Martial Arts Icon Jackie Chan Reasoned Out Why He Refused to Emulate Legendary Bruce Lee?s Fighting Style in 2015

The legendary Bruce Lee was a Hong Kong-American actor and martial art artist. Lee is one of the reasons why martial art is known and famous in the United States. Lee also featured in USA’s first-ever martial arts movie – Enter the Dragon. Unfortunately, Lee died during the production of a movie called The Game of Death.

During his short time in the country, Lee taught martial arts to famous people. Actors like Huggo Chairres, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were some of his students. However, when it came to continuing Lee’s legacy forward, Jackie Chan was the chosen one. However, the martial art legend refused to do so.

Why did Jackie Chan refuse to fight like Bruce Lee?

Bruce Lee was one of the most valued personalities in the Hong Kong film industry. In 1973, Lee’s death left the industry with the essential task of finding an actor who could fit in the legendary star’s shoes.

An upcoming star and another martial arts expert, Jackie Chan, was one of the leading names to fulfill Lee’s permanent absence. This also meant that Chan had to act and fight like Lee. However, in his book Never Grow Up, the Kung Fu master said that “no one could ever surpass” Lee’s legacy.

Although Chan tried to imitate Lee, he soon realized their fighting styles were completely different. In his autobiography, Chan mentioned that while he used to execute ground kicks in fighting, Lee, on the other hand, preferred higher kicks. Before shooting his first breakthrough movie – Snake in the Eagle?s Shadow, Lee approached the movie’s producer and suggested “an entirely different path” to shoot the film.

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Later, Chan succeeded in creating his own history and is now one of the most successful actors and martial art artist like Lee.

When Lee and Chan worked together

Jackie Chan started his career as a stuntman in movies. He also worked with the legendary Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon movies.

Chan had once confessed that Lee had a huge impact on his career and he learned many things from the martial arts expert. During the shoot of Fist of Fury, Chan was one of Lee’s many opponents, with whom he had to fight.

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During the shoot, Chan accidentally hit Lee in the face. After the shot, the Hong Kong movie legend rushed toward then-young Lee to apologize for the incident.