Jackie Chan and Anupama Chopra

Jackie Chan and Anupama Chopra

On this week’s The Front Row, Anupama Chopra interviews Jackie Chan, where she speaks to him about his ambition of being the Asian Robert Di Niro. Here’s what they discussed!

Anupama Chopra: Jackie, I had interviewed you two years ago for The Karate Kid and then you had said that, ‘I want to be Asia’s Robert De Niro.’ Is that still a burning ambition?

Jackie Chan: Yes still. That’s why after The Karate Kid, now I’ve now showed you I’m not old man anymore but a young man and the next movie I do other things. I really want to be an Asian Robert De Niro. Then people would say, “Wow he’s really like Robert De Niro” and yes, that’s what I want.

Anupama Chopra: Do you ever get angry that you work so hard but people come to see your films for the stunts and not for the acting? Is that something that drives you, that now you need to show them that you can act as well?

Jackie Chan: Yes. For the last ten years you can see I’m changing. I work very hard all the time to prove to the audience, “Jackie is a actor not a action star.” So it is why I agreed to do The Karate Kid. I also agreed to Will Smith that I do another totally drama film. I hope it happen. I want to prove to audience I’m actor. One day they will know. Have my own planning.

Watch the one hour special of “The Front Row with Anupama Chopra” on the Toronto International film festival tonight at 8:00 p.m. on Star World. The show includes conversations with Robert Redford, Jackie Chan, Emily Blunt, Salman Rushdie, Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta. For more details on the show, visit www.thefrontrow.starworld.in. You can follow the show on Twitter @thefrontrow2012 or Facebook: www.facebook.com/thefrontrowwithanupamachopra