We called it ‘Jackie Week’ – when Jackie Chan showed up to set,” says Ben Wang, the endearing 25-year-old star of the new franchise reboot Karate Kid: Legends. “We were working up in Montreal, Canada, and we had this amazing French-Canadian crew. But the moment Jackie shows up, they’re like, running around, going, ‘Jac-kie is here! Jac-kie is here!’, bumping into things like Keystone Cops. All that cool French-Canadian swagger melted away the second Jackie steps on set.”
But, really, can you blame them? Even at the age of 71, the Hong Kong action icon is a hurricane unto himself. Of course people are going to panic. Indeed, there could hardly be a more fitting title for the new Karate Kid, which unites Ralph Macchio – a legend in the world of Karate Kid, having played the plucky up-and-comer Daniel LaRusso in the original 1980s action trilogy – with Chan, a legend of cinema itself.
