P10Zhao Huizhou:

reviving cultural heritage

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JACKIE CHAN has still got moves, and not just for martial arts anymore.

The boyish action star, 63, is eager to prove it, too, pulling himself onto the narrow porch rail at the Montage Beverly Hills hotel in Los Angeles for some breezy balancing on his butt in an interview with USA Today. Chan runs through a series of cheeky moves — look-no-hands, then arms folded, even hands resting on his raised knee.

It’s only two stories up, but Chan leans out precariously enough that people on the ground start pointing and taking pic-tures. His manager, Philip Button, walks onto the scene murmuring, “What the (expletive) is Jackie doing now?”

Showing off aside, what Chan is actu-ally doing now is getting away from the pure action (and comedy) that has made him a screen icon, earning him an honorary Oscar last November. The Hong Kong-born star wants to show he has acting chops — in fi lms like “The Foreigner” — as powerful as his martial-arts blows. The fi lm will be screened in U.S. theaters starting Friday.

“In my own country, I can do so many different roles. Because I write my own script and own my own company,” says Chan, whose franchise role in the United States has been the “Rush Hour” com-edies with Chris Tucker.

“In America, it’s always comedy; comedy and action comedy for me,” he says. “The studios and directors think, ‘Without Jackie fi ghting, the audience will not like it.’”

Chan gleefully points out he absolutely still “kicks some butts” in “The For-eigner,” adapted from Stephen Leather’s 1992 novel “The Chinaman.” As Quan, a restaurant owner whose daughter is killed by an IRA bombing, Chan seeks

'Foreigner' Jackie Chan shows surprise moves:

Drama, crying and crooning

revenge, working through a government minister with IRA ties (Pierce Brosnan) and an army of henchmen.

But director Martin Campbell aged Chan for the role, demanding gray hair and slow movements. “He makes me older, older,” Chan repeats. “Every day after makeup, it’s like, ‘No, not enough. Older. Jackie, when you walk, go slow and hunch your back. You’re not Jackie Chan, you’re Quan.’”

Campbell wanted a more dramatic Chan and toned down the star’s fl ashy fi ghting style. “The idea was to make sure we didn’t get into the kung fu of it all. That was the deal,” says Campbell. “This is a serious drama.”

Chan cries poignantly in a moment when Quan misses his daughter. Real tears, he says proudly.

“Just one take and my tear is going down,” says Chan, beaming. “I think, ‘I have no more family. My wife is already dead.’ Then the tears are coming down.”

Chan wants to show that he can do even more onscreen, like his own musical. He learned to sing along with his martial-arts training at the China Drama Academy and belts the theme songs for his Chinese movies. Chan croons “Ordinary Man,” a power ballad he recorded that’s inspired by “The Foreigner” and heard in the Chinese version of the movie.

“I’m actually a good singer,” says Chan. “I could do a ‘La La Land’.”

He dreams of a movie without any screen blows.

“I really hope one day I can make a drama or dancing movie without one punch,” says Chan, rolling out a career plan. “If I wasn’t an action star, I would be an actor. If nobody sees me anymore, then I’ll be a singer. And if they don’t like my voice, I can be stunt coordinator.”

(SD-Agencies) Jackie Chan

Jackie Chan (L) as Quan goes up against Pierce Brosnan as Hennessy in “The Foreigner.” File photos