Actors Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker collaborated on the hit comedy series Rush Hour. But when they first met, Tucker’s style of acting would sometimes throw Chan off his game.
Jackie Chan once had no idea why ‘Rush Hour’ was so successful
Rush Hour is one of both Chan’s and Tucker’s most successful films. It earned $245 million worldwide on a very modest budget according to The Numbers. Its success inspired two more Rush Hour movies, with Rush Hour 2 being the highest-grossing of the franchise.
Many critics pointed to the chemistry and intriguing dynamic between Chan and Tucker as partially responsible for the film’s performance. The unorthodox pairing of the comedian and action star led to one of the most memorable onscreen partnerships in the buddy cop genre. But if you asked Chan himself, Chan couldn’t pinpoint exactly why or how Rush Hour reached the heights it did.
“Even myself, I have no idea why the film was so successful,” he said in a 1998 interview with the LA Times. “There are so many buddy movies already. You know Lethal Weapon, 48 HRS.–so many already. I think with Rush Hour it was just good timing. Why? Because after Rumble in the Bronx was a success, then everyone went to rent the videos of Drunken Master, First Strike and the others. They kept looking at all the old films.”
Chan theorized this newfound interest in him could’ve had a hand in Rush Hour’s popularity.
“Meanwhile, everybody in Hollywood was talking about me,” Chan said. “Quentin Tarantino. Everybody was talking. This created an excited audience. OK–BOOM!–now the first big American film.”
Jackie Chan would freak out when Chris Tucker improvised in ‘Rush Hour’
Chan initially had a difficult time adjusting to Rush Hour’s dialogue. There was a lot of slang included in the dialogue because of the nature of Tucker’s character. This sometimes confused the actor.
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“Jackie has a hard enough time with his own dialogue,” Ratner once told the LA Times. “The way he remembers dialogue is by remembering the last word of Chris’ sentence. Ninety-nine percent of the time that word never comes.”
What perhaps confused Chan even more was Tucker’s tendency to improvise in the feature. The improvisations weren’t completely unexpected, though. Tucker would often practice improvising during rehearsals. But Tucker would later tweak his improvisations when it came to actually filming scenes.
“That was very hard for Jackie. It freaked him out,” Ratner explained.
Jackie Chan believed his stunts helped separate ‘Rush Hour’ from other buddy cop movies
Rush Hour might have been as well known for its well-crafted stunts as it was for its comedy. Tucker had nothing but praise for Chan’s vision for choreography, which the comedian experienced firsthand.
“He’d get there the day before and pick up a trash can and a broom and work it into the action. Then he’d tell me, ‘You do one, two, three punches, and make it so simple I looked like I knew what I was doing. I never interfered. I’d just say, ‘You work it out and call me to the set when you’re ready,’” Tucker said.
Chan believed his stunt work was what also could’ve helped Rush Hour stand apart from other similar movies.
“The difference is that in Rush Hour they really gave me a lot of freedom. I can control all the fighting scenes. In Lethal Weapon 4 all the fighting scenes are similar to American movies–BOOM BOOM BOOM–big explosions,” Chan said. “So when the movie started–Rush Hour–I went to the director and said, ‘Look, you have to promise me. Fewer explosions. Less violence. Fewer gunfights. Even if you have the gunfights don’t show the blood. We want no special effects. Jackie Chan will be the special effects, doing exactly what I am doing in Asia.”
