I now have two different audiences. There's the one that has been watching my action films for 20 years, and the American family audience. American jokes, less fighting.
I will make action movies, I think, for a few more years, another five years.
Cinema reflects culture and there is no harm in adapting technology, but not at the cost of losing your originality.
Very difficult to understand American audience, what they like, what they don't like. Some movie I like very much, it doesn't work. Some movie I don't like, it gets big box office. Very difficult.
I make American films for American audiences and Asian films for Asian audiences.
When I'm making an American film, it's more safe because there are so many people on the set to watch me. Whatever I do, they say, 'What are you doing!? Tell me first!' There are so many restrictions.
Every time I make American film I just trust American directors and American writers.
I want to be in 'Avatar'. I want somebody to hire me to be Superman, a Chinese Superman or Spider-Man.
My wish is to bring my heroes to the big screen, and many of them have already appeared in my films.
Speaking English is like tongue-twist for me. I can speak each word perfect, but then you have to string them together like, 'Blah, blah, blah.' That's when I get crazy.
When I was young I didn't care about education, just money and box office.
I never wanted to be the next Bruce Lee. I just wanted to be the first Jackie Chan.
When I got depressed, I watched Bruce Lee movies. I learned everything from Bruce Lee.
I just want people to remember me like I remember Buster Keaton. When they talk about Buster Keaton or Gene Kelly, people say, 'Ah yes, they good.' Maybe one day, they remember Jackie Chan that way.
American stuntmen are smart - they think about safety. When they do a jump in a car, they calculate everything: the speed, the distance... But in Hong Kong, we don't know how to count. Everything we do is a guess. If you've got the guts, you do it. All of my stuntmen have gotten hurt.
Chinese people need to be controlled; otherwise, they will do whatever they want.
It is totally different making films in the East than in the West. In the East, I make my own Jackie Chan films, and it's like my family. Sometimes I pick up the camera because I choreograph all the fighting scenes, even when I'm not fighting. I don't have my own chair. I just sit on the set with everybody.
The life of an action star is very short. I want to be an actor like Robert De Niro, like Dustin Hoffman or Clint Eastwood who in their 70s or 80s can still act.
I loved cowboy movies when I was a kid. When I was five years old, I was already wearing a cowboy hat and suit. When I grew up, I knew John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Kirk Douglas and so on.
Being a stunt coordinator, I have to take care not only of myself but I have to make sure everyone is safe.
