The career of British actor Jason Statham represents a fascinating journey from high-performance sports to the big screen. During his adolescence, the actor developed a solid training in martial arts, mastering disciplines such as karate, taekwondo, jiu-jitsu, judo y kickboxingalthough later, Statham’s extraordinary physical condition led him to embark on a career as a professional trampoline diver, nearly qualifying for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. This combination of athletic skills would later distinguish him in the world of action cinema. However, It was her foray into the world of modeling that opened the doors to the film industry. when a casting director recommended him to the director Guy Ritchie, with whom he would establish a close collaboration which allowed him to take his first steps in the seventh art thanks to films like ‘Lock & Stock’ (1998) and ‘Snatch. Pigs and Diamonds’ (2000). These films, characterized by a British style that combines black comedy and crime, became his calling card in the film industry.
After these first cinematographic steps, Statham began to consolidate his profile as an actor in the action genre, taking advantage of his privileged athletic condition.. His transformation materialized in films that would define his career, such as ‘Transporter’ (2002), by Corey Yuen and Louis Leterrier, ‘Crank, poison in the blood’ (2006), by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, and later in franchises that They would catapult him to international fame as ‘The Meg’, ‘The Expendables’ and ‘Fast and Furious’. Unlike other action actors, Statham did not depend on stunt doubles or special effects to perform his most complex scenes.since his sports training allows him to personally execute many of the action sequences.
Physical preparation goes beyond conventional methods as he himself has described: “I go to a gym full of specialists. There are no televisions or treadmills. This is a place of dust and saliva. It has a lot of great training aids like trampolines, bags and all the weapons ever invented to harm a human being. If you want to know how to throw a knife, that’s great”. In addition, the actor also referred to his methodology: “I spent a few years learning to perfect certain skills, and then the competitive spirit kicks in and you want to do the stunts yourself. “Basically, it’s the competitive male ego in action.” It is precisely this dedication to physical appearance that has made him one of the most respected action actors in Hollywood, capable of performing sequences that other actors would not dare to attempt.
Furthermore, Statham’s acting style draws directly from his life experiences: “Growing up where I did, I met many colorful characters whose businesses were on the other side of the law.or more likely you didn’t know what they were doing and would never find out. So, playing those kinds of characters now, I can draw inspiration from that. The rest you can practice or learn from books. But above all, I am inspired by my experiences. “That’s all I have, you know?” Statham has also been critical of the evolution of action cinema, reflecting on the authenticity of the genre in contemporary cinema: “In many action movies you don’t know who is doing what. Everything is so cut up that you only see a fist, a leg… everything is directed by sound, ‘boom’, ‘pow’, ‘boom’. Otherwise, you wouldn’t know what’s going on. The people who inspired me in my childhood, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chanthat’s the real thing. You see them, the camera is very far back, there are not many cuts… You have the feeling of being in there. Nowadays there is so much technology, green screen and CGI, that you can turn your grandmother into an action star. But I think people are realizing it. There is nothing that can replace reality.”
