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To put this into perspective, this kind of impressive streak is generally achieved only by actors of Tom Cruise caliber. Tom Cruise has a very similar number of roles under his belt, and all of them (I'm pretty sure) are proper wide theatrical movie releases.
But Tom's movies are generally critically acclaimed, and his career is some 45-ish years long. He's an A-list superstar and can afford to be very picky with his projects, appearing in one movie per year on average, and most of them are very high-profile "tentpole" productions. Statham, on the other hand, has appeared in 48 movies (+ 2 upcoming ones) over only ~25 years, and many of those are B-movie-ish and generally on the cheap side, apart from a couple blockbuster franchises. They are also not very highbrow and not very acclaimed on average. A lot of his projects, and their plots, are quite similar to what the aging action stars of the 80s were putting out after their peak, in the 90s, when they were starring in a bunch of cheap B-movie action flicks that were straight-to-VHS.
Yet, every single one of Jason's movies has a full theatrical release window. Even his movie with Uwe Boll. Even his upcoming project with Amazon. Amazon sent the Road House remake by Doug Liman with Jake Gyllenhaal - both are very well-known names - straight to streaming. Meanwhile, Levon's Trade with Statham secured a theatrical release deal with that same studio/company. Jason also has never been in a TV series, not even for some brief guest appearance, even during modern times when TV shows are a more "respected" art form than 20 years ago. The only media work that he has done outside of theatrical movies (since he started) is a couple voice roles: for an animated movie (again, wide theatrical release), a documentary narration, and two videogames very early in his career.
How does the star of mostly B-ish movies successfully maintain a theatrical streak like this?
To clarify, this is not a critique of him and his movies. I'm not "annoyed" at his success, I'm just very impressed.
Did you see him kick that door in on the Transporter? Thats gotta be a big factor.
Man can rock an Army jumper that's for sure!
Dudes basically just been playing Chev Chelios with different names for decades now.
Still want Crank 3
I want Crank 3 to be a full reversal - he has to stay as zen as possible while the world around him is completely crazy. Can’t get his heart rate up or his heart explodes. He just smokes weed, does yoga, and meditates while rescuing hot women.
Crank 3: Meditative Mercenary or something like that.
Running flying dropkicked that door right through the guy who had just looked through the eyehole
Jason Statham's physique is nothing like the line-up in Predator. In body mass alone...
I was specifically trying to avoid a conversation about body-mass…
If you don't start greasing some dudes I'm gonna freak out!
That song during the scene goes hard
Man that movie is amazing
Maybe he's lucky. Maybe he's got a killer agent.
He's talked about it once: "Nothing kills me. I'm immune to 179 different types of poison. I know because I ingested them all at once when I was deep undercover in an underground poison-ingesting crime ring."
“Here’s what we do. I go into the face/off machine…"
"Do you have quarters? Cause it cost fifty cents..."
Spy is so good
It was so much better than I ever thought it would be.
I laughed so damn hard at that scene.
I'm pretty sure I'm not the only who read this with his voice. Now my inner voice sounds like him!
I think he’s just skilled, intelligent and dedicated, wasn’t he an Olympic diver before he was an actor?
"Only" placed in Olympic trials, he never competed at at Olympics. He did represent England and Great Britain at intensively level comps, though, including the Commonwealth Games, iirc.
Edit. *"Intensively" should be international.
You would be great at being a stereotypical Asian parent
You doctor yet?
Why only stereo-typical? Why no surround-typical?
Son, I disappoint.
No Olympics? Statham had Bsian parents.
I've always got the feeling that he's a hard worker and very professional. Yeah his roles are pretty same-y but even with a stunt team they're still physical and he stays in good shape. There's gotta be some really solid job security for an action star who can reliably show up, put in the work, and consistently deliver highly physical performances.
And probably easy to work with. You don’t sustain that long of a career if you’re an asshole.
Someone mentioned it down below, but he’s also essentially his own genre. Almost every movie is now “Watch 90 minutes of Jason Statham out do the previous Jason Statham film.” Obviously some outliers, but it’s the majority of his work.
Michael Pitt, Val Kilmer, two of the most talented actors of their times, hamstrung their careers by being hard to work with. Being a good worker goes a long way I think you nailed it. I distinctly remember a TikTok where a very small time actress said she was on the cast of Boston Legal and one actress had come in unprepared, wasted everyones time, and couldnt even do a small scene so the director told her to go learn her lines and moved on. Next scene was with James Spader, doing one of his long Alan Shore speeches. She said he did it perfectly in one take, then asked for two more takes to implement variations. The most well-prepared, polite, professional actor she has ever seen.
Exactly. I will happily go to the movies to see Jason Statham get half naked and punch a megalodon. Take my money!
He just gives off a great vibe too. The Beekeeper had no right to be as good as it was
I was going to see Argylle then called and audible in the ticket line and watched Beekeeper. Loved it. Highly recommend turning it into a drinking game and drinking at every bee pun/reference.
Lots of actors get kind of typecast, doesn’t seem to have hurt his or Keanu’s careers. Worse things to be than an action hero
Guys like Statham make me wonder how much of the issue with "typecasting" is actors rocking the boat and clashing with agents/directors who tell bluntly tell them what their niche is. It's gotta be a real hit to most people driven enough to risk Hollywood. I feel like a lot of people who have been "typecasted" in non-action roles who run with it end up doing fine too. And if they're lucky they get contrarian roles to play off audience expectations(Leslie Nielsen and Adam Sandler immediately spring to mind).
Yes he was. Also a backup dancer in some hilarious music videos
It must be seen. Not to be believed, but to fulfill your life's experience:
https://youtu.be/uWu3JqLMImY
what on flat planet earth did i just watch?
I laughed at his first appearance, laughed harder at the Statham pyramid, and exploded at the rotating Statham ball.
I was hoping it was this vid xD
The real MVP.
Here's my personal favourite Shamen track. Thats a crazy video, but they did make some really cool music in the 90s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDX4mhD3nAg
(Remixed by Hard Floor)
We’ve all had our stints in dodgy music videos mate 🤣
His agent is Les Grossman.
Maybe he’s born with it.
Maybe it’s Maybelline
I was thinking the other day Jason Statham is almost his own genre. Now that he is getting older I'm not sure he will ever truly be replaced. Long live the man.
Statham is now the same age Liam Neeson was when he made Taken.
So his action career is just getting started.
How old will he be when he's the age of Liam Neeson awkwardly climbing over that fence
86 years young.
Neeson has the gruff look and a "not terrible" physique but that's it. Tbh he'd probably look pathetic in any shirtless scene, even back then in the days of Taken 1. He can look "acceptable" in a jacket though.
But Statham has a fit body and lifestyle and has athletic training. Not that he necessarily can defeat someone in a street fight "for real" (or that he "needs to" be able to do this), but he has the training and the body to make it convincing.
Statham is definitely better at action than Neeson at a comparable age, and I don't doubt that he will last quite a bit longer as the "aging guy kicking asses of rude youngsters", if he wants to.
The guy has his own gym complete with gymnastic setup including aerial hoops. He takes his training seriously.
I could see an elderly Jason Statham on in a future "Gran Turino"-like movie. He's not as genre defining as Clint Eastwood was/is to the Wild West genre but ge does define a subgenre of action movies if you will.
Holy shit.
I wonder when Statham will try his hand at improvisational comedy.
at the beginning of an improv take, "As I've said before, I've got full blown AIDS"
Riddled with AIDS
I honestly love Jason Statham so much. Just knows what we want and gives it to us in every role; the best in the business at being Jason Statham and there will always be a market for that
He is incredibly self aware also. He used to do opie and anthony interviews a lot in the 2010's ish era. And he was always very open about his skill set and what he does and can bring to a film. I found it oddly refreshing that someone in that world of ass kissers and fuck you money would be that self aware.
My favorite Jason Statham role is still from Spy 2015, where he plays a standard issue Jason Statham character completely straight in an otherwise madcap (and surprisingly good) Melissa McCarthy vehicle.
He is so hilarious in that movie!
He absolutely steals every scene he is in. It really is a good movie.
I do too. Anything i see with him starting in I need to see it
Don’t watch expendables 4
It’s so unbelievably bad, expendables 1 was a decent movie. It should have been easy to knock out sequels using a collection of old school action stars. Instead we get sequels with 50cent Megan fox Rhonda rousey Kellen lutz. The CGI looks like sharknado level
Beekeeper was a lotta fun
Lots of buzz surrounding that movie.
That movie was so much better than it had any business being, because of Jason Statham but also Jeremy Irons.
I love his character in Spy because it’s just him making fun of himself lol. He’s such a gem!
I really like him tbh, he's like a meta hard man, plays these crazy action badass roles but also plays it like he's self aware at how ridiculous it is and just has fun
He also doesn't seem to phone in his roles either. They maybe silly and over the top but he always brings the goods.
Sounds pretty hard working too, can imagine him being a fairly no-nonsense actor who's relatively good to deal with on set. Certainly not heard much about anyone having any problems with him.
This is textbook reddit trivia but he also has martial arts training and was a professional diver before transitioning into acting, so I think he just has a level of discipline that probably helps a lot with that.
And he dances as well.
I demand a sequel to The One (2001) called The One Two. Jason Statham's MVA Agent Funsch has to recruit Jet Li (as Gabe Law) into the MultiVerse Authority because Jet Li (as Gabe Yulaw) escaped from the Stygian prison planet in the Hades Universe somehow.
And the soundtrack obviously has to be entirely made up of early 2000s nü metal. Somebody call Papa Roach, Disturbed, and Drowning Pool, they got some work to do!
It has to be called "The Two"
I'm a fan of "The Second One"
I think that’s the reason why his role in “Spy” is genuinely one of the funniest meta roles I’ve seen. It’s so in brand and it feels like every scenario he claims to have been in could legitimately be a Jason Statham movie lmao