Jackie Chan has revealed he believes the Hollywood studios are destroying creativity by focusing only on profit.
The Hong Kong superstar is a legendary name in action films, having built his reputation on movies that display his talent for martial arts and stunt work. While the majority of his work has been in his home country, toward the end of the 1990s he broke through in Hollywood, starring in hits such as Rush Hour, Shanghai Noon, and The Karate Kid.
Chan was at the most recent Locarno Film Festival to receive its prestigious Pardo alla Carriera award for career achievement. On Saturday (August 9), the actor and director sat down for an audience Q&A to discuss his life in cinema, speculating on why he believes modern Hollywood is not producing as many great films.
“I think the old movies are better than today,” he said (via Deadline). “Right now, a lot of big studios, they’re not filmmakers, they’re business guys. They invest 40 million and think, ‘How can I get it back?’ And you can’t go over. It’s very difficult to make a good movie now”.
Elsewhere in the discussion, he talked about how 1998 global hit Rush Hour, which he starred in alongside Chris Tucker, was his last attempt at finding success in America before leaving. “Rush Hour. It was the last try. If it doesn’t succeed, then I finish,” he said, saying he believed the film changed how Hollywood saw Asian stars. “I think Rush Hour changed the culture,” Chan said, adding that his goal has always been to “be a cross-cultural bridge between the US and China”.
Last year, Jackie Chan addressed rumours about his health, after photos circulated on the internet of the actor looking more frail than usual. Elsewhere, The Phoenician Scheme star Michael Cera shared an anecdote about meeting the legend, revealing Chan thought he was a “competition winner”.
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