The action star Morgan Freeman called a “terrific” actor: “[He] has great dramatic chops”
The world of action movies gets tends to have a nasty reputation among major movie critics. It’s one thing to be able to perform massive stunts that no human could justifiably survive, but when you’re Tom Cruise and have defied death so many times onscreen, people stop worrying about whether you’re going to be half-decent in front of the camera opposite a seasoned veteran. While Morgan Freeman moulded himself into one of the greatest actors of his generation, he thought that Jet Li was criminally underrated for his talent as a true thespian.
But if we’re being honest, much more goes into Li’s movies than strictly acting. Going through his filmography, the number of fights that he manoeuvres his way out of is enough to put John Wick to shame, and if there was a drinking game for the asses that get beat during one of his films, most people would need to be checked for alcohol poisoning after one sitting.
That’s not to say that all of those movies are beyond comparison. There are occasionally a few duds in his catalogue, like The One, but even when working with other acting veterans in The Expendables, he delivers some truly emotional moments opposite his co-stars, which isn’t exactly easy in a film that seems to be driven by testosterone.
Any inferior actor wouldn’t have sneaked past Freeman’s radar, but when working on Unleashed with Li in 2005, he got a front-row seat to how well he worked at his craft. Since the story centres around Li being used as a glorified attack dog, Danny, for Bob Hoskins’s Bart, he had an even more difficult job by having to emote while having limited dialogue.
Since Danny doesn’t have all of the proper social cues, you can see almost everything he feels just by looking at Li’s eyes. Outside of him kicking ass and taking names every time he is let out of his shell, those eyes tell the story of someone who has gone through real pain and is looking for any way to escape being confined to a collar.
Although Freeman would freely admit that he had no business doing the same stunts that Li did onset, he knew that he was looking at someone who didn’t take the acting side for granted, telling IGN, “Jet has great dramatic chops. What he does so well is he interacts, and as an actor, that’s really all you have to be doing. He’s good. I always say acting is not hard. I mean, it’s not hard for me. However, fighting in movies, that is something else. That is a talent, and Jet is the best. But he is also a terrific actor.”
If anything, the fact that Li can still keep his acting composure when performing every dangerous stunt actually puts him one notch above most of his peers. Most performers can get their head straight in the moments before shooting a scene, but when someone like Li has the ability to emote while also making sure to stretch before the camera starts rolling, it’s practically a miracle when they happen to nail it without much trouble.
So, despite the stigma that is placed on action stars who don’t necessarily have their chops together, Li is one of the few exceptions that could blow away the veterans of the business. Whereas most people come to action movies for explosions or hand-to-hand combat, Li still makes sure that they look at the character before anything else.
