Jackie Chan Asked Michelle Yeoh If She Was Trying to Kill Him While Working on ‘Supercop’
Jackie Chan is one of the most iconic entertainers in the action genre. The Hong Kong-born actor first rose to prominence in his home country, appearing in many movies. By the late ’80s, he had broken into Hollywood. And by the early 2000s, he was one of the biggest stars in the world.
As one of the world’s most beloved actors to this day, Chan is a Hollywood legend. The veteran superstar has few equals as a film powerhouse. But Chan once worked on a production where he feared his co-star, Michelle Yeoh, was trying to upstage him. Yeoh herself revealed this in a 2022 interview with GQ.
Michelle Yeoh performed a very impressive stunt while filming ‘Supercop’
Michelle Yeoh is a film industry veteran who also became famous in the ’90s for her work in Chinese action films. A ]talented action star, Yeoh quickly made waves. In 1992, while Yeoh was still beginning her rise to fame, she was cast in the action flick Supercop, opposite the celebrated Chan. Yeoh recently recalled the experience of making the film to GQ. She told the publication that one major stunt that required her to jump from a dirt path onto a moving train, all while riding a motorcycle, caused a bit of a rift to develop between her and Chan.
“Jackie was the one who had a bigger problem,” Yeoh said. “He actually came up to me at one stage, and he says, ‘Michelle, are you trying to kill me?’ And I’m like, ‘No, why would I do that? We’re buddies, right?’ And he goes ‘No!'” Yeoh explained, “Cause I was doing this crazy motorcycle stunt, right. When he saw me do the stunt, he was like, ‘Oh no, if you do anything more than that, where am I gonna come from?’ That’s why he did the helicopter stunt…we had to have a little bit of a balance.”
What is ‘Supercop’ about?
Yeoh clarified she and Chan are still “great friends” to this day, proof that the “balance” the two implemented while filming Supercop worked quite well. The film follows the exploits of “Kevin” Chan Ka-Kui, played by Chan. Yeoh plays Interpol Inspector “Jessica” Yang Chien-Hua, who teams up with his character to fight crime. A high-octane action film, Supercop features several incredible action sequences, including the one referenced by Yeoh, in which Chan dangles from a moving helicopter.
The third installment of the Police Story series, Supercop is a unique film as it was released just before Chan’s ascent to international stardom, according to IMDb.
Have Michelle Yeoh and Jackie Chan worked on any other projects together?
Yeoh and Chan developed their professional partnership while on the set of Supercop. But the two worked together before the action flick. According to Elle, Yeoh first met Chan in the ’80s, when cast in a watch commercial in Hong Kong. She hasn’t worked with Chan in many years. But Yeoh recently admitted her latest role in the film Everything Everywhere All at Once was written with Chan in mind.
As Yeoh told NPR in a recent interview, filmmakers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert decided to update the script and make it more “relatable” by centering it on the character played by Yeoh. She plays an unassuming homemaker who finds herself presented with an alternate version of her life. For Yeoh, the role only cements her status as a force in show business.
