Danny Glover's brother," said Chris
Tucker to one of the three online journalists who were about to speak to him.
Mr. Tucker naturally had the person he addressed with this comment in stitches,
and it is likely that his new film "Rush Hour 3", which opens in the U.S. and
Canada on August 10, will have audiences doing the same. Brett Ratner
directed the third film as he has the previous two, and both men talked recently
about the film, its international action megastar Jackie Chan, and surrounding
events.
Mr. Tucker had been on hiatus from the big screen for a good six years since
"Rush Hour 2" and one journalist inquired as to his whereabouts. "I went
to take some time off to do some humanitarian work. Through my travels . .
. a lot of things caught my attention -- different things around the world that
really just changed my life," the live-wired comedic actor said. It should
be said that in real life, Tucker is a far more mild-mannered person than his
Detective Carter character from the "Rush" series. The actor speaks in a
clear and slightly lower-pitched voice than Carter does. During this
interview at a San Francisco hotel suite, Chris Tucker, who will turn 35 on the
last day of this month, is wearing a purple Adidas track suit top with Muhammad
Ali's name embroidered in golden yellow print on the left breast, and a pair of
neatly-pressed blue jeans. Mr. Tucker, a muscular and athletic figure,
stands over six feet tall, in contrast to the five-foot eight figure of Brett
Ratner, a lightly-bearded man of compact, if not slightly stocky build, full of
ebullience and energy, dressed in a charcoal gray jacket, black and
olive-striped shirt and blue jeans.
Their chemistry during this interview reminds one of that shared by Mr. Tucker
and Mr. Chan onscreen in the highly successful action comedy "Rush Hour" films.
Later on, Mr. Ratner discloses the secret that Mr. Tucker is in fact Jewish.
"My name is Chris Tuckerenberg, and I'm Jewish, and I'm very rich!", Tucker
agrees, although the exaggerated tone in his voice strongly suggests that only
one of those three things is true.
Chris Tucker as Detective Carter in "Rush Hour
3", directed by Brett Ratner. The film opens in the U.S. and Canada on
August 10. Top photo: Jackie Chan and Mr. Tucker in France, separated by
the landmark Eiffel Tower. (All photos
©2007 Glen Wilson/New Line Cinema)
On a more serious note, during his
humanitarian travels to Africa, Tucker said that he had gained a renewed
perspective about the world and his place in it. "I don't take stuff for
granted, what we have here in America." He talked about clean water in the
U.S. -- he briefly picks up a bottle on a nearby table in the hotel room -- and
the lack of it, on the African continent. "There's no clean water in some
of the villages there because an animal died in the water supply, so it cost
$1,500 to get a new water pump in that village to supply the village. A
little girl's gotta walk miles and miles to get a bucket of water and bring it
back to cook, to clean . . . for the family." Tucker said that he "really
took advantage of being a celebrity", something he thought wasn't being done
that much these days. "Most people really don't take advantage of those
things. They just make movie after movie and they think that's the best
thing," Tucker said.
Chris Tucker realized that the best thing for him was to turn down numerous
films that came his way in the six years since "Rush Hour 2" (which opened in
the U.S. and Canada just a month before the unforgettable events of September
11, 2001.) Tucker was not interested in the opportunities that those
particular films offered. He continued to keep "doing what I was doing",
traveling the world and building relationships with its citizens, participating
in aid events with such dignitaries as Oprah Winfrey, former U.S. secretary of
state Colin Powell, former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Bono, among
others. Mr. Tucker cited the global travel experience as a perspective
shaper for him. "It even helped me with my movies," he declared, adding,
"now I know what I do when I go and make a movie and people laugh, that's giving
to them making them forget their problems for a while."
Making people laugh is a Chris Tucker specialty, and with Brett Ratner's
direction of the actor in the comedy "Money Talks" and the three "Rush Hour"
films laughs has come easily and in abundance. "Rush Hour 3" is no
exception. This time Inspector Lee and Detective Carter find themselves in
France, where, as one line in Jeff Nathanson's screenplay for the new film
reveals, Americans are not admired. "I don't like your kind," a French
cabdriver says to Mr. Tucker's Carter. "My kind? ", responds
Carter, who has taken umbrage at the racist overtones of the remark.
"Americans", the cabbie clarifies. And then all the cliches about
Americans spew forth, which bring laughs from a preview audience.
With all this fun and laughter for three movies now, will there be a sea change
in content should a "Rush Hour 4" get made? Could a fourth film become
more serious, and thus have an edge to it?
Director Brett Ratner framing a shot on the set
of "Rush Hour 3", which opens on Friday, August 10 in the U.S. and Canada.
"I think you have to stay true to
the genre. It's an action comedy," responds Ratner, who directed last
summer's immensely successful worldwide hit film "X-Men: The Last Stand".
"You see, the thing is, the only difference is to make it more like 48 Hrs. [the
Eddie Murphy-Nick Nolte film of 1982], which is an R-rated movie. But we
don't wanna do that because we want kids to come see the movie. But would
we make a serious movie (in general)? Yes. In two seconds, we
could do that, because Chris has done it before in "Dead Presidents" (the Hughes
Brothers crime drama) and he'd do it again, and he can do it in any type of
movie." Ratner wouldn't rule out either a serious film with Tucker, or
foray into a fourth "Rush Hour".
Tucker agreed. "If we do another one, we have to come up with a different
way to entertain. Keep the comedy, but change the tone a little . . . we
could do that. I think we could do that."
Nevertheless, the new film, while still solidly PG-13 [as certified by the
Motion Picture Association of America] is not without its more risque moments,
which viewers will notice once they venture to their local multiplex.
One of the immensely appealing aspects
of the "Rush Hour" series -- the 37-year-old director humbly recites the
progressively higher gross of the successive "Rush" film at one point -- is the
backgrounds of two very different people, which Mr. Ratner said was not an issue
but an asset. "I wanted that to happen at every opportunity where the real
dynamic (the language differences) between these two guys was going to exist on
the screen. And that's where audiences related to it. Two guys from
two completely different walks of life."
Four Hands For "4": Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan in "Rush Hour 3" - will they
whet our appetites for a fourth go-around?
For the record, Mr. Ratner's first
two "Rush Hour" films have grossed in excess of one billion dollars worldwide.
He is a supremely confident person, and, judging from the outstanding feature
story by Nancy Jo Sales in Vanity Fair in the March 2007 edition, a man
who is admired by and is a friend of many, including Quincy Jones, Serena
Williams, Bruce Willis, Robert Evans, Barry Diller, Roman Polanski, Halle Berry,
Russell Simmons, Michael Jackson, whom he declares in Sales' story is "my best
friend!" Mr. Ratner is also envied by a few. In the Vanity Fair
story, Michael DeLuca, the former president of production at Dreamworks, is
quoted as saying, "I think people player-hate on Brett because they're jealous."
At the risk of sounding naive, it is very difficult to be jealous of an affable
person, and in this case Brett Ratner. He treats his interviewers with
respect, flashes a warm smile frequently and patiently answers their questions.
He continued to talk about "Rush Hour 3", where comedy runs unabated and from
genuine places, to hear him say it.
"We wanted the comedy to come from the situation and not from the jokes.
Jokes are cheap. They're a dime a dozen. But a situation where two
guys are from two differ end up in a pool bar with all black guys , the one
guy's mimicking the other guy and he's saying something else in the movie to
piss everybody off -- every scene in this movie is like that. It's all
based -- the comedy is based on the situations . . . so all that stuff is very
real and true to life," Ratner said.
Noemie Lenoir as Genevieve in Brett
Ratner's "Rush Hour 3".
The director, during his answer to
one question, had time to stop and ask himself a question, and answer it:
"Why did Jackie not work [meaning look the part] in all the other [American
movies that he does] . . . since "Rumble In The Bronx" . . . after "Rush
Hour"? Because they see him as a bumbling foreigner. We look
up to Jackie Chan, we think Jackie Chan is the coolest guy in the world.
So I made Jackie cut his hair into a contemporary haircut. He had a mop
. . . like the Beatles! His hair was like [Ratner gestures
here.] I'm like, 'why is your hair like that?' " Ratner talks more
even more highly and affectionately about the international star, who he said
"was dressed . . . like a foreigner."
Ratner continued. As he did, it appeared that he lamented the fact that
Hollywood didn't use Jackie in his proper capacity. The director made sure
the treatment of the 53-year-old Hong Kong-born Chan in prior American films did
not continue, at least while he was directing the megastar in "Rush Hour 3",
and, for that matter, the prior two "Rush" films, all of which were distributed
in the U.S. and Canada by New Line Cinema.
Said Ratner: "We put him in a black suit. I put him next to somebody
that's cool. So he had to be cool. Just 'cause he's from a foreign
place, doesn't mean he's not cool. And Jackie is cool. To us
he's cool. We look up to him. We put him up on a pedestal, Chris and
I. And that's why he comes off [in the "Rush Hour" films] the way he does.
But if you see him in other films -- I'm not gonna name them -- he's kind of
corny in them. Because he's not -- they don't understand his true value.
Chris Tucker and I really admire and respect Jackie Chan, and that's why he
comes off like that." You can tell that the sincerity is bursting through
in the director's voice as he speaks about Chan, at whom Tucker's Carter spends
time constantly shouting, "Lee! Lee!", whenever danger arises.
The director and Jackie Chan during a break in
the action in "Rush Hour 3". Ratner spoke of the need to give the
international action megastar his due respect in American films, something he
felt that Mr. Chan wasn't getting in previous Hollywood vehicles. Via the
choice of wardrobe, Mr. Ratner made Chan a more contemporary-looking presence in
the "Rush Hour" franchise, making him "look cool", because "Jackie is cool".
"We look up to Jackie Chan . . . we put him on a pedestal," Ratner said.
Perhaps time and space works so
effectively for the "Rush Hour" franchise in part because of the distance
between the films. The original film was hatched in 1998. For New
Line Cinema's president Robert Shaye, the riches from the film are an obvious
incentive to continue green-lighting more adventures. For Ratner, who has
also directed "Red Dragon", the film starring Anthony Hopkins and Edward Norton
-- one of seven films he has helmed in his brief and meteorically rising career
-- there is careful deliberation about getting the "Rush" franchise made and
unveiled for public consumption, even as the demand for a fourth action
laugh-fest may grow after this new sequel. "We're not gonna rush into it .
. . it's just about, 'let's get the script right,'" the director maintains.
Speaking of the script and getting it right, Mr. Nathanson, who wrote the
screenplay, is flexible and amenable to any changes. Ratner, Chan and
Tucker pitch ideas to Nathanson and try them out spontaneously on each other and
they all move forth from that point, shaping the movie's lines as they go.
"We use our impulses and our instincts on every movie, said Tucker, "that's why
they connect with the audience, because they know it's coming from a real place
and that's why -- that's everybody's inner spirit that connects in some kind of
way."
It is inner spirit that keeps Chris Tucker grounded. No doubt his recent
years of global travel and humanitarian sojourns have helped to further enhance
that internal demeanor. As for whether there would be any change in the
way he approached acting in future films, Tucker offered no indication of a
markedly different approach to a role. Asked if he would play a
harder-edged alter-ego of his Carter character in a future "Rush Hour", he
replied: "I wouldn't play a character that's mean-hearted because I put a lot of
myself into characters . . . I'm not good at those types of characters because I
can't do that . . . every part I play it might have some serious parts to it,
but you'll still see my personality come out . . . now, it might not be comedy
every time, but you'll see my personality, a different side of me, you know. "
J'taime une femmes: Chris Tucker as
Detective Carter of the LAPD and a few of his closest women friends, in "Rush
Hour 3". The film also stars Max Von Sydow, Philip Baker Hall, Youki Kudoh,
Hiroyuki Sanada, and Yvan Attal. There is also a cameo from a legendary
presence.
Fans of the first two films will be glad to know that a blooper reel also comes during the end credits of the new film. Says Tucker of the third blooper-fest: "I didn't even know that we made that many mistakes. I've seen the movie and I watched the bloopers this time. It was a lot of fun watching them."
The new film also features shots of the
Eiffel Tower, and both director and actor comment on the shots. "We got to
do more than anybody ever in the history of France on that Eiffel Tower,"
said Ratner. The actual tower and models of it were used in capturing
shots of France's most famous landmark. Tucker however, has a slightly
different take. "But the real Eiffel Tower -- we were up there seven
nights -- seven or eight nights, and I had a different girl every night falling
in love. It was good being in Paris . . ."
Not for the first time during the interview, Tucker has his questioners
laughing.
If it happens, Tucker said that he
would like a fourth "Rush Hour" to take place in San Francisco. After one
journalist playfully accuses him of saying this because he's currently in the
City By The Bay in Northern California, the director chimes in, saying that
Tucker had approached him to do "Rush Hour 3" in San Francisco, but Ratner
declined, saying that he had already shot the third "X-Men" film in San
Francisco. With this current film, Ratner opted instead to keep the
domestic filming in Los Angeles. In any event, wherever a possible "Rush
Hour 4" happens, it won't happen immediately. For the time being however,
it is safe to say that "Rush Hour 3", which arrives on August 10 in the U.S. and
Canada, will keep Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan and Brett Ratner firmly in the
driver's seat for more action, comedy and a lot of laughter, for sequels to
come.
As he departed the hotel suite, Tucker had one last thing to say to one of the
journalists.
"I'll tell Danny I saw you."
Copyright The Popcorn Reel.
PopcornReel.com. 2007. All Rights Reserved.
One two three . . . four? So is a fourth film on the way? Chris
Tucker, director Brett Ratner and Jackie Chan are smiling, but audiences will
have to wait and see.
Related:
"Rush" Bites
Originally published on August 1, 2007.