Talk about fearless.
Jackie Chan recently revealed when he plans to retire from his decades-long acting career – and it isn’t anytime soon.
The “Rush Hour” star opened up about his eventual retirement, or lack thereof, on Tuesday during a new interview with Haute Living about his upcoming movie, “Karate Kid: Legends.”
Despite being 71 years old and following concerns about his health, the legendary martial artist revealed that he still performs his own stunts and always will.
“Of course, I always do my own stunts. It’s who I am,” he insisted. “That’s not changing until the day I retire, which is never!”
“When you’ve done it for 64 years straight, there’s no physical preparation anymore,” Chan continued. “Everything is in your heart and soul; it is muscle memory.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the “Armour of God” actor detailed how far action sequences have come since 1962, when he first started in the biz.
“In the old days, the only way was to be there and jump; that’s it,” Chan explained. “Today, with computers, actors can do anything, but there’s always a sense of reality that you feel is missing.”
He also called the technological advancements a “double-edged sword.”
“On one hand, actors become more and more capable of doing impossible stunts with the help of technology,” Chan said, “and yet, on the other hand, the concept of danger and limit gets blurred and the audience is numb.”
However, the “Rumble in the Bronx” star admitted that performing one’s own stunts is “dangerous.”
“But I’m not encouraging anybody to risk their lives to do the stunts like I did,” Chan said, “It truly is too dangerous.”
Chan’s acting career kicked off with the Cantonese film “Big and Little Wong Tin Bar” when he appeared as an extra at age 8.
Ten years later, he served as a stuntman in the Bruce Lee martial arts films “Fist of Fury” (1972) and “Enter the Dragon” (1973).
It wasn’t until 1978 when Chan, then 24, gained widespread fame for his roles in the action-comedy films “Drunken Master” and “Snake in Eagle’s Shadow.”
He later garnered the attention of US audiences with 1995’s “Rumble in the Bronx” and, finally, “Rush Hour” in 1998.
“Hollywood is the place to be, no matter how big you are in your own country,” Chan said in 2010 shortly after starring as Kung Fu master Mr. Han in “The Karate Kid” reboot. “There, you become an international star.”
“In Hollywood, at the beginning, I had no choice but now I pick up whatever I like,” he continued at the time. “I am pretty lucky – now I can do whatever I want. When you are getting bigger in Hollywood, you can go, ‘No, I don’t want to do this, I like this and that!’”
Chan is set to reprise the role of Mr. Han when “Karate Kid: Legends” hits theaters on May 30.
Ralph Macchio, who played Daniel LaRusso in four “Karate Kid” films and its Netflix spinoff series, “Cobra Kai,” is also set to reprise his role.
“I was for sure super excited,” Chan said of playing Mr. Han again after more than a decade. “It’s been almost 15 years!”