Article

A Most Suitable Match

8 Days, Sept/Oct 2002, No 625

Diana Ong

We slip into The Tuxedo set, and see wear the action is!

Uh oh, Jackie's in Hot Suit!

Jackie Chan suits up for action and big laughs with Jennifer Love Hewitt in The Tuxedo, the blockbuster spy caper opening this week.

It's a freezing 11 degrees - a temperature unbearable by Singaporean standards - on this Canadian morning. You hug your thin blue fleece coat tighter as you are shepherded to a DreamWorks Pictures soundstage, 30 minutes from downtown Toronto.

You're here to visit the set of The Tuxedo starring action star Jackie Chan and singing actress Jennifer Love Hewitt. In this blockbuster spy caper opening in cinemas this week, Jackie plays bumbling cabbie-tuned-chauffeur Jimmy Tong, whose boss, super agent Clarke Devlin, gets hurt in a bomb explosion. When he goes to Devlin's house to puck up his personal belongings, he unwittingly tries on Devlin's gadget-laden, turbo-powered tuxedo. Now it is left to him to stop evil scientist Dietrich Banning from poisoning the world's water supply.

Corny, yes. But the plot just might work. The Tuxedo is after all the latest project from the studio of Steven Spielberg and is helmed by Kevin Donovan who has won awards for his Pepsi and Miller Beer Commercials.

Trudging alongside you into a grey factory-like box are eight fellow journalists from Europe and Asia. Suddenly the landscape changes. Stepping into a studio lined with cameras and wires, you see a huge spider-like steel structure. You see six pools of green noxious liquids casting watery reflections on the walls. You see numerous tear-shaped hatchery bulbs hanging above these pools. You see a giant fan billowing smoke. You don't see anyone around, certainly not Jackie or Jennifer Love Hewitt, who co-stars as the hero's secret agent partner.

But they have you fooled. Because before you can say "baddie's lair," several CIA-looking agents storm onto the scene, brandishing steely Magnums.

"Cut!"

This is Bannings' underground laboratory - the one from where he will poison the world's water supply, so that he can make millions from his madcap scheme of selling the only source of safe spring water. Before you can linger, a studio staffer ushers you to a little corner with a TV monitor for you to watch re-enactments of the scene over and over without getting in anyone's way.

You are left twiddling your thumbs, waiting.

An hour later, Donovan, the director, saunters in. The Tuxedo is this Montana native's first full-length feature. And lucky for him (or not), it just happens to star one of the world's top action geniuses.

"I am not stupid," Donovan remarks wryly, flicking his scraggy long hair. "Jackie Chan is a big box-office hit. I thought that I will get some recognition out of this."

You ask if egos also get bruised on this set. Let's face it, he is working with the self-punishing perfectionist known as Jackie Chan.

"Jackie Chan's very blunt, Donovan says. If you move the camera he will shout, 'No! Why you move camera?' We don't stop stunts unless he says it's good enough. He's more tenacious. He's a professional. That's the reason why he's as big a deal as he is - because he's that good."

Your hopes go up. Maybe you will get to see for yourself one of those life-threatening, gravity-defying stunts. But there won't be any action scenes today. "This is near the end of the movie when Jackie Chan is trying to save Jennifer and he no long has the tuxedo - the bad guy's got it." Drats! However, Donovan does let you in on what will be the toughest and most exciting scene in the movie. "It will take place near the end of the three-month filing and it's on a silo 140 feet in the air, some 20 storeys up. Jackie Chan gets tossed right off the edge."

Fear not, fans. The super-suit will help him get right back up. "It doesn't make you fly but it enhances your natural abilities," explains Donovan. "You can scale the wall, run twice as fast. It has gadgets to prevent sudden attacks. In that sense, it's more like James Bond's car."

And likely just as expensive. The stylish power tuxedo is "designed and made by Armani" and 40 different suits were used for the filming - "some are for action scenes, some are for night filming, some for the day, some for the bad guy."

othing scares me.  I am fearless." The inimitable Jackie Chan bounces in just before lunch in a white shirt and black pants. "I love explosions. We filmed one the other day and everyone wore glasses and stood 20 feet behind me. One of the guys said, 'Jackie you have to wear glasses.' I said, 'How can? The camera can see my face!' And he said, 'You only have two eyeballs!' But I told myself, 'I am lucky, I am lucky.' I think I was scared but by the time the camera rolls, I forget. That's why I get hurt a lot."

In fact, just the other day, Jackie Chan mistook a real door for a prop and smashed his foot right in. "He re-broke his foot, and for three days he was wearing a shoe three sizes bigger! But he just said, 'Rumble in the Bronx, I break my leg and I just paint shoe on foot!' " Donovan chirps in, getting in a dig at Jackie Chan's none-too-perfect English. Jackie Chan roars good-humouredly.

You forget in his boyish enthusiasm how old Jackie Chan really is - 48 - especially when he starts gushing about famous director Steven Spielberg.

"I have two dreams. One is to work with Steven Spielberg and the other with George Lucas. I'm such a fan of Spielberg and when I finally met him in his office, the first thing he said to me was, 'Jackie you've got to sign an autograph for my son!'"

He pauses for effect. "For The Tuxedo, I gave him a lot of feedback. Then he called his secretary in and told her to put what I told him as first priority." Jackie Chan flashes that trademark goofy grin, like a boy who's just aced an exam. He's proud and rightly so, now that he's made such a smashing name for himself in La-La Land with the pair of Rush Hour blockbusters. This time as the well-heeled spy though, Jackie will have to handle more dialogue than ever before.

And his dreams of having special effects replace some kick-and-punch sequences have had the air punched out of them. Spielberg said, 'No, you are the special effect!'" he relates, drolly rolling his eyes exactly the way he had a million times time.

hile Jackie Chan has to work on his ABCs, co-star Jennifer Love Hewitt is busy making the transition form teen queen to action babe. For her first action role, Jennifer Love Hewitt, who looks surprising petite in person, had to train in Los Angeles for a fortnight. "It wasn't just general workouts," says Love. "I also had to do boxing and martial arts. Then they put me on wires and taught me how to walk on walls."

The training was tough but not as tough as the though that she would have to cross punches with Jackie Chan. "There was one scene where I had to hit his face and I was so terrified!" Jennifer Love Hewitt squels " I had visions of hitting him accidentally and him popping me a big one!"

While the fight scenes went on fabulously, their friendship took a temporary dip when, one day, Jennifer Love Hewitt brought Jackie Chan flowers. "He just said, 'Don't like flowers' and gave them away!" her liquid brown eyes opening in wonder. "I was tortured for two days. Jackie didn't like me! Then I found out why he doesn't like flowers. Because they die. And if Jackie Chan gets a gift, he wants to keep it forever."

Jennifer Love Hewitt also doubles up as Jackie Chan's English tutor. Near the end of the day, when the crew is filming the final scenes of the movie, Jackie Chan is struggling with the line "It's an honour to help the United Sates of America."

"It's an owner to help the Unated Stats..." says Jackie Chan

"It's an honour, "Jennifer Love Hewitt corrects him.

"It's an owner," tires Jackie Chan again.

"Honour," persists Jennifer Love Hewitt

After a while, they decide to shorten the line to make it easier for Jackie: "Well sir, it's an owner to help."

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