It was a day that fans all knew would come but didn’t want to.
In an interview at the Cannes Film Festival, Jackie Chan has announced that his most recent film, Chinese Zodiac, will be his last film in the action genre.
[Chinese Zodiac] is my last action film. I tell you, I’m not young any more. I’m really, really tired. And the world is too violent right now. It’s a dilemma – I like action but I don’t like violence. I want the audience to know also I’m not only a comedian. I can act. Day by day, year by year, I’m going to show you the real Jackie Chan. I don’t just want to be an action star, I want to be a true actor. I want to get rid of my image.
After appearing in over 100 films, most of which have required him to do stunt and action work, I can easily understand why he says he feels tired. But I would imagine that age 58, he is also concerned that just by the nature of aging he is not the same action performer that he used to be. And while I have been a fan of his work since the day I first a grainy multi-generation dupe bootleg videotape of Armor Of God twenty years ago, I would rather see him acknowledge that and bow out of this phase of his career gracefully rather than have it forced on him through some horrible on-set accident.
As for his future, who knows? He has been demonstrated his dramatic chops incrementally in his films of late, so it is not like it will be a sudden switch of gears. He has also had some success in Asia as a pop singer, so perhaps he could channel his physicality into a musical?
Via Daily Mail.
