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And, for the filmmaking process, because we needed Romans and don’t have enough Caucasians in China, we had to go all over China to look for students in International Schools to hire them. The shooting was hard, the hours were long and we had to walk to the Gobi desert because we couldn’t drive because of the tire marks because of all the aerial shots. We also invited the press to the desert to take a look at how we were making the movie. I asked the director at times, “Why aren’t we using the green screen today? We are wasting about a hundred-twenty buses every single day!” and he said, “No! I want the real feeling, the people’s feeling!” Then, I realized that only two directors had made their films in the Gobi desert! The first one is Daniel Lee and the second is also Daniel Lee! Nobody else! He just loves the desert! When the sand storm would come and everybody would hide, he would just sit there in his director’s chair with loud music on…. Lalalaaaa [Chan sings] He was just so happy! He enjoyed it so much!
Sometimes, the action is even better than my action! Like in “300,” I was like “Wow! That’s so good!” So, they spend a lot of money to create this kind of action and I think it’s ten times better than mine but they don’t really use the action. Liam Neeson, for instance, is not an action star, but they can use a small shot and make him become an action star. There’s actor action star and there’s action star. It’s different. Now, Liam Neeson is an actor action star. First, he can act and his action is easy. There’s easy action and difficult action and easy action is just like Matt Damon and “Bourne Identity.” They can use a camera and “Papapapapammm” [Chan shows a move] and, it’s so good! And, even I see it and I’m like, “Wow! Matt Damon can fight that good!” My kind of action is the difficult action. But, the audience doesn’t know that. They just want to see good or bad, that’s all!
In “Shanghai Noon,” for instance, the two tomahawks were real tomahawks! Eeeeyyyuuuuu! [Chan does the motion of throwing a tomahawk in the air] When I use explosions, I want to use a real explosion behind me. Sometimes, when I make a Hollywood film, they say “Jackie! Action! Act scared!” And there’s nothing behind me! They just use pretend scare… When you see the Asian films that I make, I am really scared! You can tell from the face! Maybe I like the excitement! I’m stupid, that’s all. But, sometimes I like stupid and also the audience, they like to see Jackie stupid!
I had to correct myself and now, when I am making a movie, it’s about not the box office anymore. I want to make the movie I want to make. I want to speak out the things in the movie. I want every movie to have a message, just like “Dragon Blade.” Of course, if the box office is good and the credit is good, it all makes me happy and if the box office is not good, it still makes me happy, mostly because I speak out my message. Today, I don’t need money. I have enough money already. I want to do something right for when I pass away, for when, in a hundred years, your grandchildren and my grandchildren can say, “That’s some movie! It’s very good!” and they can forget “Drunken Master” and talk about who I am or “Dragon Blade.” That would make me happy. Some movies made a lot of money and people, boom, they forget… but some movies don’t make any money but people, 20 or 50 years later are still talking about it and that’s what I want!
There are just so many things going on! I think that I just like the challenge! Every movie is different! I want the audience to see every year a different Jackie Chan. This year, at Christmas, “Skiptrace” will be released. It’s an action comedy with Johnny Knoxville. And, for “The Karate Kid 2,” right now, it’s almost the third or fourth draft and Will Smith is concentrating very seriously on it. Every time he gives me a call and says that the script is almost ready, I tell him, “Hurry up! Otherwise, your young son will be taller than me!” Also, there’s probably a “Shanghai Dawn” coming to and “Rush Hour 4” — no, I’m just joking!
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