Jackie Chan Confessed to Wanting to Knife a Director
International superstar Jackie Chan (成龍) is celebrating his 60th year in the entertainment industry and released a new autobiography I am Jackie Chan <我是成龍> to share details of his career. Jackie revealed that his acting career hadn’t always been easy and recalled a time when he wanted to attack a director with a knife.
Appearing Chinese talk show Shidian Talk <十點雅談>, Jackie shared that he felt helpless when he joined film industry. Despite the hardship and challenges he experienced when he started his career, the actor felt that that was his only choice because he did not have a good education and could only “fight and flip”. Under the circumstances, Jackie felt that he could only depend on himself.
Jackie recalled that he suffered through his work before he got famous and once he wanted to retaliate against a director during filming, “I was scolded so much that [the director] even dragged my ancestors in. I took a knife and I was about to go in and cut the director. I told him that he can scold me but he can’t scold my mother.”
In the tense moment, Jackie remembered that Sammo Hung (洪金寶) stepped to pull him aside and asked, “Are you crazy?” The intervention calmed Jackie down. After that, Jackie learned to be patient and not have outbursts on the set.
Throughout his career, Jackie revealed that he often received criticism and he had to learn to live with it, “Many people used to scold me. When the newspaper scolded me, I would be upset for the entire day. On the first day I would think about it. I keep thinking about it the second day, the entire week and then the year. I did all that for a single sentence and in the end, it wasn’t worth it.”
Instead, Jackie soon learned to thank his critics and shared what he learned, “Don’t take other people’s words seriously.”
Reflecting on his age, Jackie joked that his fans always wished that he wouldn’t age. However, Jackie revealed that he felt lucky to be able to grow old, “To live to this age is not easy and there are many people who aren’t able to do the same. Bruce Lee can’t get old and Leslie Cheung (張國榮) can’t get old.”
Although Jackie hadn’t made any retirement plans, he knew that he would not want to appear in old fatherly roles and wanted to live life to the fullest, “Now is the time to live well each day. Think about what to do tomorrow and next week, but don’t think about it next month. Jackie also shared that he continues to run and box to stay healthy.
Source: World Journal
This article is written by Sammi for JayneStars.com.
