Revealed: martial arts star Jackie Chan on Bruce Lee – ‘Everyone treated him like a god’, but I knew I could never be him

In a previously unpublished 1997 interview with the Post’s Richard James Havis, Jackie Chan reveals what he learned from Bruce Lee and his martial arts career

‘I just admired him. The way he talked, the way he punched,’ Chan says. He also saw the pressure Lee was under, and learned not to ‘try and be a superhero’

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Jackie Chan became Bruce Lee’s favourite stuntman while making Enter the Dragon. Chan first worked for Bruce Lee on Fist of Fury, and reveals that that made him want to be a star, not just a stunt double. Photo: Golden Harvest

Published: 5:15am, 3 Oct 2021

Jackie Chan admired Bruce Lee, and said he learned some valuable lessons about fame from him. Read what Chan really thought about Lee in this unpublished interview with Post journalist Richard James Havis from 1997.

Richard James Havis: How did you come to work as a stunt double on Lee’s Fist of Fury?

Jackie Chan: At that time, my career was not doing very well. There was a lot of competition for stunt coordinators in Hong Kong. Almost every time a director did a new movie, they used the same martial arts choreographer. After the John Woo movie [The Young Dragons, which Chan choreographed], I just didn’t have enough clients.

But I had to find a way to make a living. Then a stunt coordinator I used to work with said he didn’t have enough stuntmen, so I said OK, I would be a stunt man again. I just had to double for a few days for a Japanese guy in Fist of Fury.

What was Bruce Lee like to be around at that time?

There were always 30 or 40 people around Bruce Lee then, and whatever he said, they would say ‘yes’ to. I really noticed that. Everybody treated him like a king or a god. Some of my friends were good at kung fu, and they would do that, they would just say yes to him all the time.

I would think, ‘Don’t be like that, you may not be better than him, but you are still good’. But Lee was already the top guy. The whole world was praising Bruce Lee.

How did Bruce Lee influence you?

He influenced me a lot, but I knew I could never be him. He was the king of martial arts, and I just admired him. The way he talked, the way he punched, even the way he spoke was impressive. He was a really good talker!

Because he was born in the US, he was more open than us. Everyone liked him, he was very good to us, very good to the low-class people, and he didn’t really care that much about the big bosses.

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