Jackie Chan was still learning English while filming Rush Hour
Topics: Entertainment, Film and TV, Celebrity
Ali Condon
Featured Image Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc./Maximum Film/Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Entertainment, Film and TV, Celebrity
It has emerged that action hero Jackie Chan was making blockbuster Hollywood movies before he even had a full grasp of the English language.
The actor got his big break in the US after appearing in Rush Hour in 1998 as Detective Inspector Lee, but when he wasn't rescuing his kidnapped daughter or making unlikely friends with Chris Tucker's Detective James Carter, he was learning English behind the scenes.
It mightn't seem obvious when you watch the Rush Hour film trilogy, but the blooper real reveals all:
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Chan wouldn't have made a very threatening cop if he went around yelling 'Cheese!' like that, now would he?
It turns out that his comedic delivery in his earlier Hollywood films was really just a result of the language barrier. But it worked, and before long, Chan was one of the biggest names in the business.
Before he came to America from Hong Kong, the Karate Kid actor didn't know a lick of English.
Hong Kong film production company Golden Harvest had high hopes for Chan, and flew him out to the US in the 1980s to immerse him in the language.
At one point, the actor was working with four English teachers, spending nine hours a day trying to perfect the language.
By the time he started getting cast in big films like Rush Hour, he was still learning.
Chan has previously said that working on the film ended up teaching him more English than he ever learned in school.
Despite - or maybe thanks to - his uncertainty with English at the time, Rush Hour ended up being Chan's first commercial success.
The film, which grossed $130 million (£112 million), was so successful that Chan and Chris Tucker came back to reprise their roles for two sequels.
From there, the actor went on to star in films like Shanghai Noon, Around the World in 80 Days, The Spy Next Door, and the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid, as well as his own PlayStation game Jackie Chan Stuntmaster.
Today, he's one of the biggest names in the business, with his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a number of films taking inspiration from his iconic fight sequences.
On top of the many awards he has won over the years, from MTV Movie Awards to the Hollywood Film Festival, Chan was presented the Academy Honorary Award in 2016 for his 'extraordinary achievements' in film.
All that for a guy who flew out to America with not much English - not too shabby, eh?