Brad Pitt credits ‘underrated’ Jackie Chan as influence for ‘Bullet Train’ fighting style
By Jane Nam
Actor Brad Pitt credited legendary Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan as the influence behind many of the fight scenes in his new movie, “Bullet Train.”
The 58-year-old Hollywood star sat down for an interview with “Entertainment Today,” along with co-stars Brian Tyree Henry and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, on Monday night at the Los Angeles premiere of director David Leitch’s “Bullet Train.”
Pitt, who plays a killer assassin hired to collect a briefcase while onboard a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto, praised Chan as a trailblazer and icon of movie stunts.
“We always talk about Jackie Chan, how much we love Jackie Chan,” said Pitt. “He’s like our Charlie Chaplin, he’s just so underrated. And it’s so amazing the stuff that he’s pulled off. So to do something in that vein, with the comedy infused into the fights, I’ve never done that before!”
Leitch, who worked as a stunt coordinator prior to directing, even acting as Pitt’s stunt double in “Fight Club,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Mr & Mrs. Smith,” described his filmic style in an interview with Insider as “doing Hong Kong action with an American style.”
“Bullet Train” is based on famed Japanese thriller novelist Kōtarō Isaka’s 2010 work, “Maria Beetle.”
Pitt previously found himself in hot water when people criticized Hollywood for whitewashing the movie adaptation of the novel by casting non-Japanese actors.
Isaka defended Pitt’s casting, responding in a New York Times interview that his characters were “ethnically malleable” and “not real people.”
Others also argued that the success of the film would garner more attention to Isaka’s novels.
“Bullet Train” releases in theaters on Aug. 5.
Featured Image via Sony Pictures Entertainment
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