“He would break all this stuff and do all these fire gags”: Jackie Chan’s Wild Ideas for Action Scenes Left ‘Die Hard 2’ Director Shocked to the Core
The buddy cop action comedy film Skiptrace, starring Jackie Chan and based on a story by the actor, was released five years ago. Die Hard 2 director Renny Harlin directed it and it still holds a special place in the director’s heart as it was the time when he knew what his calling was.
A retired Hong Kong detective joins forces with an American gambler to take on a notorious criminal boss in the movie, which also starred Jackie Chan, Johnny Knoxville, Fan Bingbing, and Eve Torres as the titular characters.
Jackie Chan’s elaborative ideas for action sequences
During an interview with Slash Films in 2016, the director Renny Harlin mentioned that what he realized when he was filming in China for Skiptrace is that in China, one could make anything possible if they want it to happen. He explained that Jackie Chan would show up someday and would have elaborative action sequence ideas, but he would politely turn him down telling him that they were not prepared, but then Chan would make it work.
Harlin noted, “He wanted to do an action sequence where he would break all this stuff and do all these fire gags. I’d be like, ‘Hey, I love your ideas but we are not prepped for that. We don’t have the breakaway chairs and breakaway walls and props and things.’ He would be like, ‘If you like the idea, don’t worry about it. After lunch, we will have it all.'”
The director pointed out that as Chan would tell him, the props for the improvised action sequence would be ready by the time they’d film something else, which had left him shocked, and he compared it with how in America getting things would have taken so much time. Harlin was impressed with the action actor’s zeal to make his idea work within time.
The actor explained that he has had the story in his mind for over 25 years and he had always dreamt of a runaway and chase story to show both the Chinese landscape and culture along the roadside to the entire world. He also noted that he is not a fan of CGI and does not like to do his stunts on a green screen, so he chose to do it for real.
Renny Harlin describes working with Jackie Chan as ‘jumping into very cold water’
In one of his interviews, the director who lives in China explained that he came to China to do Skiptrace and then he started to research locations, travel around, meet people, and learn their culture and history, which he fell in love with and decided to stay.
He also mentioned that he has massive respect for the Chinese crew and described them as hard-working people and great collaborators, adding that there is also a sense of improvisation with the Chinese crew which was refreshing for him to experience when he was working on Skiptrace, as American movies do not have that level of improvisation on the day of filming.
The director was further asked about his experience of working with Jackie Chan to which he said that it was sometimes like jumping into very cold water. He explained,
“Because working with him – his films are very improvised. They come up with ideas in the morning and shoot them in the afternoon. I’m used to a very organized, Hollywood way of planning everything. For our action scenes, I would show Jackie storyboards and descriptions of how I was planning to do things. He would be excited and interested, but also immediately start suggesting, “That’s good, but we can also do this. The same thing continued on the film set [throughout].”
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Jackie Chan’s advice to Renny Harlin
The Die Hard 2 director mentioned during the interview that working with Hong Kong action stars has made him realize one thing, which is to never be afraid to improvise. He mentioned that while they were filming and Jackie Chan would always come in with some of his input, as he was the producer on the movie along with starring in it and the movie was based on a story that he wrote, he would always tell him to not be afraid of improvising.
Renny Harlin notes, “For him, it’s always like, ‘Don’t have just two jokes. The third joke is going to be the one that’s really going to make the audience love the scene.’ And, ‘Don’t have just two beats in the action; have the third beat, fourth beat.’ So, the most valuable lesson I’ve learned since I started in Hollywood is to be open to improvisation; don’t be afraid to improvise.”
The director back in 2019 mentioned that people in China love movies and what he has learned during his time in China is to find the right material along with finding the right people for the right part in the movie. He also noted that finding the right crew to work with is also one of the most important things that he has learned.
Source: Slash Films
