The superstar underwent surgery while working on Kung Fu Yoga - and resumed filming immediately
Photos: Courtesy of Golden Village
Ask any of his colleagues and they'll tell you the same thing: Jackie Chan is a superhero. Every movie he appears in is accompanied by a story about the star sustaining injury, but gritting his teeth and resuming filming barely hours after getting patched up.
Kung Fu Yoga was no different. The movie sees Chan and a pan-Asian cast - including Bollywood actress Disha Patani, Hong Kong actor Aarif Rahman and South Korean idol Lay Zhang - venturing from Dubai to Iceland for an epic historic adventure.
Along the way, Chan was admitted into hospital for surgery. Still, production proceeded on schedule, and the movie releases in cinemas here on 26 Jan.
Weekender takes some time with Chan during his visit to Singapore to find out more about his heroic hustle.
You’ve been working with Korean stars like Exo’s Lay and former singer Zitao. Have you learned any ‘idol’ techniques from them?
I can’t learn anything from them! I don’t understand their lingo and actions. They have all these hand gestures – on Railroad Tigers, Zitao tried to greet me like that and I told him, “You can’t do this, I’m from a different generation.” Instead, I try to teach them things.
It seems that you really take care of the younger actors.
[Points to Disha Patani] Everybody went to her rescue, but nobody came to help me! I couldn’t exactly ask for help, since I’m the da ge (big brother). Everyone was lifting her up in the diving scene, and I was left to resurface by myself. I think I even swallowed some water.
By the end of the scene, I was hyperventilating. The director saw me and said, “You’re okay? Let’s do that again.” I had to ask for a break. Nobody cared about me! Because I’m the da ge.
Which one of these ‘idol’ actors made the deepest impression on you?
The most recent has to be Aarif Lee [or Aarif Rahman]. I’m very close to the others like Zitao, because they’ve supported my charity concerts before, but it’s my first time working with Aarif.
In one scene where we had to fall on a glacier, and I taught him to do a kick-back stunt instead of slipping, which could result in serious injury. When he mastered the stunt, he was very eager to show it to me. He’s very polite and receptive to learning – when I wrote him a letter on how he could improve his acting, he responded to each and every point.
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