Hong Kong martial arts cinema: Jackie Chan, in unpublished 1998 interview, talks about his hardscrabble early career
- A stuntman on Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury, an action choreographer a year later on Police Woman – Jackie Chan talks about how he furthered his career
- Chan also talks about learning behind-the-camera skills by volunteering to help cinematographers
Jackie Chan worked as a stuntman during the early 1970s, notably on the Bruce Lee film Fist of Fury in 1972, before working his way up to stunt coordinator and action choreographer.
Chan’s first film choreographing the action scenes was 1973’s Police Woman.
In this extract from an unpublished interview by this writer from 1998, Chan describes how he made the most of every opportunity to further his career.
How did you manage your career back in the early days?
Jackie Chan: I don’t really feel that I had much of a choice about what I was doing. I was forced to change what I was doing because of society and the nature of the movie business. I’m not a genius, I’m just a normal person, and back then, I was just making movies to make a living, and that was tough to do. I knew that if I didn’t work really hard, I would not be a success.