Interesting facts about Jackie Chan (44 photos). Amazing Facts You Didn't Know About Jackie Chan Jackie Chan's Money Net Worth

Houses

• Beverly Hills house ($3 million) (Jacuzzi)

Cars

Sabru Impreza Evo

Jackie Chan: Wife, Dating, Family & Friends

On April 7, famous actor, director, producer and stunt coordinator Jackie Chan celebrates his 63rd birthday. The actor has a huge number of films with endless stunts, funny scenes and exciting stories, for which you and I love his work so much. And while almost everyone is familiar with Jackie Chan’s films, we don’t know much about him himself. We will try to correct this misunderstanding with the help of this post.

Jackie Chan showed his unusualness even before birth: his mother was pregnant with him for almost 11 months! Finally, she went to the doctor, who gave her C-section. The child's weight was 5 kilograms 400 grams.

The actor's real name is Chan Kon San, but, as he says, his father changed it due to espionage activities. family name, and Jackie's real name is Fong See Lung.

The father of the future star was indeed a real spy, and his mother illegally sold opium.

After the birth, the parents planned to sell little Jackie to the British obstetrician who delivered the baby for $26.

Jackie reasons that if he had been sold, he would now most likely live in the UK, speak English and not speak Chinese. And perhaps he would work as a doctor.

When future star was seven years old, her parents moved to Australia, and Jackie was left at boarding school in Hong Kong. It was there that he learned acrobatics, acting, martial arts and music. Classes began at five in the morning and ended at midnight.

Any mistake led to corporal punishment. Jackie later recalled: "I was beaten every day. I was very angry."

Chan's childhood nickname is Big Nose: once an angry school teacher broke his nose with a cane, after this incident they began to call him that.

By the way, Jackie doesn’t know how to write or read Chinese well: there were almost no grammar and reading classes at school, and even if there were, the kids didn’t listen to anything and went about their own business. Jackie studied Chinese as an adult, along with English.

Chan got his name “Jackie” while working in construction in Australia.

Jackie played his first role at the age of eight - in the film "Big and Little Wong Tin Bar", and by the time he graduated from school in 1971, he already had seven films under his belt.

One day, a young and unknown actor was faced with a total lack of money, and then he had to star in a “film for adults.”

Jackie is not ashamed of her past and looks at such experiences philosophically.
Over time, the tabloids unearthed information that a frank film with his participation was shot in 1975 and was called “All in The Family.” By the way, many of his colleagues from Hollywood also started with explicit cinema.

Chan worked as an acrobat and stuntman, and got into big cinema as Bruce Lee's sparring partner in the films "Fist of Fury" and "Enter the Dragon."

After Bruce Lee's death, producer Willie Chan cast Jackie as the new Bruce Lee in a series of lowbrow films. However, Jackie wanted to create his own screen image that would combine comedy, stunts and martial arts. He achieved this in his film "Drunken Master".

Then, in 1976, Jackie had surgery to enlarge his eyes: during filming, he fell from the table onto the floor and injured his eye. When the eye healed, it turned out to be wider than the other, after which the doctor advised me to undergo cosmetic surgery and enlarge the second one.

Jackie is the first and only person in the Hong Kong film industry to win the right to independence from the triad.

Jackie works exclusively with her stunt team. He organized this group back in 1985 after filming “Police Story”: then many stuntmen working with him were injured, and none of them wanted to work with him anymore.

Now Chan employs on average 16 stuntmen, who after 10-15 years of work become martial arts directors. Jackie personally trains them, pays for treatment and insurance, and completely trusts her guys.

It is curious that when filming films in Hong Kong, the city's residents send a secret commission to check Jackie's honesty.

Passes such tests with ease. He once reshot a 10-minute scene 2,900 times. "People say Jackie is slow. I reshoot until I like the movement. That's how I know my fans will like it."

In Chan's films there is no bloody violence or erotic scenes, and swearing appears only as a comedic highlight. The actor himself is proud of this and says that many children and women watch his films, so he cannot allow excess.

In his films, Jackie always plays only heroes who become such by accident, and also in the film there must be someone in need of his protection: a girl, a child or old man.

According to Jackie, performing stunts often scares him. But most of all he is afraid of hospitals, doctors and especially injections. Chan isn't afraid of breaking an arm or leg, but the thought of going to the hospital terrifies him.

By the way, Chan almost died while filming a fairly simple stunt in the 1986 film Armor of God. Due to the fact that filming took place in Yugoslavia, he suffered from jet lag. Yet he managed to execute the jump from the wall to the tree branch flawlessly.

He didn’t like the scene and decided to re-shoot it, and during the second attempt he missed a branch and fell from a height of 12 meters onto the stones.

Jackie damaged his skull, a piece of which entered his brain, bleeding began and blood began to flow from his ears. An emergency operation saved his life.

Now the hole in Chan's skull is covered by a plastic plate, and right ear almost doesn't hear.

It is not surprising that over the years Jackie managed to damage almost every part of his body: he broke his nose three times, received injuries to his hands countless times, and injured his knees many times.

He suffered from dislocations of both shoulders, pelvis and sternum. And his thighs were once crushed between two vehicles.

After this, not one Insurance Company does not take on the same risk as his insurance.

Jackie sleeps 4-5 hours a day.

Perhaps thanks to this, he starred in almost 80 films as an actor, 11 as a stuntman, 15 as a director and 11 as a producer.

It was not for nothing that Jackie studied singing in a boarding school: since 1984, he has released more than 20 albums with his songs, and since 1980, he has sung theme songs in all his Chinese-made films.

In 2012, Chan became a Guinness World Record holder for the most credited credits in a single film: in Armor of God: Mission Zodiac, he worked as a screenwriter, director, main actor, Producer, Executive Producer, Cinematographer, Production Designer, Line Producer, Stunt Coordinator, Props Manager, Gaffer, Stuntman, Composer, Theme Song Singer and even Catering Coordinator.

He also holds the record for the most career stunts performed by any living stuntman. Their number exceeds 1000.

The animated series “The Adventures of Jackie Chan” was a success, where Jackie answered questions from fans after each episode. But he did not voice his character.

The actor is widely known for his philanthropy and is involved in many different projects. Often acts as a goodwill ambassador in various actions, for example, against cruelty to animals, helping victims of the tsunami in Indian Ocean in 2004 or from floods in mainland China.

Jackie has been married to Taiwanese actress Lin Fengjiao since the early 80s.

The couple has a son, Chan Zuming, Jaycee Chan.

Chan also has a daughter, Etta Wu Zhuolin, from an extramarital affair with actress Elaine Wu Qili. However, Jackie himself does not officially recognize her as his daughter.

Jackie's son doesn't receive a dollar of his $130 million fortune. The actor believes: “If he is capable of something, he can earn money himself, but if he cannot, he will waste my money.”

Jackie is a Buddhist and also a committed vegetarian.

At the same time, he supports communist party China, believing that the Chinese should be under total control.

Was born Jackie Chan in 1954. Human, known to the world As an actor/director/death-defying stuntman, Jackie Chan is one of the biggest movie stars in world history and the first to bridge the gap between the Hong Kong action film and the big-budget American blockbuster. From "Drunken Master" And "Police Story" before "Rumble in the Bronx" And "Rush Hour" Chan has been making films for more than 40 years. Now over 60 years old, he still puts his life on the line to continue to excite audiences. Here are a few facts you probably didn't know about amazing Jackie Chane.

Gestation (and infancy) were difficult

Chan was born in April 1954, but should have been born in January 1954 - he lived in his mother's womb for a full 12 months before a British doctor had to surgically remove him. After his forced birth, he weighed a ridiculous 5.4 kg. His mother nicknamed him Pao-Pao, or “cannonball.” Only this kind of medical procedure is expensive, and Chan's parents couldn't afford it; they tried to sell their baby to a doctor who removed it. The doctor refused. According to Chan's memoirs, his parents collected money from their friends and it took them ten years to repay the debts.

He made 2 films with Bruce Lee

When Chan was 7 years old, his father took a job as a chef at the American Embassy in Australia, but was unable to take Jackie. So the boy was enrolled and sent to the Chinese Drama Academy, where he studied acting and singing in preparation for a career in Peking Opera. It was there that Chan lived and trained for the next ten years and eventually formed an acrobatic troupe with several classmates called the Seven Little Fortunes. After graduating from school, Chan used the group to land his first roles in Hong Kong films. He and the "Seven Little Lucky Men" were extras and stuntmen in "Enter the Dragon" And "Fists of Fury", two of the most famous and popular films made by Bruce Lee. Chan even fought the screen legend on camera.

He starred in a "soft" porn film

There are two things kids today should probably avoid from the 1970s: the movie "All in the Family". The first is a pedantic 1970 sitcom about political issues, and the other is a 1975 Hong Kong film sex comedy starring Jackie Chan. At the time, it was a long-standing urban legend that Chan had starred in a "porn film" early in his career. It's not technically a pornographic film and the actors don't have actual sex, but there are plenty of sex scenes and Chan appears naked. This is only shown on TV late at night.

So why did he do this? For the reason that most actors act in porn, erotica or the like: because of the money. “I had to do whatever I could to make a living 31 years ago, but I don’t think it’s a big disaster. Even Marlon Brando gets naked in his films.", said Chan. All in the Family is also notable for being the only film in which Chan played main role and did not participate as a stuntman.

He has a complicated relationship with voice acting

Although he had been a star in Asia since the 1970s, Chan was not a major star in the US until the release "Rumble in the Bronx" in 1996. Before that, he helped create American films in Asia: he provided the voice of the Beast for the Chinese dub "The beauty and the Beast". Chan has since voiced on English language in other major animated films(for example, Master Monkey in "Kung Fu Panda"). One project where he didn't lend his voice: cartoon "The Adventures of Jackie Chan". Prior to the live-action scene at the end of the episode, the animated version of Jackie Chan is voiced by James C (who would also voice Master Monkey in the spin-off television series Kung Fu Panda). Oddly enough, the character Jade Chan, Jackie's fictional niece in this series, was voiced by Stacy Chan, who is Jackie Chan's niece in real life.

He had a lot of injuries

After starring in dozens of martial arts films and performing his own stunts, Chan suffered a series of injuries. So much so that in 2013 his film "Rise of the Dragon" posted a poster that consisted of an image of Chan's body with arrows pointing to all of his damaged body parts. Among the injuries Chan suffered in his pursuit of art and entertainment:

On "The Drunken Master" he injured the bone behind his eyebrow and nearly went blind.

He dislocated his right shoulder on City Hunter.

Chan fell from a tree while filming Armor of God and suffered a fractured skull, a caved-in bone behind his ear, and a brain hemorrhage. During the operation, pieces of bone were removed from the head.

He broke his sternum on Armor of God II.

While filming The Accidental Spy, he broke his tailbone and was temporarily paralyzed.

He broke his nose four separate times: while filming Young Master, Project A, Miracle, and Mister Cool.

He was supposed to appear in a movie filmed at the World Trade Center

Around the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World shopping mall in 2001, Chan was tentatively planning to film a comedy called Nosebleed. His character was a humble window cleaner at the World Trade Center who foiled an international terrorist plot to blow up the Statue of Liberty. The project was quickly canceled after 9/11.

He is generous (but not to his son)

Chan is a movie star, which means he is rich. He has amassed a fortune of over $350 million. In addition to his salary and percentages of box office receipts from his films, he owns a chain of cinemas and Segway dealers. And when he dies, a lot of it will go to charity.

But his son, Jaycee Chan (pictured above), will inherit absolutely nothing from this. In 2011, Chan publicly noted that he would not leave his fortune to his son, remarking: “If he is capable, he can earn his own money. If not, then he will simply waste my money.". Jackie also admitted that he once beat Jaycee when he was a child and said that he was not a "model father."

He supports communism

Despite earning hundreds of millions of dollars, Chan is still very loyal to political system communism home country China. This means that the government controls the majority, and Chiang agrees with this, even speaking out against the American way of life on more than one occasion. In 2013 he said: "New China. The real success has been achieved in the last twelve years. The president of our country also admits that they have problems with corruption and other issues, but we are making progress... I see that our country is continuously making progress and learning. If we talk about corruption, isn't there corruption in the whole world, in the United States? [It is] the most corrupt country in the world.".

In 2009, he spoke about the dangers of too much freedom in Taiwan, which is under Chinese control. “I don’t know: it’s better to have freedom or not to have any freedom. When there is too much freedom, chaos can result. Everything could end up like in Taiwan. The Chinese people must be controlled... Otherwise, they will do what they want.".

He required hundreds of takes for one scene

Directors may require many takes to get a scene the way they want: for example, Stanley Kubrick required Shelley Duvall to shoot a scene in The Shining 127 times. By that logic, the most demanding director Chan has ever worked with is... himself. The director and lead character in the 1982 film Dragon Lord didn't like the scene in which the characters play ti jian zi (a Chinese sport similar to kicking a bag, but with a weighted badminton shuttlecock). The scene was said to have taken 2,900 takes, but it probably wasn't that many. The book Kung Fu Masters puts it at more than 190, while others estimate it at more than 1000. In any case, Chan devoted himself entirely to this scene.

He can teach fish tricks

Everyone needs a hobby to provide a relaxing break from the rigors of work. And if your job involves jumping off buildings and doing other acrobatic feats that damage a lot of bones, then the hobby should be consistent and connected to thinking. For Jackie Chan, such a hobby is training fish, in particular, koi and catfish. In 2007, he posted this video on his official website, showing how he trained a fish to twist itself to get its belly scratched.

What's your favorite Jackie Chan movie?

The genius manifests itself immediately. Even before he was born, Jackie showed how unusual he was. The mother was pregnant with him for almost 12 months until she went to the doctor, who performed a caesarean section on her. Jackie's weight at birth was 5 kilograms 400 grams.

Jackie Chan's real name is Chan Kong San. However, he says his father was something of a spy and changed the family name. And thus, Jackie's real name is Fong See Lung.

It is no secret that after the birth, the parents wanted to sell little Jackie, the British obstetrician who delivered the baby. Jackie himself says that if he had been sold, he would now most likely live in the UK, speak English and not speak Chinese. And perhaps he would work as a doctor.

Jackie's childhood nickname was Big Nose. Once an angry school teacher broke his nose with a cane, after this incident they began to call him that.

Despite the fact that Jackie is Chinese, he cannot write or read Chinese well. In his house, on the bookshelves there are CDs, film magazines, videotapes, but very few books. And all because at school Peking Opera There were almost no classes in grammar and reading, and if there were, the guys didn’t listen to anything and went about their own business. Already in adulthood, Jackie is learning Chinese and, at the same time, English.

Jackie is the only person in the Hong Kong film industry who has won the right to independence from the triads. In 1976, Jackie had eye enlargement surgery. This happened during the filming of Drunken Master. While performing a stunt, he unsuccessfully fell from the table onto the floor and injured his eye. At the hospital they stitched him up using electricity (Jackie said, “No needles”). And when the eye healed, it turned out to be wider than the other. And then the doctor advised me to have cosmetic surgery.

Jackie's workout takes 3 hours daily and includes: running - 3-5 miles (8 kilometers), push-ups, squats, weight lifting (for each body part) and developing basic martial arts movements. However, he does not follow any diet; he eats everything. He loves fish and vegetables; he tries not to eat meat, because he knows that the next day he will have to run 20 minutes longer.

The three basic rules that Jackie adheres to in his films are the following: to play only heroes who became such by chance, under the influence of unforeseen circumstances; there must be someone in the film who needs his protection: a girl, a child or an elderly person; and most importantly, in all film adaptations he must remain himself, that is, small, nimble and funny.

Jackie always works only with his own stunt team, which he formed in 1985 after filming Police Story, when so many of the stuntmen working with him got hurt and none of them wanted to work with him anymore. Now he employs 16 stuntmen, who after 10-15 years of work become martial arts directors. Jackie is personally involved in training the healthy and paying for the treatment of the disabled and completely trusts his guys.

Jackie is an incredible workaholic. Before performing any trick, he is, of course, scared, but as soon as he hears the word: “Motor!”, he forgets about everything. And when the trick works, he is ready to sing with happiness, even if he is injured.

Jackie is not that brave. When performing stunts, he is often very scared (just remember “Police Story”). But the worst thing in Jackie’s life is hospitals, doctors, and especially injections. He is very afraid of them. He is not afraid of breaking an arm or a leg, but as soon as he thinks that after this he needs to go to the hospital, he becomes terrified. And when she gets to the hospital, Jackie doesn’t pay attention to anything. He is only interested in three things: what happened, how serious it is and what they will do with him next.

No insurance company takes on the risk of insuring Jackie Chan.

When filming films in Hong Kong, city residents send a commission to check Jackie's honesty. In Jackie's films there is no violence, no erotic scenes, swearing appears only where it is comical and there is almost no blood. He is proud of this and says that his films are watched by many children and women, so he cannot and does not want to allow himself to do this.

Jackie sleeps 4-5 hours a day.

Jackie appeared in almost 80 films as an actor, 11 as a stuntman, 15 as a director and 11 as a producer.

Jackie never tells his mother, who is over 80, that something happened to him. This was the case in 1985, when Jackie suffered his most serious injury. However, while he was in the hospital, rumors still reached his mother. Jackie tried to assure her that all the talk about the hospital was a publicity stunt, but her mother did not fall for it and asked to see the spam. “I showed her a completely different place, she believed it and still doesn’t know the truth,” Jackie laughs.

Jackie considers “Police Story” to be his best film, and “Meteor Killer” and “Kill with Intrigue” to be his worst.

The only Asian to have the honor of being sculpted for the Museum wax figures Madame Tussauds - Jackie Chan. However, he asked to be molded not in some fighting pose, but in an ordinary, friendly one. Firstly, it will be difficult for wax Jackie to stand, for example, on one leg for several centuries, and, secondly, people will be afraid to approach him.

Jackie is the owner of a modeling agency called Jackie's Angels, an animal activist, a partner in the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain, an honorary doctorate from several universities, a plenipotentiary of the Hong Kong Tourism Association, an organizer of charity events, including an annual car race, an honorary a citizen of Seoul, he built several large cultural centers in Hong Kong, participated in a demonstration against video pirates, the popular drink in Hong Kong “Bobo Tea” bears the label “Jackie Chan Product” and much, much more.

Jackie pays great attention to charity. At first, he simply donated gifts and money to boarding schools and orphanages, and then created the Jackie Chan Foundation, adopted 10 orphans, took custody of 50 Chinese children living abroad, supports several university scholarship students, paid for the treatment of several sick children cancer, funds the Jackie Chan Hospital and makes contributions to the Kung Fu Schools Foundation.

The name Jackie is associated not only with the fact that he is the only actor who performs all the stunts without doubles and does almost all the work on film set, but also that during filming he set one record, which is still held in the Guinness Book of Records. On the set of the movie Dragon Lord, Jackie had to kick a small ball at a two-inch target from a distance of 6 meters. This three-second scene required 1,600 takes and 2 days of filming.

In May 1995, Jackie received the MTV Award for Achievement in World Cinema. The unusual thing was that Jackie got the award only thanks to Quentin Tarantino, who refused to host the ceremony unless two conditions were met. The Award for Creative Contribution to Cinematography will be awarded to Jackie Chan, and the award will be presented to him by Quentin himself.

It's no secret to fans that Jackie Chan is not only an actor, but also a singer. He already has 10 albums to his credit. But few people know that his favorite song is “Ocean Deep”. Jackie says he likes slow songs because they give him a chance to practice his English.

IN free time Jackie enjoys hunting, fishing, bowling and gambling. Moreover, it doesn’t matter to him what it is: mahjong, billiards, dominoes or something else. The main thing is excitement and play. One day, while playing dominoes, he bet 120,000 Hong Kong dollars. This was in the seventies, and the amount was 3 months' rent for his apartment. But Jackie's greatest passion is cars.

Jackie is a good housekeeper. And today’s youth teaches this. He has no servants, he does all the housework himself, and washes his own socks and underwear. When leaving the hotel, he certainly takes the remaining soap, wraps it in a bathing cap and takes it with him.

In November 1999, Jackie had a second child - an illegitimate daughter from former “Miss Asia - 90″ Helen Ng. Jackie publicly confessed and repented of what he had done and said that, no matter what, he loved his wife and son more than anyone in the world.

Jackie is a temperamental person. This can be seen at least from the fact that he cannot calmly talk about himself, his films and stunts. While expressing his thoughts, he actively gestures and pronounces sounds such as: “Ki-y-ya” and “Pah-pah-pah.”

Jackie Chan's favorite actor and idol is Buster Keaton. He borrowed many of this American comedian's tricks for his films. One of the most memorable is the jump from the clock tower in the movie “Project A”.

Jackie has been to Russia 2 times. The first was in January-February 1996. Here he filmed several episodes of the film “First Strike”. Filming took place on Red Square and in Krylatskoye. The second time Jackie came to Moscow was on October 16, 2000, for just a day, as part of the promotional tour for the film Shanghai Noon.

On Jackie’s first visit to Russia, he really liked our markets. They are so huge and there are a lot of interesting things on them. But what impressed him the most were the barn locks, which he bought a whole bunch of and now have in his office.

Jackie Chan does not drink not only alcohol, but also coffee. He also doesn't smoke.

Jackie has a small house by Hollywood standards in Beverly Hills, which he bought in 1998 for $3 million. The house has 4 bedrooms, 4 fireplaces, a huge garage and a swimming pool.

Jackie loves and respects her fans and admirers very much and always listens to their opinions.

Jackie's height is 172.5 centimeters.

Jackie Chan's motto: “There is no fear, there are no understudies, there are no equals.”

Jackie wants to be remembered even after he stops acting. But not as a guy who could swing a big leg, but as Buster Keaton or Fred Astaire are remembered, so that he was respected in the same way as them. And if a small reference to the name of Jackie Chan appears in some encyclopedia, that will be enough for him.

Jackie Chan's office is located at: International The Jackie Chan Group, 145, Waterloo Road, Loon Tong, Hong Kong.

Jackie, having achieved almost everything he dreamed of, wishes himself only good health. And we will join him with all our hearts...

Settling into one of the most expensive suites at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills, the action star Jackie Chan admits to us how much he is pragmatic person. Dressed in his own branded shirt, emblazoned with his signature dragon emblem, he displays a worn bar of soap in a plastic bag from his room at the Grand MGM Hotel in Macau, where he had previously stayed. “This soap follows me everywhere,” Chan adds, confirming his practicality. Such a thrifty attitude towards things is explained by the fact that the actor is an active fighter for nature conservation. IN Lately he participated in the filming of a public service announcement urging Chinese consumers to stop eating products made from tiger skin and rhinoceros skin.

However, in the case of soap brought from Macau, the metaphor is different: this is how Jackie Chan balances between in different ways life in the USA and China.

He hasn't acted in an American action film for the past five years, but despite this, he managed to earn $50 million behind Last year- more than any actor in the world (except Robert Downey Jr.), and get on line 38 magazine celebrity rankings Forbes in 2015, leaving behind Tiger Woods. What does this mean? Jackie Chan is one of the few people who has a complete understanding of the workings of the film industry on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, and effectively uses his knowledge and experience to negotiate profitable deals. For example, the film "Dragon Sword". Never heard of him? It’s clear: the film has not yet been released in America, despite Chan’s famous partners, such as Adrien Brody And John Cusack. However, in China, “The Sword” made a splash, grossing $120 million, of which main star the film earned $10 million. At the end of the year, Jackie Chan plans to star in the film “On the Trail” together with the American comedian John Knoxwell. According to experts, it has every chance of success both in the USA and in China. Chan himself, in addition to playing one of the main roles, acts as an investor.

Today, the star owns an impressive business empire, which could be the envy of a famous American rapper mogul Jay Z: supply of Segways, a chain of cinemas, various products under his brand. According to the magazine Forbes, the Chinese actor's net worth is estimated at $350 million, however, Chan and his representatives declined to comment on these figures. “Essentially, Jackie Chan is Mickey Mouse Chinese culture, a star whose name is known all over the world and has already become a household name,” says Grady Hendrix, founder of the New York Asian Film Festival.

Since in China the commercial success of a business largely depends on proper relations with the authorities, Chan approached this issue thoroughly - he is a delegate to the influential pro-government Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, membership in which provides the green light to all films in which he participates. Over the past five years, the total profit of films at the Chinese box office has increased by 33% - up to $5 billion in 2014. In February of this year, the figure exceeded that of the American rental market. Hollywood films could be more successful in the Middle Kingdom if it were not for the regulator's actions in relation to foreign films, which compete with each other for the right to be released on the wide screen, and often their premieres take place at the same time. As a result, in order to get around this rule, Hollywood film companies began to attract Chinese partners to produce films, examples include “Transformers: Age of Extinction” and “ iron Man- 3". In this whole model, Jackie Chan perfectly balances somewhere in the middle. Without any irony, in China he is called “big brother”, having a huge influence on the film industry. “I always look at the map,” Chan says, spinning an imaginary globe. - Why should one side of the world be considered “mine”, and the other “yours”? Who came up with these boundaries? I believe the world belongs to all of us." Such a worldview is understandable. Jackie was born in 1954 in British-controlled Hong Kong. His parents worked in the kitchen of the French Embassy and then moved to Australia. Some time later, Chiang learned that his father was a Taiwanese spy.

Returning to Hong Kong, he enrolled in school performing arts, where he began to study the basics of martial arts and acrobatics from teachers similar to kung fu masters. For several years after leaving school, Jackie balanced between working in construction in Australia and unsuccessful attempts getting into the film industry in Hong Kong. At the age of 20, luck smiled on the guy - he was invited to star in cameo role in the famous film “Enter the Dragon” (1973) with the participation of the legendary Bruce Lee.

However, Jackie's parents were initially categorically against it and did not support their son's desire to become an actor.

Bruce Lee was a role model for the young Chan, but he never wanted to be completely like his idol. So, Jackie began to come up with his own own style games and your fighting technique.

Lee's movements in the films were perfectly honed, and the image was always serious and calm, which cannot be said about the action films with the participation of Chan, comical and full of self-irony in the style Charlie Chaplin And Buster Keaton. “I didn’t want anyone to imitate me,” says the actor. “I also didn’t want to imitate anyone myself.”

Thanks to Jackie Chan, Hong Kong action films reached new level, and the actor himself became famous outside of China. In the films, he personally performed all the dangerous stunts, breaking his arms and legs more than once (in 1986, on the set of the film “Armor of God” in Yugoslavia, in which he played the main role, was the director and screenwriter, Chan almost lost his life, receiving serious injuries after falling from a tree). As the Chinese market became more open in the 1990s, the actor began to actively move into other markets. So, he started opening restaurants, GYM's and even tried to become a singer. In 1998 he founded the company Jackie Chan Design, which sells more than 400 products - from drinking water to hours, with the website stating that “all products have been exclusively designed by Mr. Jackie Chan.”

With the film “Rumble in the Bronx” (1995), Jackie first entered the American market, however world fame brought him the film "Rush Hour" (1998), where he played with Chris Tucker. The film is still the leader among comedies in terms of box office receipts on the opening weekend - its box office totaled $140 million in the USA and $100 million abroad. Of course, now this revenue model is common for blockbusters, but in those years it created a sensation.
“The American box office is comparable to the world,” Jackie adds. According to the director of "Rush Hour" Brett Ratner, Jackie Chan is China's best export product. Chan also participated in commercial profitable franchises, such as Shanghai Noon, Kung Fu Panda and the sequels to Rush Hour. (Ratner is now planning a fourth installment.) Unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger, who left his native Austria and completely integrated into American culture, Jackie Chan is very attached to his Chinese fans, therefore, returning to Hong Kong, he starred in the usual comedy action films or tried himself in more serious roles. "I always wanted to be Asian Dustin Hoffman or Robert De Niro" says Chan.

Jackie's popularity prompted interest from the Chinese government, which proposed him as an ambassador Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008. Then the actor moved from Hong Kong to the capital, which at that time became the forge of the Chinese film industry. According to the star, at home he faces the same problems as other market players, but there is no doubt about his special position, which opens up new opportunities. However, Jackie Chan's closeness to the Chinese authorities and his disapproval of the Hong Kong protests caused resentment among the opposition. “If you always say and do what the authorities want, perhaps it will be easier for them to approve of your actions,” he sneers Emily Lo, Chairwoman of the Hong Kong Democratic Party. Chan gets angry at such statements. “I wonder why I shouldn’t be closer to the government? We are Chinese and must love our country,” the actor argues with elevated intonation. According to the star, he contributes to the development of the domestic film industry. Thus, the Chinese authorities recently supported his proposal to reduce import taxes on equipment. “All of this is aimed at improving the state of the industry,” Chan emphasizes. “They listen to us.”

Today in China about 20 thousand cinemas, about half as many as in the United States, despite a fourfold difference in population. "If in China there will be 45 thousand screens, then during the opening weekend films at the box office will be able to earn $500 million each", says Ratner. Chan sees these benefits too. In 2010, together with his partner, he opened the 17-screen Jackie Chan Yaolai International Cinema multiplex in Beijing and now sells 50 thousand each tickets on peak weekends. Thanks to this success, the actor was able to attract investors and launch 37 more cinema halls throughout China, in each of which you can buy products under the Jackie Chan brand. He is also growing his service company J.C. Stunt Team, which provides American studios with bilingual Chinese film production specialists ranging from lighting technicians to production assistants.

Chan continues to develop US-China cooperation. “Now I’m not only an actor, I’m an investor,” explains the star. And although he does not comment on the data Forbes Chan’s fortune and level of income can be guessed from his thoughts about future projects similar to betting in a casino: “I could lose on this project.” up to $10 million. But if I win, it will already be $90 million».