Jackie Chan:too old for film fights
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-09-17 09:23

Hong Kong action movie star Jackie Chan said he is getting too old to do the stunts that made him famous and hopes to prove to audiences he can act too.

"The life of an action star is very short. I want to be an actor like Robert De Niro, like Dustin Hoffman or Clint Eastwood who in their 70s or 80s can still act," the 51-year-old Chan said at the world premiere of his latest film "The Myth" at the Toronto International Film Festival.

"I know the audiences love to see 'Rush Hour' One, Two, Three, Four, Five. But, I'm tired," he said.

"I've hurt myself too much," he said. "I'm not young anymore."

Chan told reporters he wanted to do more dramatic or fantasy roles, maybe even sing and dance in a Bollywood film, and expressed frustration with Hollywood producers who only want to see him fight in movies.

"Jackie is not an action star. Jackie is an actor who can act, not a fighter who can act," said the stuntman-turned-superstar who gained notoriety doing his own incredible stunts in almost 100 movies.

In "The Myth" by director Stanley Tong ("Rumble in the Bronx"), Chan said it was "very hard to act" as a solemn general in ancient China who showed very little emotions, but he liked "the challenge."

The movie takes audiences to different periods in remote parts of India and China, following an intrepid archeologist and a general in the court of China's first emperor, Qin Shi-huang.

Of course, there are still enough action scenes in the movie to please Chan's regular army of fans and police movie "Rush Hour 3" is due out next year.

Meanwhile, his younger co-stars Korean Kim Hee-Seon and Bollywood star Mallika Sherawat said they hoped to do more action movies after their first taste of doing their own stunts in this film.

"Our bodies got black and blue, bruised, it was tough, but it was worth it," Sherawat said.

Chan said Hee-Seon, in her first role in a non-Korean movie, was badly bruised and shed some tears during filming, but she refused to quit.

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