In the 1980s, Jackie Chan achieved legendary fame in his native Hong Kong with a deadly combination of humor, martial arts, and life-threatening stunts. In the buddy cop comedy series “Rush Hour” the following decade, he achieved that uncommon leap to Hollywood stardom, and in the ’00s, he seldom left American screens, playing in everything from the western caper “Shanghai Noon” to wuxia favorite “The Forbidden Kingdom.”
The profile of the action hero, though, seems to have declined recently. In fact, Chan’s last leading role in a domestic box office success came in the remake of “The Karate Kid” in 2010, when Chan replaced Mr. Han as the principal mentor.
What has happened to the formerly well-known star, then? These are 14 reasons why Chan’s Hollywood career appears to have stagnated, ranging from long-gestating sequels and divisive political beliefs to stunning memoir revelations and tax issues.
Several planned sequels have failed to get off the ground
At the turn of the century, Jackie Chan starred in two blockbuster franchise-starting movies: the martial arts/western hybrid “Shanghai Noon,” which has since produced a sequel, and the wisecracking buddy cop comedy “Rush Hour,” in which he co-starred with Owen Wilson. But despite a lot of chatter over the past few years, no new chapters have been released for the fans.
After years of back-and-forth, MGM Studios finally announced in 2015 that “Shanghai Dawn” was in production. Shortly thereafter, Jared Hess (“Napoleon Dynamite”) was brought on as the film’s director. But after that, we pretty much stopped hearing about the project.
Another movie in which Chan stars, “Rush Hour 4” appears to have experienced development hell. Tucker stated that the movie was still in production while speaking on the podcast “The Plug” in 2018 (per GQ), but once more, audiences have been left hanging. At the Red Sea International Film Festival in 2022, Chan did inform the media that discussions regarding the sequel had resumed. It might be prudent not to hold your breath, though, given that its predecessor has been gone for 15 years.
Jackie Chan turned down an Oscar-winning smash
Jackie Chan received an honorary Oscar in 2016 in recognition of his contributions to the cinema industry. He had never before received an Oscar Award before. Yet, had his calendar not been so packed, the action hero might have picked up the genuine article seven years later.
When Chan was forced to decline the project due to other commitments, directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert decided to gender-flip the character and cast Michelle Yeoh in its place. Chan was the original choice for the lead role in the parallel universe story “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”
Naturally, Chan’s substitute went on to win an Academy Award for her depiction of laundromat proprietor Evelyn Quan Wang, and the movie also took home six additional awards that night. Yeoh earlier told CNN that her lifelong buddy had texted her after hearing about her nomination. “I remember Jackie texting me and saying, “Congratulations! You know you realize your lads came to visit me first,” I was like, “Thank you buddy, you did me a great favor,” he added with a cheeky dig.
Jackie Chan has been focusing on China
While Jackie Chan’s name has been conspicuously absent from American movie theaters, the actor continues to be a mainstay in the Far East. In fact, you might be astonished to learn that he’s still as busy as ever if you look at his recent filmography.
He starred in the action-adventure “Vanguard” in 2020, made a brief appearance in the COVID-19 dramedy “All U Need Is Love” the following year, played a supporting role in the rom-com “Good Night Beijing,” provided the voice of the dragon Long in the Mandarin dub of the animated film “Wish Dragon,” and will appear in four Chinese projects by the end of 2023, including his directorial effort “The Diary” and the stuntman drama ”
At the film’s Beijing premiere, Chan was quoted by Dim Sum Daily as saying, “I went there, but nobody said my fighting was good. Nobody cared about my fighting scenes, so I gave up Hollywood. Today, I am proud of my decision. It was not that I wanted to go to Hollywood, but that Hollywood wanted me.” The star also cautioned aspiring Chinese action heroes against traveling to the United States, saying, “People won’t write screeds about your fighting scenes.”
He has continually sparked controversy with his political views
Jackie Chan’s politics have undoubtedly evolved since he became well-known in Hollywood. He joined the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 by participating in the Concert for Democracy in China. Nonetheless, the action actor admitted in 2021 that he desired to join the Chinese Communist Party.
In fact, Chan’s reputation for his work in propaganda has recently overtaken that of his acting profession. I just think the Chinese Communist Party is really so magnificent. What the Party says, what it promises, it doesn’t need 100 years to accomplish, it will definitely accomplish it in just a few decades. I want to be a Party member!” the “Rumble in the Bronx” star reportedly said while attending a symposium sponsored by the China Film Association.
Chan had already spoken out against demonstrations in response to the Hong Kong anti-extradition bill just two years prior. The martial arts legend expressed his heartbreak and concern over the disturbance in an interview with CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, and he vowed his support for a social media campaign intended to stop the destruction of the national flag.
Jackie Chan trashed his reputation in a memoir
In the past, Jackie Chan was regarded as one of Hollywood’s decent guys. Nevertheless, the action actor utterly destroyed his reputation in 2015 with an incredibly frank memoir that included admissions about extramarital affairs, binge drinking, and domestic abuse.
Three years later, in the English version of the song “Never Grow Up,” Chan admitted to having sex in a party bathroom cubicle with a woman he called simply “Number Nine.” During his ascent to prominence, he also spoke about driving while intoxicated, saying, “I drunk drove all the time. In the morning, I’d crash my Porsche, then in the evening, I’d total a Mercedes-Benz. All day long, I walked around in a haze.”
The most disturbing information, though, concerned his son Jaycee. The star of ‘The Tuxedo’ recounted lifting up his then two-year-old son with with one hand and throwing him across the living room. Chan continued, “With the amount of force I used, if he’d struck the back or armrests, it might have been extremely serious.” Fortunately, Jaycee fell on a sofa.
Jackie Chan once tried to knife a director
Might Jackie Chan’s admission on a Chinese talk program have prevented some higher profile movie producers from hiring the legendary martial artist? The “Around the World in 80 Days” star said that he once attempted to physically assault a director during an argument on production when making an appearance on “Shidian Talk” in 2022.
The drama started when the director of the mystery film, who shall remain nameless, made disparaging remarks about Chan’s family. Naturally, the action hero started to become angry right away. He even brought in my forefathers, I was reprimanded so severely, the man stated. So I grabbed a knife and prepared to slash the director, telling him to stop insulting my mother and to stop reprimanding me.
Fortunately, Sammo Hung, another legendary martial artist, was able to diffuse the situation before the director suffered permanent scarring and Chan was led away to a police cell. “Sammo grabbed hold of me and said: Are you crazy?” the latter recalled.
His recent Hollywood roles have been voiceovers
Jackie Chan’s voice is probably familiar to you even if you haven’t recently seen him on the big screen. This is especially true if you’ve recently brought a young child to the movies. In fact, despite his apparent reluctance to accept any live-action roles in Hollywood, the martial arts hero seemed glad to provide his voice to the studio’s animated films.
Chan returned to the “Kung Fu Panda” franchise in 2016’s third episode as Master Monkey. He subsequently appeared in two more sequels shortly after, first as Mr. Feng in “The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature” and then as Mr. Liu in “The Lego Ninjago Movie,” before being hired in 2023 to provide the voice of the sage rat Splinter in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.”
Chan outlined his motivations for choosing such projects in an interview with The Movie Mensch from 2017: “Sometimes with martial arts, you can have limitations. In cartoons, martial arts are not limited; you can do anything and everything, and you never get old. They have good messages to children — to respect everything.”
He has become increasingly anti-American
You criticize America at your own risk, as groups like the Dixie Chicks learned the hard way. When he labeled the United States as the most corrupt nation in the world in 2013, Jackie Chan ran the danger of alienating a sizable portion of his Western fan base.
The martial artist responded to the global anger over China’s censorship of a significant newspaper with his remarks. “The New China. The real success has been made in the past twelve years,” he said, according to The Washington Post. “Our country’s president also admits they have the corruption problem, and some other stuff, but we are making progress. What I can see is our country is continuously making progress and learning,” he added.
The “Police Story” actor then turned his attention to Uncle Sam, blaming it for the current financial catastrophe that has affected the entire world. Chan had already stirred up controversy for the same opinions. In reference to the Chinese censorship of his films, he once called Taiwanese democracy “the largest joke in the world” and asserted that “Chinese people need to be regulated, otherwise they will do whatever they want.”
Jackie Chan tarred all young actors with the same brush
Jackie Chan, who has already called America the most corrupt nation in the world and admitted to almost stabbing a director during an argument on set, appeared to make an extra effort to become Mr. Unpopular when he effectively labeled a whole generation of performers as lazy.
“The Spy Next Door” star said in an interview (via 8days), “I won’t say who it is, but lately, our actors don’t want to sweat, can’t do wire stunts, can’t do dangerous things. They want to show action and look good, yet they can’t take hardship.” The star appeared to be frustrated by a recent encounter with an unnamed young star.
Chan continued by criticizing individuals who arrive at the performance last but leave first before claiming that the emergence of the entourage has made it possible for such work-averse young people to lead lives of excessive contentment. The action icon also left everyone in suspense when, in another talk, he singled out one specific fussy co-star. “After only shooting two sequences, everyone would tell her that she worked hard. What hard work? It wasn’t hard work at all,” he claimed (as quoted by Today Online).
Jackie Chan professed love for natural disasters
In 2013, Jackie Chan made the strange statement that he likes to watch the devastation following a natural disaster anytime a nation has been affected. The action star was promoting “Chinese Zodiac” at the time, but unavoidably his remarks damaged the movie, leading many former Japanese fans to declare they would no longer support him.
Chan said, according to The Daily Telegraph, “I should not say this, but sometimes I really like to see a country having a disaster, or a big tsunami, or a big earthquake. After the big disaster, you see the whole world, everybody, flying in to help the country, which makes me happy.” Chan was asked about the relationship between China and the United States.
Chan continued, “No tsunami, no earthquake, everybody [with] nothing to do. Then politics comes in and you fight me. I fight… I don’t like to see such things.” Chan, who in 2005 undertook a four-day goodwill trip to areas impacted by the devastating St. Stephen’s Day tsunami, added, “No tsunami, no earthquake, everybody [with] nothing to do.”
His return to Hollywood was underwhelming
Sadly, the rather underwhelming reception to the action thriller suggested the action hero was better off focusing on the Far East market. Jackie Chan appeared alongside Pierce Brosnan in 2017’s “The Foreigner,” an adaptation of Stephen Leather’s 1992 novel “The Chinaman,” five years after his last appearance on American movie screens.
In fact, the movie’s domestic box office took in only $34.4 million, falling $600,000 shy of its intended budget. Chan may still be determining what he can and cannot do in his old age, but dreck like “The Foreigner” should be swiftly crossed off his bucket list, and never revisited, wrote RogertEbert.com. The New York Times, on the other hand, argued that its leading man didn’t serve up the required pizzazz or gravitas.
You could claim that when the movie’s trailer was unveiled and people complained that a man from Hong Kong had been cast as a Vietnamese, it was already too late. Later on, though, representatives for the film stated that the character’s nationality had been altered from the original.
He was caught up in a tax evasion scandal
When Jackie Chan was implicated in a tax evasion incident in 2016, his reputation as a generally kind guy took a further beating. The “Rush Hour” actor was mentioned in the Panama Papers, a set of documents that exposed how prominent people utilize offshore accounts to conceal their riches, along with names like chess master Bobby Fischer, golfer Nick Faldo, and Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar.
Chan was allegedly connected to six separate offshore businesses, all of which had their headquarters in the British Virgin Islands. These companies included Jumbo Jaz Investment, Jackie Chan Ltd., and Dragon Stream Ltd.
Four years later, the seizure of two opulent Beijing apartments was reportedly motivated by the actor’s tax issues. According to Vice, the homes, where Chan and his family spent more than ten years, were later sold at auction with a starting bid of about $14 million.
Jackie Chan refused to join The Expendables
Given that “The Expendables” has Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and every other significant action star from the past four decades, you may have questioned why Jackie Chan has never joined the cast. It’s not a lack of invitation, though.
Chan acknowledged that he had been asked to appear in two and three of the series, but declined (via Digital Spy): “This morning I did hear — the office called — Sly [Stallone] wants me for “Expendables 4.” I said, “Okay.” Because they had already asked me to be in two and three, but I refused. Well, I didn’t refuse, but I said, ‘Sly, can’t we just do you and me? Not just a
Chan had previously rejected Stallone, so this wasn’t the first time. Early in the 1990s, he turned down a role in “Demolition Man” as the villainous Simon Phoenix because he didn’t feel comfortable playing a bad guy. Wesley Snipes subsequently landed the part.
Jackie Chan is no longer interested in fame
Thanks to his martial arts work and Hollywood roles in “Rush Hour,” “Shanghai Noon,” and “The Tuxedo,” Jackie Chan was arguably one of the most well-known actors in the world back in the 2000s. But while the action hero once thrived on his level of celebrity, he now claims that he’s no longer interested in being on screen for the sake of it.
Chan said, “At first I did films to get money. Afterwards, I sought fame. Now, I think neither is necessary,” in a 2017 interview with China Daily. The actor also stated that he’s now more concerned with the public’s reception to a picture than any critical reaction.
Chan can afford to relax a little bit about money, of course. In 2016, Forbes magazine ranked him as the second highest-paid actor in the world. And his estimated current net worth is a staggering $400 million!
