A Hong Kong stuntman said that he has doubled for Jackie Chan (
A spokesman for Chan said yesterday that the actor uses a stunt double on Hollywood productions because of insurance reasons but he that still performs his own stunts when making movies in Hong Kong.
Stuntman Bruce Law (
He did not say in which movie he doubled for Chan.
Reputation
The blog entry has sparked Chinese media coverage exploring if Chan isn't as daring as his reputation suggests.
Law himself has tried to play down his comments, saying in a second blog entry: "Everyone uses stunt doubles. What's so surprising about it?"
A spokesman for Chan, Solon So (
"Hollywood movies don't let you perform moves that are too dangerous. They have insurance coverage. There are safety consultants," So said.
Law agreed with So's observations in his blog.
"Sometimes it's not a matter of whether an actor can perform a stunt but rather the movie company isn't willing to take the risk. Once an actor is hurt, the movie has to stop shooting and the financial loss is great," Law said.
Bold stunts
Trained in Peking Opera, Chan is known for his acrobatic fighting moves and bold stunts.
In Project A, he falls from a clock tower, plunging through two awnings before hitting the ground. In Police Story, he latches onto a bus with the handle of an umbrella and manages to climb onto the vehicle.
In his recent Chinese-language movie Rob-B-Hood, Chan cascades down a series of air conditioners jutting out from a tall building.
The stunts have left him with many injuries. Chan said in a 2005 interview that he usually suffers from pain in his waist, knees and shoulders when he wakes up.
In an interview published on his Web site last year, Chan expressed frustration with safety rules in the US film industry, where he has made movies like Shanghai Noon, The Tuxedo and Rush Hour.
"I know that they want to make sure that I'm safe when I do my stunts, but sometimes they insist that I use protective gear for even simple things, and that is frustrating. It takes so much time," Chan said.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
CONFIDENCE BOOSTER: ’After parkour ... you dare to do a lot of things that you think only young people can do,’ a 67-year-old parkour enthusiast said In a corner of suburban Singapore, Betty Boon vaults a guardrail, crawls underneath a slide, executes forward shoulder rolls and scales a steep slope, finishing the course to applause. “Good job,” the 69-year-old’s coach cheers. This is “geriatric parkour,” where about 20 retirees learned to tackle a series of relatively demanding exercises, building their agility and enjoying a sense of camaraderie. Boon, an upbeat grandmother, said learning parkour has aided her confidence and independence as she ages. “When you’re weak, you will be dependent on someone,” she said after sweating it out with her parkour classmates in suburban Toa Payoh,
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
‘TOXIC CLIMATE’: ‘I don’t really recognize Labour anymore... The idea that you can implement far-right ideas in order to stop the far right is nonsense,’ a protester said Tens of thousands of people on Saturday marched through central London to protest against the far right, weeks ahead of local elections and six months after Britain saw one of its largest far-right demonstrations. Organized by hundreds of civic groups, including trade unions, anti-racism campaigners and Muslim representative bodies, Saturday’s Together Alliance event was billed as the biggest in UK history to counter right-wing extremism. A separate pro-Palestinian march had also converged with the main rally. While organizers claimed 500,000 had turned out in total, the police gave a figure of about 50,000. Protesters carrying placards with slogans such as
RSS