Saturday, March 31

Today at 10:00 AM, I went to rehearse for the Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Awards. Justin Timberlake was supposed to sing to us and then Chris and I would do a little dance before getting slimed with green goop. During rehearsals everything went well. But when we shot it, we could not hear anything he was saying to us because the children were screaming so loud. It was nice to see that we had so many young fans out there. Even though our cues were off, I don’t think anybody noticed.

Jackie in his Kids Choice Awards costume before being slimed.

After slime.

Jackie's costume - covered with green slime.

After we were done, I went and worked on my script with my friends. Every day is a working day for me. I guess you can say this is the kind of life I enjoy.
 
Sunday, April 1

Today we shot on Overland Street in Los Angeles. It didn’t look exactly like the streets of Paris, but I think the audience may not notice. The art department did a good job of adding more trees and fake birds to make it look like Paris and all the background drivers drove European cars.
Chris and I had to lie down on the street with cars driving past us. During rehearsals, real drivers, not stunt drivers, went by. As soon as they noticed it was Chris and me, they started to drive back again and again to take pictures. Sometimes those cars were a little too close for comfort.

Brett and Chris argued over some lines of dialogue in the scene. I was worried because there was so much tension on the set. Suddenly, they started screaming and fighting. Everybody watched, not sure what to do. Suddenly, they both yelled out, April fool! Everybody laughed but I didn’t understand what was going on. I guess on the first day of April, it is a custom that you try and trick someone. All morning long, they had planned to trick the cast and crew. I was mad because I was fooled and I was worried all for nothing!

I saw Jimmy Roberts today. He was one of the stunt drivers on a motorcycle. He was also Owen Wilson’s stunt double on Shanghai Knights. We got too busy so I didn’t have a chance to take a picture with him. It was nice to work with him again, even if it was just for a day.

Another person came up to greet me. He said he was the location manager on Thunderbolt. It’s been so many years since I made that film. A background driver also came up and told me that he was friends with Reuben Langdon, the stuntman from Medallion. It’s always nice to see someone I haven’t seen in a long time or meet someone new who knows a mutual friend. The world is smaller than most people think.

Today is a sunny day and Spanky (Glen Roberts) gave me a little umbrella to shield me from the bright sunlight. I told Dorothy to come back with my own personalized umbrellas for Chris and I to use. My umbrellas have all the different architectures from all over the world, including the Eiffel Tower and it also has stick figures of me doing the different kinds of stunts I have done in all my movies.

Both sides of the sidewalk were filled with lots of fans. When Chris and I have time, we run out and take pictures with them. One Chinese school even took a quick break so that all the students could come out and take pictures with me. They tore pages out of their school books to get autographs. I hope they don’t get into trouble from their teachers.

When I went home, I spent five straight hours packing. My assistants and my stuntmen didn’t eat dinner until we were done, at midnight. I can’t believe how many things I have accumulated in my six months here in Los Angeles. I had to order a forty foot container to ship all my stuff back. I probably won’t open it up until 2008 because I am going to be making two films back to back when I wrap on this film.
It took me a long time to figure out which things go to friends or staff members. I also had to decide which office these things were going to, either the one in Hong Kong or the one in China. It was so much work!

Monday, April 2

Today I was finally interviewed by John Horn from the Los Angeles Times. He’s come many times to visit our set but I was never able to give him an interview because I’ve been so busy either fighting or trying to figure out the fight choreography. He said he was also at the celebrity charity race for Redline and that although there was some speculation that the car crash wasn’t real, he says it was.  He saw that Eddie was injured and the car was the genuine thing. Although it was unfortunate that Eddie was slightly injured, the film has now gotten a lot of publicity. I hope the film will do well.

Ivan Attal came all the way back from Paris to film with us. We are still missing a few pieces which involve him, Chris and me. Since we are no longer going back to France to film, we have to shoot all the missing French scenes here in Los Angeles. Production probably had to fly him here on a first class ticket and put him in nice hotel. Because Brett really cares about the quality of this film, we have to go to such lengths to bring back actors for a scene.

Text and photos ©2007 JC Group. All Rights Reserved.

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