International superstar Jackie Chan needs no further introduction when it comes to his commitment to honing his craft. Why, the actor has broken practically every bone in his body doing his own stunts. In an interview he recently did for the 40th anniversary of the prestigious Golden Rooster Award, the veteran actor lamented how some young actors don’t put in the work and only want to look good for the public.
Jackie revealed that he often tries to encourage younger actors to work hard, that they’ll be grateful for the hard work they put in today come tomorrow or in a year’s time. He says seeing how some young actors don’t want to suffer through hardship, who don’t want to sweat, who don’t want to hang on steel wires and do anything remotely dangerous sometimes makes him feel helpless. “You want to look good, but you don’t want to work hard, I get angry when I hear this. Are you so worthy of the fact that so many staff members are there to help light you up and to wait on you?”
Pointing out how these actors would often come to work late and yet be the earliest to leave the set, Jackie says “they’re so lucky because too many people indulge them”. He also adds sometimes he can’t help but approach the teams of these actors to tell them to respect the crew, and that they mustn’t frequently announce they’re already leaving when they’re on set.
Jackie may not have named any names during his interview, but that certainly didn’t stop Netizens from digging up the young actors he’d worked with in the past to try and determine who he’s referring to.
Source: 1
Po
HMM who is it? JAckie just say it!!
laihonn
There’s no reason for any newbies to put in the hard work as long as people only care about how they look. Most of the actors/ actresses only need one role to propel them to popularity and to get a fandom. Everything else after is easy peasy because they can count on the fandom to help them get jobs and get more brands endorsement.
Hunter2020
Lol who gives an eff how hard some1 works. The point of being a star is just to make ppl wanna see their work. Think I give an eff if Wu Jing only works 1 hour a day? So long as I like his movies it’s all that matters!
Anon
But it’s funny how some people always try to brand themselves hard working and doing all their stunts, and then they ended up using more than 2 dozens of stuntmen for the easiest shits like walking and just standing up.
I don’t know how the job works but if they still have scenes to take, they should not leave the set. If they are done with their parts, then I don’t see why they need to stay until everyone leaves.
If some artists leave the set early because stuntmen can do all the parts with their back facing the screen, they should quit or get fired. Stuntmen are there to do hard stuff, not easy stuff like standing up. How do you say stuntmen in chinese? Or stand-in? Maybe some artists are too dumb they think stand-in means to stand all the time. If there is a good reason like the artist didn’t have a specific type of skill, or they do but it’s too dangerous, or that the production needs to save time, then I understand and I won’t nitpick that everything must be done by the leads. But standing up? Seriously? That’s so ridiculous. If they do that, they have the face to say they are very serious too? Wow!
Summer
I get what Jackie Chan is saying, but if the stunt is dangerous I wouldn’t do it. I don’t want to risk my health and safety if I have a choice not to do it. Jackie was confident and great at his stunt works, but other actors are not like him. Now I get what he means when he says, some actors should stay longer and help the crew; but if they have other obligations then it’s understandable that they have to leave early.
Also, he says some actors use their looks to gain fans, and sure that happens sometimes, but eventually, at the end of the day, if the actors really want to enhance their acting skills; they would work hard to do it.
Dominique
I don’t think this is just about stunts. It’s about the acting craft in general. There are so many who focus on looking pretty the entire time to the point where they have lack of expressions. A lot of younger actors and actresses only care about maintaining their image and being popular.
Chris
I agree with you and think he’s not referring to stunts, especially more challenging stunts, but just putting in the hard work and effort as an actor/actress. If the actor/actress is good looking, that’s fantastic, but they should also be able to act or at least try to act. Otherwise, they’re just a model standing in front of the camera looking pretty.
Sunny
I can understand what Jackie is saying though, a lot of the younger generation are being spoiled at things just given to them. Jackie had to work hard to be where he is at, I think it is rather insulting if you can’t even do a “simple” action part and you have a stunt person doing it for you, that is shameful. People doing stunts do not get enough credits for what they do. I grew up watching Jackie’s movies and you can see the actions are definitely not the same as it was back then, there is just too many CG and heavy editing.
It is sad that people will just rely on their looks. Pretty faces but poor acting skills are always a hard pass for me. It doesn’t matter how great the storyline or how great the editing and directing were, it can’t save the fact that their poor acting is caught on camera and they can’t even express the simplest emotion. For these individual they are never actors/actress for me, they will always just be idols who everyone worships for their looks.
Rhea
I’m a bit disagree with Jackie Chan on doing the stunt part. Not all actor has foundation in martial art like him. But I do agree on his comment on coming late leave early part. My first impression would be that these young actors lack discipline and is being disrespectful to the crew as well as to the other cast member. If these young actors only thinking to look pretty in front of the camera, how can they learn, gain experience and grow as an actor.
anon
Nope! Not all actor has a foundation in martial arts, that is why, if you don’t qualify for something then don’t fight for the role. Someone else has qualifications to play them, let them do it.
One good example is actress like Zhao Liying, she cannot do simple things but relies on fans praising how good she can hold a sword. If she works with newer actors, they even need to respect her too.
Even in contemporary drama, she only need to look pregnant and walk across the street, she still need a double to do that for her. She should apologize to the foolish fans believing her lies. She always show off her back injury from doing her own stunts and in the end it turned out to be some other sickness. Besides, the stunt she said she insisted to do was so unneccessary, it didn’t even require a human to do it but a doll.
Fah
LOL Ok, I don’t care about ZLY let’s leave ZLY out of this conversation bc hell is about to break lose on this post. Every one is entitled to their own opinions but let us all be mature and civil.
But I do agree with you that someone should not fight for a role they are not eligible for unless if they are willing to go far to learn how to attain those skills and not need a stunt person to do it for them. Only when needed, e.g., hard action scenes.
Anon
What he/she’s saying has some truth though. ZLY used many doubles for all her action stunts and even scenes that didn’t require them e.g kneeling, standing, dancing, etc and then also mislead people to think that her poor health conditions were as a result of these strenuous stunts through the media, these things have been buried of course but it doesn’t make them any less true. I’m not in support of doing dangerous stunts but these actors shouldn’t take advantage of this to pull big names on set and mislead their fans, it’s the height of unprofessionalism.
Xena
It’s not only kneeling and standing. Even sleeping on the ground, ZLY still used stunts to do them. The only requirement to be ZLY stuntwomen is so easy, just need to be her size. Short, skinny, tiny. Sometimes the stuntwomen are even prettier. The most ridiculous thing is they don’t need to have any special skill, why the heck are they even stuntwomen for? I won’t be surprised if she uses stuntwomen for everything and AI her face into them.
When Liu yifei played as Xiao Longnu she was only 18, she did all the hard stuff unless something is super hard. Her stuntmen must be really skillful, that’s the top priority of choosing them. It’s not about them looking pretty like her size.
ZLY was really upset when Yuzheng and Chenxiao picked Michelle Chen to play Xiao Longnu over her, but problem is, she can’t even do what Michelle Chen can at the minimalist. There is a crazy ZLY fan that even demanded MC to apologize for playing Xiao Longnu on DramaPanda if you read that recent article about MC. That user always attacks any ZLY love rivals. Stop blaming the flowery boys, lots of the responsibilities should fall on ZLY fans bc they are the first to start the toxic culture of massively supporting anything shitty their idols make. If this culture didn’t start from the group calling themselves fireflies, the flowery boys wouldn’t take after them.
Anonymity
This is a genuine question, not trying to troll you. How do you know ZLY was upset she wasn’t chosen for Xiao Long Nu? Didn’t she make a cameo as Mu Nian Ci in that series? I’m surprised if she was upset that she would still do that cameo. While I don’t think MC was a good candidate for the character, I don’t think ZLY fits that role either.
Anon
She owes YZ bigtime, that cameo only lasted 5 min. It was her “repayment” to him, the last time she will work for him. Pretty good deal, why not?
The famous reason why she broke up with Chen Xiao is when he picked MC for the role over her. After YZ broke up with CX, he started complaining how much he spoiled CX always let him pick his own female co star.
Laila
I do agree with you guys about the stunt part. Some people do not have the capability to do hard types of stunts. If it’s an easy one, they should be willing to do it and challenge themselves. Maybe they will learn a thing or two from it. It’ll definitely help them with their future career. If it’s hard, that’s when the stuntmen can come in to help.
As for acting in itself, there are so many actors and actresses that lack at acting but has a “pretty” face. It’s such a shame how visual has become a thing that gains fans and money more than talent. Sure, it’s not bad to have visuals but at least make that pretty face useful by having some talent. But I don’t fault them only. Fans definitely do play a part by toxic hype. Anyways, an actor/actress has busy schedules which I totally understand so they are always on the go and don’t always have the time to stay behind to help the crew. But it is not their obligation to help clean or prep the set. In general, if you think about it, if you worked somewhere and at they expect you to help stay behind to help on something you don’t get paid for, would you stay? They only get paid to act, not to clean up the set. I don’t know. It’s nice to help around but it’s already crowded as if with the crew so I don’t think it’s always necessary. Better to not touch anything and mess it up then to do so and screw up.
Una
I don’t think Jackie Chan was requiring actors to help clean up the set. I think he was referring to the general attitude of acting like a diva or a divo – they come and go as they please, they have no respect for other people’s time and effort. Everyone was supposed to work together as a team. I know some good directors require everyone to be on set at the end of the day to go through the day’s work, lessons learnt and to prep for the next day’s work. This is to ensure that everyone knows their respective jobs and the work process for the next day and everything would go smoothly. Time on the set is literally flowing money.
There have also been many complaints from other directors and veteran actors in the past about the behavior of some of those “not serious, idol” actors and actresses. Some didn’t even bother to learn their scripts for the day, relying on the voice actors to cover them in the post-production phase. Some didn’t do any background research, and resulted in many re-takes of the same scene. It really irked the veteran actors, who take pride in their profession.
Me
Who is he about? Any idea? What film he was latest?
Happy Wheels
Hey! I appreciate you taking the time to write this essay. People aren’t addressing, in my opinion, the problem of inadequate bus service on rural routes where the population is growing and the distances between stops are too great for people to walk. Since the new school year will shortly begin, it is critical that a resolution to the issue be found as quickly as possible.