“The kid” won’t turn 12 until July. But he’s his old man’s son.
“Hey man, you know, I gotta keep it nice for the ladies, you know?” He laughs. “Learned THAT from Jackie!”
“Jackie” would be
“He didn’t give me too much advice, not good advice,
anyway,” Jaden teases. Chan is sitting right next to him. “But my dad?
He did. He said, ‘Don’t KISS with your MOUTH open!’ Definitely too
young for that.”
They’ve got this Jackie-and-Jaden act down pat. Give
them a hard time about this new “Karate Kid’s” two hours and 15 minutes
running time.
“The movie’s not long enough? Come on, Jaden, let’s
do a song. ‘Wiiiise men say, ooooonly fools rush in….” Chan, 56, has
had a pop-star career in
And Jaden’s dad cranked out some hit singles in his day. But the kid
isn’t having it and won’t pitch in. Which makes Chan’s next point for
him.
“Every child should learn martial arts, any martial
art — karate, judo, aikido, Chinese kung fu,” Chan says. “If they do,
they will respect themselves, their parents and others. They will
respect life, everything. You don’t learn that discipline, that
self-respect, you could be just another wild kid on the streets, a
bully. Martial arts can teach you right from wrong.”
Did Jaden learn any R-E-S-P-E-C-T from making this movie, which his parents produced?
“Here’s the respect I learned from martial arts. I realized how lucky I was to be their son.”
Amen to that. Smith has the major motion pictures
“Pursuit of Happyness” (with his dad) and “The Day the Earth Stood
Still” (with
under his belt. And he’s still only 11. He loved learning martial arts,
“especially that high-stretch kick.”
The very first review (Cinema Blend) of his latest
film notes that “the kid holds his own.” Jaden can talk about how he’s
chosen acting as a “career,” but again, he’s just 11. Things change.
But Chan is frank about where this new film places him.
“I want to continue to make movies. But how can I
continue fighting in movies? I am getting older. I have always wanted
to be a true actor, so this is the time to do that. I want to be the
Asian Robert De Niro or
“A true actor can play all kinds of characters, and
that’s what I want to do. I want the world to see an actor who can
fight, not a fighter who can act.
“So ‘The Spy Next Door’ was a comedy. This film is
more serious. And I am doing very serious things in ‘Chinese Zodiac,’ a
kind of Indiana Jones movie (which he is directing). Lots of action.
Then I’ll do a drama. Maybe one day, I get a love story, kissing scenes
on the beach, singing a song. You know, real actor stuff.”
He laughs. Chan longs for that day when he meets a
stranger on the street, and that meeting is different from the
thousands of other times he’s recognized in public.
“‘Look,
And
the African-American kid’s hair, in long cornrows for the movie.
“Man, people want to touch my hair when I’m in the States!” he complains. “It’s worse here than it was there.”
“I wanted to cut it, use the scissors the whole time
we were shooting,” Chan fires back. “‘Come on. Just a snip snip.’ But
his dad was there. He wouldn’t have it.”
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