Jackie Chan reenacts “Enter the Dragon” at Locarno, shares stunt fears, sings for fans, and receives the festival’s prestigious career award.
Jackie Chan proved once again why he’s one of Hollywood’s most beloved action legends — mixing stunts, nostalgia, and even a song — during his appearance at Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival this weekend.
The 71-year-old star brought the crowd to its feet when he reenacted his brief role from Bruce Lee’s 1973 martial arts classic Enter the Dragon. It’s a part Chan has long joked about, famously revealing that Lee once accidentally hit him with a stick during filming. But instead of walking off set, Chan kept going — a work ethic that’s defined his decades-long career.
“I’m no Superman. I am scared,” Chan admitted during a lively onstage masterclass. “Before a stunt, I go: ‘Am I going to die this time?’”
The Hong Kong icon took fans back to his early days, sharing that he was a mischievous, restless kid — so much so that his father sent him to martial arts school. “I liked fighting when I was young,” he said with a grin. “Later, my father asked, ‘Did you like the school?’ I said, ‘Yes, very much. I could kick the teacher, punch someone — whatever I wanted to do.’”
Chan’s first gigs were as a stuntman, including a spot in Lee’s Fist of Fury. But seeing life on a movie set made him fall in love with filmmaking. “Movies are great — I could have my own lunch box,” he joked. Determined to learn every aspect of the business, he did his own makeup, studied the camera, and eventually stepped behind the director’s chair.
“I do everything — myself,” he said. “Now, I tell filmmakers: if you only learn how to direct, that’s not good enough. The audience doesn’t care about the rain or the budget cuts — they just want a good movie.”
Chan also got candid about the changing film industry, lamenting that “big studios today are not filmmakers — they are business guys. It’s very difficult to make a good movie these days.”
In one of the event’s most touching moments, he spoke about his late father, who used to send him tapes of his voice. “If I listened to them now, I think I’d cry,” he admitted.
And because it’s Jackie Chan, there was also a musical surprise — he serenaded the crowd, saying he always wanted to be “an actor who can fight,” not just an action star.
Locarno honored Chan with its prestigious career achievement prize, the Pardo alla Carriera, with artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro calling him “a true genius” who reinvented the action film genre.
Chan closed with a story about his father once asking if he could still fight at 60. “I didn’t know what to say,” he recalled. “But now I’m 71 — and I still can fight.”
