The transcript below is from the video “Jackie Chan: The Man With Bones Of Steel” by Biographer Express.

Biographer Express:

This great actor miraculously lived to be 68. He has several Guinness records to his credit and about 3,000 tricks performed by him. And It’s impossible to calculate the number of injuries he received in his entire career. What film had Jackie Chan been taking part in when he turned out to be closest to death? How did his distinctive comedic style come about? Did stuntmen ever do stunts instead of him? It’s Biographer Express, and today you’ll learn about how Jackie Chan became the star of martial arts movies, about the most angerous stunts and his stunt team that is the best in the world. Ready? Then we start. CAREER START Jackie Chan owes much of his mastery to the boarding school at the Peking Opera in Hong Kong, where his parents sent him to study at the age of six. Instead of the usual subjects like maths and reading, the focus at that school was on acrobatics and martial arts. We cannot call life in it simple. The children slept on hardwood floors, trained from 5 am to 11 pm, and were beaten for missteps. Chan described his time at school as “ten years of darkness”. However, the actor admitted that the Peking Opera upgraded his stamina and gave him the skills that would help him achieve success in the film industry in the future. Inset quote: Now when we talk about the old days it is fun, but at that time, it was really really painful. You know how my teacher hit me? With a piece of thick wood and we were not supposed to yell or have tears. He kept hitting me and I hated him, but after growing up I understood the training. When he was 8-10, Jackie began to conquer the cinema, acting in episodic roles. Often, Chan and his classmates were stuntmen and acrobats.

Biographer Express:

At the age of 18, he was even lucky enough to take part in films with Bruce Lee: Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon. Gradually, in the film industry, Chan developed a reputation for attempting seemingly impossible and usually dangerous stunts. He could remain a stuntman for life, since it was his childhood dream. But in 1973, Bruce Lee died suddenly, and Jackie’s life changed forever. After the death of the main star of martial arts films, Hong Kong filmmakers decided to replace the legend with a young and promising Chan. However, the first films with him did not bring a big box office. The main reason was the producers’ attempts to make Jackie the second Bruce Lee. As much as they tried to highlight the similarities between the two actors, Jackie didn’t fit the style of hand-to-hand combat that Bruce specialized in. Chan did not particularly seek to replace the legend. Instead, he proposed an entirely new approach to character design, making them the opposite of Lee’s characters. If Bruce scattered enemies with a pathetic, stern expression on his face, Chan wanted to turn his fights into a farce. Luckily, the producers were smart enough to give Jackie more creative freedom. And, (oh miracle!) things went uphill. Jackie deliberately stylized his movements to be the opposite of Lee’s. Where Lee held his arms wide, Chan held them tightly to his body. Morally honest heroes were replaced by comical, simple guys who inventively dealt with their opponents. Thus, in a few years, the actor formed a new genre in which comedy is combined with martial arts, spectacular stunts and endless fights. At the same time, there was practically no blood in his films. “Because I love action but hate violence,” Jackie explained.

Biographer Express:

By 1985, Jackie Chan had become the biggest star in Asia. Usually, when an actor reaches such heights, the producers begin to protect him from injury as much as they can. However, Jackie continued to take risks by doing stunts. Moreover, in every new film, they became more and more dangerous. STUNTS AND INJURIES Jackie Chan holds the Guinness record for the largest number of stunts performed by one actor – more than 3,000. And, of course, there were injuries. Jackie himself has lost count of all his injuries and fractures. He broke his nose, jaw, two fingers, knee, and shoulder bones three times, crushed his thigh between two cars, and dislocated his pelvis, shoulders and sternum. His right ankle suffered the most, so now the actor has to use only his left foot while jumping. Chan received one of his ankle fractures while filming Rumble in the Bronx. But as it is said, show must go on. So the actor had to put a sock over the cast and paint it like a sneaker. You can see the scene in the closing credits. Inset quote: To dissuade young people from trying my stunts at home, I use outtakes at the end of the films to show fans that I get hurt. To show them that this isn’t a cartoon.” There were not just fractures in Jackie’s career. In 1976, he almost lost an eye when he fell off a table onto the floor on The Drunken Master set. At the hospital, the eye was sewn up with electricity, as Jackie was adamantly against needles. But after treatment, one eye was wider than the other. Then the actor had to undergo plastic surgery to increase the incision of the eyes. Another risky scene, where Jackie showed his skills, was filmed for the finale of Police Story.

Biographer Express:

During a fight in the mall, the characters broke so many shop windows that the film crew jokingly began to call the film The Glass Story. It appeared to be so fascinating. Do you agree? But for greater realism, they decided to use sugar glass. It was thicker than the usual stunt glass. Many stuntmen and Jackie received cuts more than once because of it. But that’s not all. During the fight in the same scene, Jackie climbed down a four-story-high pole that was wrapped in electric lights. The actor had only one shot, as the team ran out of time. And unlike the shop windows, the lights in the garlands were real. Moreover, they were under stress. The icing on the cake was that the team could not provide Jackie with a soft landing. As a result, he had electric burns of the second degree, cuts from light bulbs, a fracture of the seventh and eighth thoracic vertebrae, and a dislocated pelvis. But Jackie was closest to death on the set of the film The Armour of God. On that day, he flew to Yugoslavia, and, not recovering from the jet lag, he immediately went to the set. There, the actor had to perform a simple trick for him. He needed to jump from the wall to the tree. The first take did not satisfy Chan, so he decided to repeat it. And, unable to hold on to the branches, he fell on the stones from 12 meters (40 feet). The actor suffered a skull fracture, and the bone, which sank into his brain, caused bleeding from his ears. Jackie spent seven days in a coma. He survived because the best neurosurgeon in the country worked in the hospital where he was. The actor is still partially deaf in his right ear, and a plastic plate plugs a hole in his head.

Biographer Express:

When Chan was once asked why it was so important for him to do all his stunts, despite the risks, he replied: “Because this is what makes me Jackie Chan. This is why I’m so different and unique. The audience loves to see me do my own stunts. And I can do my fight sequences in one shot, without having to edit them.” Jackie often pays tribute to her idols. For example, in Project A, he decided to recreate Harold Lloyd’s clock tower stunt from the film Safety Last!. And if understudies helped Lloyd to climb the building, then Jackie did everything himself. He even really hung at a height of 8 meters, having only two fabric canopies between him and the ground. Since the actor was nervous before jumping from such a height, the first take did not satisfy Chan, and he climbed the tower again. As a result, he had a broken nose and neck injuries. Inset quote: “Here, you see an old building. Me, I see where I can jump.” And yes, you heard right. The stunt failed because of anxiety. After such an insane list of tricks on the set, it might seem that Chan was so crazy that no stunts could scare him. But that wasn’t the case. Inset quote: Look, am an ordinary man! Am not superman! Really! I just… I just… shows enough. I’m scared. I have to do it. There are so many people watching it… There was one stunt in Jackie’s career that scared him the most. There was an episode On the set of the film Who Am I? where his hero went down the roof at an angle of 45º. By the way, the actor at the time of filming was already 43. Even though he had a tether, it took Jackie two ​​weeks to decide to shoot that scene. Which actor’s stunt impressed you the most? Share your opinion in the comments.

Biographer Express:

Jackie performed one of his most difficult stunts on the set of the film Dragon Lord. In an elaborate scene, Jackie and a dozen stuntmen play Jianzi, a game in which participants try to hold a heavy shuttlecock in the air. They say that it took Jackie as much as 2,900 takes to hit the target with a shuttlecock from a distance of 6 meters. However, according to another version, it was the other scene which required such a large number of takes. It was the pyramid scene at the beginning of the film. It was necessary to have discipline and good physical form to cope with a heavy load. The actor is famous for his workaholism. Ten years of study at the Peking Opera affected it. Jackie slept only 4-5 hours a day, and his daily workout usually took about 3 hours. Inset quote: People just see my movies but when everyone’s asleep, I’m still in front of the mirror practising and I’m up and on the set by 6 o’ clock. Go back and train again when someone comments the moves look beautiful. Once Chuck Norris said about him: “If there were not 24, but 48 hours in a day, he would still not have enough time.” It is said that Jackie always tried to hide the presence of ordinary injuries from his mother. However, in 1985, after that fall from a tree, rumors reached his mother. Jackie tried to convince her that it was all just a publicity stunt and that the injury was not so dangerous. But the woman did not believe it and demanded to show the scar. “I showed her a completely different place. She believed and still does not know the truth,” Jackie told reporters years later. STUNT TEAM At the beginning of his career, Jackie was often injured due to the inexperience of other stuntmen.

Biographer Express:

For example, while filming a fight in the 1978 film Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, a stuntman stabbed Chan with a sword with a sharpened blade instead of a blunt one. In the end, Jackie got tired of that, and he decided to work only with experienced, reliable stuntmen whom he knew personally. Many of them came from the same boarding school where Jackie studied. Gradually, a company of stuntmen formed around the actor, who regularly worked on the same projects and learned from each other’s skills. By 1983, when the film Project A was released, the stunt team became an official organization called Jackie Chan’s Stuntmen Association, or Sing Ga Ban, consisting of 6 people. Gradually, Jackie’s team expanded, and by 1988 it consisted of about 20 people. Now the 8th generation of stuntmen is working in the organization. All insurance companies worldwide blacklisted Jackie and the stuntmen who work with him. So the actor pays for the treatment of Sing Ga Ban members from his pocket. The organization also implies that those who join it receive a monthly salary and learn the skill personally from Jackie Chan. Jackie’s team choreographs his fights and tests his ideas before he puts them on screen. While working on films, the team trains and lives together. It can be said that Jackie started the trend for stunt teams. Inspired by his example, many other business members began to create their stunt teams. The Jackie Chan Stunt Team is famous for its skill and the complexity of the stunts they make. They have won the Hong Kong Awards for Best Action Choreography nine times.

Biographer Express:

Many of those with whom Jackie worked eventually became actors and directors themselves. Of course, Jackie does most of his stunts. But still, he sometimes uses the services of an understudy in unpretentious scenes. Naturally, this happens only when it is physically impossible to do without a replacement. Fans argue fiercely over which scenes stunt doubles replaced Jackie. The most accurate information is about several projects. In Police Story and Heart of the Dragon, Blackie Ko did the car and motorcycle stunts instead of Jackie. Fans also found out that in the film Rush Hour 2, in the scene where the main characters jumped out of a skyscraper, and an explosion rumbled behind them, both actors were also replaced by stuntmen. But, of course, that was a drop in the bucket of those stunts that Jackie performed on his own. In 2002, Jackie Chan received the Taurus World Stunt Academy’s annual award. Over time, Sing Ga Ban has evolved into more than just an organization. For Jackie, this is the second family, where everyone supports each other in work and everyday life. There is a strong bond between team members, and some even say that stuntmen have a sixth sense when they need to interact with each other. They can understand each other without words and anticipate the movements of colleagues. According to one of the young members of Chan’s team, Wang Zhenwei, to become an organization member, one must have high physical skills and great character. You need to be a really good person. In 2017, Jackie Chan starred in a Chinese TV show where he saw a video message from stuntmen who worked with him in the 70s and 80s.

Biographer Express:

His former colleagues spoke warmly of Jackie and thanked him for all the good things he did for them. The actor helped someone buy a house and gave someone a car. “If you didn’t have loyalty and respect for your elders, you would have been fired,” one of them recalled. “There was not a single immoral and unworthy person in the team.” After watching the video, Chan shed tears and said that the Oscar, he received for his achievements, was also an award to all his stuntmen. There was a surprise when the actor turned around and saw behind him the same stuntmen with whom he worked at the beginning of his career. In 2012, Jackie announced that he wanted to retire from action films. “My body is always in pain, and I know I can’t do this when I’m 63.” – he said. However, the legend was not going to completely retire. He just reduced the load on the body and now performs fewer dangerous tricks. Jackie Chan earned fame and status as a cult star through hard work, starring in more than 100 films. He became an example of perseverance, self-giving and determination for many people. His dedication to the job deserves admiration. There are many legendary personalities who, like Jackie, sacrificed everything for the sake of their favorite job and were engaged in creativity, overcoming pain. We talked about them in our previous videos. Click on the icon that appears on your screen to learn more about such people and get inspired and motivated. Follow the link and be sure you won’t regret it. Also, don’t forget to like this video. It was Biographer Express. See you soon!