hong Kong and global film icon Jackie Chan received a Career Leopard award on Saturday night and an eager welcome at the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland.And on Sunday morning,the legendary multi-hyphenate shared insights into his career during a talk at the festival that drew a large crowd that started lining up outside the cinema well ahead of time.Chan recalled working as a young stunt guy with Bruce Lee on Fist of Fury. “Bruce Lee tapped my shoulder [and said] ‘great’,” after several takes of a scene full of pain, he told the audience.
Chan also shared how he earned much respect from people at a bowling alley when he brought Bruce Lee there, adding that he himself was a really good bowler.
After Lee’s death, Chan was asked to remake Fist of Fury but it was the “wrong script, wrong character,” he felt.”The film just didn’t make any box office.” The filmmakers wanted him to become the new Lee, with the poster even saying “the new bruce Lee [in big letter] Jackie Chan [in very small print,” the star said. “The directed wanted me [to do] everything like Bruce Lee. I am not Bruce Lee.”
One of Chan’s tips for industry longevity: Always be open to and look to change and evolve. For example, he said he learned to sing because whenever he showed up for TV interviews, hosts would ask him to do a fight sequence with them.”Singing is easier,” Chan said to laughs.
later in his career, “I wanted to be an Asian Robert De Niro,” the star shared, explaining that TV and other hosts would always introduce him while making a martial arts gesture. “Nobody introduces Robert De Niro” with a martial arts gesture, Chan said, earning laughs.