After appearing in over one-hundred films and breaking more bones than he can even recount, action legend Jackie Chan is hanging his hat up on the genre that made him famous. While his last US appearance in The Karate Kid remake didn’t push the actor — who is just a couple years away from his 60th birthday — to his usual limits, but during his time at Cannes, he’s revealed that he simply “really, really tired.”
While doing press for his film Chinese Zodiac, The Telegraph reports that it will mark his final film in the action genre. He added that, “the world is too violent right now. It’s a dilemma – I like action but I don’t like violence.” Chan will begin to shift to more serious roles, saying he desires to be “an Asian Robert De Niro.” For his sake, I sincerely he hope he means less like a Little Fockers-De Niro and more of a Raging Bull kind.
There are few that exude physical action comedy better than this film icon, and while projects like The Spy Next Door and Rush Hour 3 don’t live up to his classic work, he did show a tremendous turn in The Karate Kid remake, giving what I believe to be his best dramatic performance. Chan added that he wants to rid himself of his current image and it will take work but, “Day by day, year by year, [he’s] going to show you the real Jackie Chan.” You go get ’em, and I think we can be happy this likely means no Rush Hour 4 is in the cards.
Are you sad to see Chan depart from the action genre?