son.Jason Statham: Street salesman turned A-list action star.

 Actor Jason Statham

Up to now, the world’s movie audience has been familiar with a “rebellious” Jason Statham through action movies such as: Lock , Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Crank , The Mechanic, The Expendables 2, Fast  & Furious 7… And it is impossible not to mention the series The Transporter (2002) which contributed to bringing his name closer to the world audience, in which, Vietnam is the place with a “strong” fan base.

Before becoming so famous, what kind of past did Jason Statham have that earned him the nickname “the rich man addicted to wearing flip flops”?

The artistic fate of street vendors

Jason Statham was born in the Derbyshire mountains of England, to a family whose father was an amateur singer and street vendor and his mother was a bar dancer. 

Many people think that Jason must have been trained and nurtured his talents since childhood. But the reality is that from a young age, he followed his father and older brother to perform in a family band to make a living. When he grew up, he planned to follow this profession, but Jason’s father directed him to become a street seller to have a more stable income.

Along with selling, Jason Statham is also a member of the British Olympic diving team. He participated in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and was the 12th ranked diver in the world. 

The artistic destiny came to him very naturally. During a training session, Sports Promotions invited Jason Statham to be a model for the French Connection fashion brand. From here, a truly life-changing opportunity came to Statham when he was noticed by director Guy Ritchie.

Bacon is the first role in Statham’s acting career

Thanks to a lot of tricks on the street by selling goods to passersby, Jason Statham easily won the affection of director Ritchie, getting his first role without any training. In the movie Lock , Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Statham played Bacon – a street swindler. The movie quickly became a success both artistically and commercially with its thrilling content and unique comedy style.

Two years later, Statham continued to participate in another of Ritchie’s projects, Snatch . The role of a Turkish guy who organizes Boxing matches helped Statham truly enter Hollywood.

Kick with the Transporter

Statham’s action movie talent only really shined with his role as Frank Martin in The Transporter (2002), written and produced by French filmmaker Luc Besson. 

The Transporter was the breakthrough in Jason Statham’s career. With a budget of 21 million USD, the film grossed 43 million USD despite being unpopular with critics. Statham’s extremely “cool” appearance and eye-catching fighting and shooting scenes help the Transporter attract a large number of fans. For audiences of the 8X – 9X generation in Vietnam, the image of a cool driver in an elegant suit is forever an unforgettable character.

 The role of Frank Martin in “The Transporter” helped him conquer the difficult audiences in Hollywood.

The role of Frank Martin is an important milestone for Statham as this is the first time he takes on a lead role alone. The Transporter is a work that introduces Hollywood to an action superstar from the land of fog. In addition to his angular face, cold eyes and voice, Jason Statham also performed all the action scenes in the movie himself without the help of a stuntman.

The carrier had two more installments in 2005 and 2008 and achieved total revenue of nearly $200 million. From then on, action movie scripts were continuously sent to Jason Statham. But he plays the role of hero or “anti-hero” very well.

Jonas Taylor in “The Big Bad Shark”

In August 2018, Jason Statham tried again as a professional diver in the blockbuster movie The Meg . Not having to confront gangsters or dangerous criminals, this time his opponent is the ferocious giant shark Megaladon – a sea monster that seemed to have gone extinct more than 2 million years ago. This reappearance of Jason Statham will make the audience “restless”.

Jason Statham confronts the super shark Megaladon

Thanks to his “side job” as a professional diver when he was young, of all the action superstars in Hollywood, Jason Statham is the most suitable actor to play the role of the super shark Megaladon’s opponent.

To convey the horror of the ocean killer, Jason Statham learned from a diver who once struggled with a bull shark and lost an arm and a leg but still survived. . After that, the actor flew to the waters of Fiji to experience the feeling of swimming with real sharks.

Jason Statham is a meticulous person and always prepares carefully for every role

Although in Super Tyrant Shark , Jason Statham did not actually swim with Megaladon, but thanks to the experience of swimming with real sharks, the emotions that Jason Statham expressed reached the maximum level of authenticity.