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In a previously unpublished 1997 interview with the Post’s Richard James Havis, Jackie Chan reveals what he learned from Bruce Lee and his martial arts career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

Reading Time:4 minutes

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 Read what Chan really thought about Lee in this unpublished interview with Post journalist Richard James Havis from 1997.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?

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The enduring legacy of Bruce Lee

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