English actor Jason Statham is best known for his work in action-thrillers and even more importantly, for doing most of his stunts on his own. He started practicing kickboxing, Chinese martial arts, and karate from a young age, which gave him an upper hand in his performances as violent characters. In fact, his action films are credited for the revival of the action genre between 2000 and 2010.
Over the years, Jason Statham has starred in some of the highest-grossing movies out there, which makes him one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood. All of his achievements can be attributed to one thing: his dedication to doing his action sequences himself. For the longest time, he avoided taking the help of stunt doubles. A decision that has often landed stars in trouble.
Jason Statham in The Expendables
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Jason Statham Refused to Have Stunt Doubles Do His Action Scenes for Him
The action genre has been one of the beloved movie genres since the dawn of time. The risky and heart-pumping scenes always manage to get the audience excited. Having a good story with strong characters simply makes these movies better.
Jason Statham in Meg 2
There are a lot of action stars who prefer doing their action sequences themselves. Cue: Tom Cruise, who has had his fans scared for his life more than once due to his deadly stunts for his Mission: Impossible movies. Some of these stunts are much more dangerous than they might look on the screen.
Addressing his obsession with doing his stunts himself, Jason Statham once said (via IMDb):
“I’ve spent all those years learning how to do certain skills, and then that competitive spirit kicks in and you want to do the stunts. Basically, it’s the male competitive ego at work.”
Being competitive is obviously good but only as long as the competition is healthy. Considering that Statham knows kickboxing, martial arts, and karate, doing certain stunts himself must not be much of an issue, but it would be for the best if he let trained stuntmen do the riskier ones.
Jason Statham Knows What He Does is Not Good for Him
Jason Statham in Collateral
Sometimes, people know that certain things are not good for them and then they do it anyway. These action heroes putting their lives at risk for the sheer joy of doing it themselves is one such thing. Jason Statham, very evidently, falls in this category of people.
During an interview with Collider, Statham revealed one of those stunts that could have cost him his life. He said:
“I did a little jump in the Transporter 2. I jumped from the back of a jet ski onto the back of a bus. It wasn’t a very safe stunt. I shouldn’t have done it, there was no safety wire, but I just did that. I mean, if I’d have missed the back of the bus, it would have been a faceplant at 30 mph into the concrete.”
To put it simply, the Fast and Furious star would have to pay a big price for the “little” jump if he was not lucky enough to land on the back of the bus. In the same interview, he also said that he tore his bicep once while performing a stunt.
