Movie Icon, Jackie Chan recently revealed when he plans to retire from his decades-long acting career.
The “Rush Hour” star opened up on Tuesday, May 6, during a new interview with Haute Living about his upcoming movie, “Karate Kid: Legends.”
Despite being 71 years old and following concerns about his health, the legendary martial artist revealed that he still performs his own stunts and always will.
“Of course, I always do my own stunts. It’s who I am,” he insisted. “That’s not changing until the day I retire, which is never!”
“When you’ve done it for 64 years straight, there’s no physical preparation anymore,” Chan continued.
“Everything is in your heart and soul; it is muscle memory.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the “Armour of God” actor detailed how far action sequences have come since 1962, when he first started in the biz.
“In the old days, the only way was to be there and jump; that’s it,” Chan explained.
“Today, with computers, actors can do anything, but there’s always a sense of reality that you feel is missing.”
He also called the technological advancements a “double-edged sword.”
“On one hand, actors become more and more capable of doing impossible stunts with the help of technology,” Chan said, “and yet, on the other hand, the concept of danger and limit gets blurred and the audience is numb.”
However, the “Rumble in the Bronx” star admitted that performing one’s own stunts is “dangerous.”
“But I’m not encouraging anybody to risk their lives to do the stunts like I did,” Chan said, “It truly is too dangerous.”
Chan’s acting career kicked off with the Cantonese film “Big and Little Wong Tin Bar” when he appeared as an extra at age 8.
