Bill Wallace

(Former undefeated world full-contact Karate Champion)

"In 1984, I worked with Jackie Chan on the film, The Protector. Jackie is really a nice person. He's very friendly and superb at what he does. As far as an acrobat goes, and as far as technique goes, he is really, really good. But he's not a fighter. I don't mean that derogatorily. He doesn't train to fight, but his fight scenes are good.
Jackie is a very good martial artist...... As far as martial arts go, he's a good technician.

Jackie is also one of the bravest and most meticulous people I've ever met. I'm supposed to attack him with a real, live chainsaw. This chainsaw has a circular blade, which makes it even more dangerous. What he does is fall over this wooden platform, and I'm supposed to attack him with the chainsaw. So I bring it down, and I miss by, say, four or five inches. Jackie says, "No we want it close". Finally, after several takes that were a little closer, he comes to me and says, "Look, make it as close as you can". So I say, "Okay, Jackie, you roll on the platform. As soon as you roll, I'm gonna scream. And when I scream here comes the chainsaw, it's up to you to get out of the way." I missed him by maybe half an inch. It scared the living s__t out of me. He said, That's great, Bill......"