Family Chan: Martial arts star goes 'Next Door'
by Angela Dawson - Jan. 14, 2010 09:58 AM
Entertainment News Wire
HOLLYWOOD - After more than three decades of making movies, martial arts star Jackie Chan finally gets the girl in "The Spy Next Door." The girl in question is model-turned-actress Amber Valletta, who plays his girlfriend in the family friendly action comedy.
"It's just a kiss, not a love scene," Chan assures. "No one wants to see Jackie Chan naked or making love."
Chan, 55, plays Bob Ho, a bumbling pen salesman who appears to be as nerdy and boring as his job. He's actually a CIA super spy who secretly saves the world on a daily basis. Ho lives next door to Gillian (Valletta), a beautiful single mom he's been quietly dating for some time. He wants to marry her but before she'll accept his proposal, he must first win over her three troublesome children.
Gillian is suddenly called out of town on a family emergency, and Bob offers to baby-sit the kids in her absence and hopefully win them over. When one of the kids mistakenly downloads a top-secret formula from Bob's computer, Bob's enemies show up at his doorstep and the secret agent's real occupation comes to light. It's up to Bob to save his future family from the bad guys and keep the formula from falling into the wrong hands.
The Hong Kong-born action star appreciated the opportunity to try his hand at a family comedy that focuses on his relationship with kids.
"I wanted to make a PG movie," he explains.
Working with kids while incorporating his signature action moves into the comedy was a little tricky, though.
"I had to protect them on the set with all the action sequences," he says. "I made sure everyone was safe, especially the children."
The youngest, 5-year-old Alina Foley, was the biggest challenge. "She'd start singing and I'd have to go, shh,' " he recalls with a chuckle. "Then she'd say, I want to go to the bathroom' and walk away. So I had to trick her."
The choreographed fights with the bad guys were nothing compared to his scenes with the unpredictable young actress. In a scene where he is trying to put her to bed, Chan accidentally was kicked a few times by the youngster. The two other child actors (who were older) were less troublesome but just as demanding on the action star's time.
"Sometimes I wanted to take a rest on the set for 20 minutes and it was like, Jackie, show me some karate moves,' or do some magic,' " he recalls, smiling.
Kissing Valletta was the biggest challenge, though, as Chan had never kissed a girl in a movie before.
"We did several takes," he admits.
"He was fine," says Valletta. "(The kiss) was very chaste."
In the future, says Chan, his romantic scenes will be comical. "I love to do comedy action sequences," he says.
Good thing, because that's what he has been doing for much of his movie career - especially over the past 12 years in Hollywood.
After 20 years as a box office star in Hong Kong, Chan co-starred with Chris Tucker in 1998's "Rush Hour." The buddy-cop action-comedy became a huge box office success, as did its two sequels. He subsequently starred in another successful franchise with Owen Wilson starting with "Shanghai Noon," a buddy action comedy set in the Old West. "Shanghai Knights" followed in 2003.
Other recent Hollywood credits include "The Tuxedo," "The Medallion" and a remake of "Around the World in 80 Days." He also was one of the voice characters in the animated hit "Kung Fu Panda."
Born in Hong Kong to working class parents, Chan trained at the Peking Opera School from ages 7 to 17, where he learned various skills such as acrobatics, gymnastics, martial arts, weaponry, dance, singing and drama. By the time he graduated, Chinese opera was declining in popularity and he gravitated toward film.
In the early 70s, Chan worked as a bit player and action director. Inspired by silent film greats Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, Chan developed a unique style, combining humor and death-defying stunts. In the montage of outtakes that typically ends his films, fans see the proof that Chan is still his own most amazing special effect.
Among his fans is director James Cameron, who invited Chan to the set of "Avatar" during production.
"I've been making movies for almost 40 years but after looking at his set, I was like a kid in kindergarten," says Chan modestly. "If you gave me all those cameras and technology, I wouldn't know how to use it. That's why I film the basic things. Two cameras. Simple."
At an age when other action stars move on to more sedentary movie roles, Chan is still kicking it in the action genre.
"Movies, stunts, fighting - it makes me young," he says. "It makes me continue to go."
His philosophy: "If you do anything today, you can do it tomorrow."
Chan works with a team of stunt people who help him come up with interesting new ways to entertain. In "The Spy Next Door," they conceived ways of using household items - a microwave, a refrigerator, a pool skimmer and more - as props in fighting the bad guys.
Director Brian Levant ("Snow Dogs," "Are We There Yet?") says he had to work quickly to accommodate Chan's limited availability. A 38-day shooting schedule in Albuquerque meant everyone had to show up prepared. No one arrived as prepared as Chan did, the filmmaker says.
"He's like Michael Jordan," says the veteran family comedy filmmaker. "As he gets older, he changes his process so he can do what he is capable of doing."
Since completing "The Spy Next Door," Chan has shot and produced two more films in China and is in pre-production on another one. He also stars in the upcoming remake of "The Karate Kid," in which he will play a kung fu master to Jaden Smith (Will Smith's son).
"It is more for adults," he says of the drama. "I like to mix it up - comedy, drama, action, then for children again. I want audiences to know me as an actor that can fight, not a fighter who can act."
Having more than 100 films to his credit, Chan says one role has eluded him - firefighter. After seeing "Backdraft," he wanted to make a firefighting movie in Hong Kong, but fire officials there wouldn't allow it, fearing it would be too dangerous in the overcrowded city.
These days, Chan makes his home in Beijing.
"I have nothing to shoot in Hong Kong anymore," he says with a shrug. "All the locations I've already done. In China, I have a new location, new facilities. We have the biggest studio in Asia, which is really helpful."
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Originally Posted by GeneChing
