RU-vid's automated comment filtering seems to be going haywire on this video and wrongly removing all sorts of comments. Rest assured, I am not removing anyone's comments, this is a bug on RU-vid's end that has affected some of my other videos at random and I have been unable to get RU-vid to fix it
I really like that you gave props to Keanu. For the first John Wick he trained for 4 months straight doing martial arts, guns, cars, the whole works. He was 50 years and put in a ton of work and easily could have downplayed everything Yet, he still goes out of his way to recognize all the doubles and people working behind the scenes. He's one of the hardest working people in Hollywood and is a total class act.
Long time JC fan here, it's disheartening to see these kinds of videos coming to light, I didn't even notice a stunt double growing up watching all of his films. I think Thunderbolt is the most obvious one, and now that I see it, Dragons Forever. To Jackie's credit, at least he did do the stunt in Project A at least and only once. Some of the stunts not being that big or dangerous, then a stunt double was used so Jackie could probably direct the shot or if he was injured or something else, because clearly he could and did the most dangerous stunts himself. This is a man who has put his body through torture over so many films you think it wouldn't be humanly impossible, so the fact that he used a stunt double here and there can be forgiven. However, he and his stunt team were not stupid and safety for the most part was a priority, using wires and props built and designed to look like the real thing. Once you see the stunt double used, you can't unsee it, so it kind of ruins your perception you once had, and you become aware to the point you are now looking out for where one is used. In a way, I wished I never stumbled on these kinds of videos. That being said, Jackie has risked his life for cinema many times and came close to dying. And I thought Jackie was superman, well at least he did admit that he is not! We love you Jackie Chan!
Personally, I thought it was fairly common knowledge that he'd try and do each stunt once but stuntmen would fill in for other takes. I believe he couldn't do as much of the Who Am I slide as perhaps he may have wanted to as he still had a back issue at the time after injuring it during the wheelbarrow stunt in his previous film, Mr Nice Guy. Can't quite remember now where I saw that. I'd known for a while too about the doubles in Thunderbolt... can't do all that with a broken ankle. He shouldn't hide it though, I agree. I don't think anyone would think anyone would think any less of him if he admitted to not doing every single take of every single stunt. Personally, my legs go wobbly when I'm 6ft up a ladder so I find a lot of the much simpler stuff equally amazing.
Thank you so much for making this video, really insightful. Nothing wrong with using stunt doubles, just don't make false claims and take people's credits.
Great video on a subject I never thought I would care enough about. I would think this video has at least some tangible value or benefit to the artists involved
I recall searching for how many people from JC stunt team had been seriously injured or killed at work over the years. To my surprise, I couldn't find much. Jackie using a stunt double didn't surprise me given how often he's been injured. The fact that he does major stunts was good enough for me. The lack of crediting stunt doubles didn't bother me, since it is similar to India, where we hardly hear about stunt doubles. We don't hear about other film crew as well. Claiming credit doesn't bother me, since he does do his major stunts. Filler shots or simple fight situations being handled by somebody else isn't really the same thing. But I was rather surprised that after such publicity of his stunt team and how they are a tight knit family, etc there are no stories of him taking care of those who got injured, for example. It is known that he does, and the affection and loyalty his stuntmen have for him sure suggests that it does happen as said, but there were no specific names I could find for people currently being taken care of, for example. That felt a little odd. Acknowledging that they'd paid a high cost wouldn't undermine JC in any way. It wouldn't even be attached to any specific film or stunt credits, but recognising that Jackie Chan wasn't the only person putting his life on the line. This, of course doesn't take away anything from JC's achievements, of course, and I totally get why he may not admit to stuntmen - because that could create skepticism about the real stunts he does perform (which are pretty surreal and hard to believe). Though I'm pretty sure he has admitted to using doubles. I recall him describing returning to work after that ankle fracture and he said that he couldn't put weight on it, so he rested that leg on a wheelchair and hobbled around for close-ups, while a double performed body shots. I definitely remember hearing this. So there is likely some fine print to the claims. If he was in denial of using stuntmen, he wouldn't be easily admitting that in an interview.
Jackie Chan was told by Harvey Weinstein that the only way he could ever make it in Hollywood was that if they could sell his movies under the pretense that he did all of his own stunts, so OF COURSE you're going to find interviews from the 90's where he pushes that narrative. That being said, thank you for giving Mars the credit he deserves. He is the best.
The reason for the Dragons Forever stunt double was because they had to do reshoots and Sammo and Jackie were becoming bitter rivals while on set. Jackie filmed some of his scenes without Sammo, but Sammo being the director would sometimes want some of the action reshot - but he didn't want to deal with Jackie and shot without him if he could.
Jackie Chan is a bold face liar who looked cool on screen. I'll tell you one thing , he did do more stuff on screen than American actors did so that's what made him cool. But he still lied about doing ALL his own stunts.
Look to be honest I have known that jackie Chan has not done all his own stunts for years especially during his mid 40s to save his body and to pro long his health. him and Stanley Tong both take turns in stunts. Mars has been a legend for years. Yuen Wah is very well known as an actor and stuntmen. Yuen Wah had the same teacher as Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan they grew up together in the same school. Yuen Wah is also the landlord in Kung Fu Hustle. and he won best supporting actor award for it. And he was in Police Story 3 and Dragons Forever he was the villain in both films. And recently Yuen Wah was in Shang-Chi as well as in Baz Lurmans film Australia alongside Nicole Kidman, granted he does not get talked about enough.
If you have seen the movies many, many times as you said, you should notices that in some takes its pretty obvious that jackie chan used doubles. And he used doubles in some takes that where not stunts or not to dangerous stunt also. That's because he was injured, second unit make the scene, he was directing and choreograph the scene or he has not the skill to do it. The no stunt thing begun when he hits into the American market...
The Bruce Lee stunt double has been known for years, and pretty widely I would say. I don't know a single fan who isn't aware of this. I remember the first time I saw enter the dragon each of those flips was pointed out to me as a stunt double (and this is going back decades when I first saw it)
Having watched the video, I think it is a little harsh in its rebuke. These are things many people knew or guessed at (it is pretty well known Jackie Chan had a stunt team). I do think they heavily marketed it as him only doing his own stunts. But the more important thing is he still does many of them (including the one in the thumbnail). That they have other stunt men for the more dangerous ones, to test the waters or to get better angles to minimize risk, I don't think takes away from Jackie Chan's legacy. In terms of erasure of stunt men....I don't know. That is part of the job, filling in to make the actors look good. Jackie Chan started out as a stuntman himself and would have come up through that system. I think this is also somewhat downplaying how much danger the actors do put themselves in. Even if you are intersplicing footage of other stunt men doing jumps over trains like in the michelle yeoh footage, she is still in a lot of that footage and you have the outakes of her cracking her head on the pavement in the car scene. My view is it is good to lay out the truth and reality, and to give credit, but I could have done with a little less moralizing in the video (I like that your video gave us insight into what was actually going on with key stunts, I am not as keen on it telling us how to feel about that).
