The “embarrassing” scenes Jason Statham hates shooting: “It’s a little bit sad”
There aren’t many actors in history whose name has become a subgenre unto itself, which puts Jason Statham in rare company, even if the majority of his movies aren’t what anyone would call classics.
Whenever audiences see his name plastered above the title on the poster or see his baldy napper slathered all over the trailers, there’s a 99% chance they know exactly what they’re going to get: a mid-budget action thriller where he kicks the shit out of an endless array of hapless henchmen.
The old mantra suggests that ‘if ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ for a reason, and ever since he got his first taste of being an ass-kicking leading man in The Transporter over 20 years ago, the former competitive diver and peddler of goods of questionable origin in London street markets hasn’t looked back.
The three words ‘starring Jason Statham’ more often than not offer a handy explanation of what a film is, what it’s about, and who it’s being geared towards long before a single frame of footage has been shot, and that’s the way he likes it. If he wanted to change, then he would have done it a long time ago. Since he doesn’t, he probably won’t, until he’s physically incapable of roundhouse kicking folks in the face.
While there have been the odd exceptions to the rule, there aren’t many. Snapping necks and cashing cheques is his raison d’être, but that doesn’t mean he’s always happy about it. If there’s one thing that pisses Statham off about his chosen filmic vocation, it’s when he’s working with actors who’d rather sit out the more intense sequences.
“They are not doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” he raged to The Guardian. “I’m inspired by the people who could do their own work. Bruce Lee never had stunt doubles or fight doubles, or Jackie Chan, or Jet Li. I’ve been in action movies where there is a face replacement, and I’m fighting with a double, and it’s embarrassing.”
He doesn’t name names, but based on his filmography and the rampant rumours of diva-like behaviour behind the scenes, there’s a high chance he might be referring to either Dwayne Johnson or Vin Diesel, or both of his Fast & Furious co-stars, since it was written in their contracts that they need to emerge victorious after every onscreen brawl.
If they don’t want to lose, then it stands to reason that they don’t want to get their hands dirty, swapping out for their stunt doubles before the CGI wizards paste their faces on top so that audiences think it’s really them. “If you really are an aficionado of action movies, you know who’s doing what and who ain’t,” Statham added. “To me, it’s a little bit sad.”
Visual effects have advanced so rapidly that in most cases, nobody even notices when one actor’s face has been digitally imposed on their double’s. However, if you want to be validated as a true genre connoisseur by Jason Statham, it’s in your best interests to keep your eyes open and see if you can spot the joins.
