything was explosions. Then I tell myself, "My movie is not going to use any more big explosions." Small explosions and more difficult action scenes. So that’s what made me and my movies different from Hollywood movies. So I’m always watching some other movie and then doing something different as a result of having seen it. That’s what makes mine special.

(In part 2, coming soon, Jackie delves more deeply into his love of martial arts, his philosophy on life, the tense political situation in Hong Kong and whether he considers himself a success).

Go to Jackie Chan interview part II