Jackie Chan, photographed by Ethan Pines at the Montage Hotel in Los Angeles.
On a recent visit to Los Angeles, Jackie Chan joined a group of Hollywood power players for a dinner party at Will Smith’s house. As soon as the meal was over, Chan stood up, grabbed his half-consumed glass of water and dumped the rest onto a potted plant.
“What are you doing?” asked Smith, as Chan tells it.
The Rush Hour star explained that in Los Angeles, like in Beijing, people constantly waste water—even during shortages—so why not try to save some?
“Jackie,” said Smith after a brief pause, “from now on, my whole family wants to learn this.”
Water conservation isn’t the only area in which Hollywood looks to Chan for guidance. He’s one of the only actors who has headlined blockbusters in America and China; more importantly, he’s one of a select few with a true grasp of the fundamentals of the film business on both sides of the Pacific.
His position straddling east and west is the main reason Chan earned an estimated $50 million this year, more than any actor in the world besides Robert Downey, Jr., and enough to land him the No. 38 spot on this year’s Celebrity 100, sandwiched between Tiger Woods and Kobe Bryant (for more on how he did this, read our feature, "Big Bucks For Big Brother").
Chan also engages in conservation and philanthropic efforts on a scale grander than the occasional Hollywood soiree. A UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador who runs his own charitable foundation, he’s lately been recording scads of public service announcements aimed at discouraging Chinese consumers from buying products made from poached tigers and rhinos.
After I interviewed him in Los Angeles earlier this month, Chan headed off on an earthquake relief trip to Nepal before returning to China for the Shanghai Film Festival (we wrote a whole story on his philanthropic exploits a few years back).
One of the things that came across in our talk: Chan wants to spend this phase of his career making movies with more of a message than before.
"I look at Drunken Master, wrong!" he says, banging on the table for emphasis. "'Don’t drink, don’t fight.' I have to correct myself. I want to, through the movies, tell people how important is peace.”
Water conservation, too--and his celebrity gospel-spreading extends beyond the Smith household. Chan tells me that one day, while dining outdoors in Beverly Hills at a table near Jay Z, he did his usual post-meal ritual, dumping a glass of water onto a nearby plant. Jay Z asked what he was doing, and Chan explained his mission.
"Jay Z says, 'Ok, I have to learn from that,'" Chan recalls. "I believe I inspire a lot of people."
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For more about the business of entertainment, check out my Jay Z biography and my latest one, Michael Jackson, Inc. You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook.
