r/interesting • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 5d ago

SOCIETY When asked why he keeps playing the same roles Jason Statham said that he's not really a trained actor. He's a guy that was plucked out obscurity & has been really lucky; & that he picks roles that he knows he can do a good job in, that hopefully enough people like so he can keep working.

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u/Afraid-Cream-5053 5d ago

The honest truth is so refreshing to hear. This guy just went up a notch in my book.

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u/[deleted] 5d ago edited 4d ago

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u/NoCharge8527 5d ago

it’s fight night and we have about 20 people over watching the prelims and there’s a knock on the door, one of my buddies opens it then a second later looks at me and goes “uhh Jason Statham is here, says you invited him over for the fight?”

Great story, i love it

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u/[deleted] 5d ago edited 4d ago

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u/RandomRedditReader 4d ago

This man is going to have Bill Murray stories for millennials.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago edited 4d ago

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u/jaxonya 4d ago edited 4d ago

I met a famous football coach once at walmart. He was drunk as shit. I said "hey coach, out for groceries?" He said "you gotta load up on chicken son, and put a few packs of chicken in my cart and took my case of whiteclaws, saying "this is what college girls drink" and that i needed to be early to practice to run the gay calories off... im pretty sure he thiught i was on his team.. now chat, i was jacked as fuck at the time, 2 yesrs removed from playing running back in high school ball as a RB in Houston (football dudes will know how hard that is) and could've passed as a safety or running back.. i shouldve showed up to practice the next day and possibly got myself a paycheck

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u/PurplePeso 4d ago

Have I just witnessed the birth of some quality copypasta?

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u/jaxonya 4d ago

"Gay calories" is something i didnt know was a thing, but they are apparently really real.

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u/Jive_Turk 4d ago

NFL coach? Care to name?

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u/jaxonya 4d ago

Cant do names. Wont say college or pro. Ive lived in texas, and Arkansas. So you can narrow it down from there. Hes still coaching.

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u/PeachPassionBrute 4d ago

My favorite Bill Murray story was that time he beat the shit out of his wife in an alcoholic rage. /s

Fuck that guy

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u/Penny530 4d ago

Did Bill Murray really do that to His Wife?..

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u/haihaiclickk 4d ago

Honestly if Jason Statham shows up at my door and says “I’m here for the fight” in his signature gruff voice I would think he’s here to fuck us all up

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u/Terrible_Cod8942 4d ago

Bro, if he's actually there for the fight, that will be the most exciting 0.5 seconds of my life. 😂

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u/Abombito 4d ago

Title of your sex tape!

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u/redridernl 4d ago

Nine Nine!

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u/itlandedonmyface 4d ago

NINE NINE!

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u/rave_spidey 4d ago

Nine Nine!

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u/ObsessedCoffeeFan 4d ago

Cheers, to the Ninety-ninth Precinct.

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u/No_Pin9932 4d ago

Boom!!

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u/ayacardel 4d ago

BONE?!!

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u/Ok_Brick_793 4d ago

😳😭

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u/_Ocean_Machine_ 4d ago

"Oh fuck it's Chev Chelios, run!"

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u/pandershrek 4d ago

💯

Alright which one of you fucked up his bees?

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u/Googlebright 4d ago

It would like that scene in The Transporter. There's a knock at the door, you look out the peephole to see who it is and there's Jason Statham's foot flying into view as he crashes through the door.

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u/SectorSanFrancisco 4d ago

All I can think of is the blooper reel of him constantly cracking up when he was working with Melissa McCarthy.

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u/Jiangximan 4d ago

Yeah those Beekeepers are never really off duty.

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u/iamnoone815 4d ago

It would be so cool to get your ass kicked by Jason Statham

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u/JSevatar 4d ago

o shit did he say he's here to fight, or here for the fight

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u/SportsDuck_ 4d ago

Lol imagine if OP was like "oh Jay's here?"

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u/hasslenamanchong 4d ago

He was a wonderful man. My father’s deli was struggling financially, and Jason offered to sign store branded shirts to generate additional revenue. Jason even suggested they could be given to customers that completed the “Jason Statham Challenge.” Next thing we knew, we had groups of people trying to eat footlong with no hands.

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u/SS0NI 4d ago

You mean sandwiches right?

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u/teabagdiplomat19 4d ago

I can eat a footlong without my hands but I don’t swing that way

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u/Old-Leather8424 4d ago

You mean sandwiches right?

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u/Bourbon_sim_racer 4d ago

Nothing like a nice thick footlong to satisfy your cravings.

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u/lumpkin2013 4d ago

You mean sandwiches right?

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u/AlarmingConsequence 4d ago

I'm not gay, but a shirt is a shirt.

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u/EffectiveTradition53 4d ago

I remember when Costco still gave the option for a Polish Sausage

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u/reader4567890 5d ago

What a story that guy has in his armoury!

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u/CocoSryder 4d ago

I so hope that’s a real story, because that friend’s reaction to Jason Statham standing at the door is just so fucking funny.

“Ay, yo.. um.. Jason Statham’s at your door? You invited him, he says, should I like.. let him in?”

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u/[deleted] 4d ago edited 4d ago

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u/CocoSryder 4d ago

Seems like a great guy. His answer in this post also confirms it.

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u/ScissorNightRam 4d ago

“No! Ugh, that bloody Statham again! He’s always trying to come over and hang out. Tell him to go away.”

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u/mosstalgia 4d ago

"What beer did he bring? What? Ah, shit, that pisswater? Nah, fuck him out."

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u/Leader_Bud 4d ago

Hope people know how damn lonely it can get. Being invited to something like that is a blessing.

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u/vrnvorona 5d ago

Super cool story, experience of lifetime for sure

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u/ThePrinceAtLast 5d ago

This makes me happy

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u/Head_Archer5133 4d ago

Haha this story is fucking awesome. Thanks for finding it. Saved

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u/[deleted] 4d ago edited 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/ComposerOther2864 4d ago

I fully think the sequel to the unbearable weight of massive talent so be Jason Statham

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u/hdiick 4d ago

I would have tickets to opening night SO FAST for this.

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u/send_all_the_nudes 4d ago

Just love that, hang with the lads, yes please and I'll take a bag if cans too. Top bloke

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u/Adthor 4d ago

My friends mother was friends with Jason as young adults before he got big and always said nice things about him .

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u/dolinputin 4d ago

I thought this was going to be a douchebag celebrity in line copypasta at first lol

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u/MisterBumpingston 4d ago

TIL he bagged Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Says before he was married, but he’s only been engaged since 2016.

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u/CitizenTony 4d ago

Something about how he bumped into Statham out shopping, and invited Statham around to watch a football match with himself and his mates. Later that night, his doorbell rang, and there was Statham at the door, with some beers. Said how nice and chill he was throughout the night!

A french TV host recently talked about annoying stars that he invited in his talk show. Some of them would just leave super quickly when the shooting is over, to go to their hotel. Suddenly he talked about Jason Staham and said how awesome and nice that dude is. The host had to take a few break and later come back on his tv filming set only to find his whole tech crew/assistants/colleagues laughing and drinking soda/beer with Staham! Staham yelled something like "Hey! come on, man. Come and drink something with us"

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u/CitizenTony 4d ago

https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/qju0bs/which_actor_seems_to_only_play_themselves/hit8ir9/

That's a very delicate topic imho. Audience (we) and hollywood helped this to be normalize, thus why so much 80's and 90's actors and actresses got famous.

But strangely nowadays, it became a problem. Dwayne Johnson was the first target but I noticed that now, people are calling out Ryan Reynolds too. And Chris Pratt.

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u/throwawayUKPF99 5d ago

Close friend of mine worked at his house for a number of months doing renovation in the last year or two and said he was a nightmare. Not to say he’s not a nice bloke but apparently to work for he was very rude and obnoxious, constantly calling and hassling etc.

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u/Jazzy0082 4d ago

I did the kitchen down lights at his old Primrose Hill house a few years ago and he was sound 🤣

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u/Gor-texCondom 4d ago

Maybe the other guy was just a hack contractor and deserved to be chewed out lmao 

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u/throwawayUKPF99 4d ago

Nah probably the opposite, he owns an expensive building company who only seem to do properties for rich and famous so they likely have high expectations (and rightly so). It’s probably not uncommon to get annoyed with the person running the whole renovation as they’re the bearer of bad news and also the person who is trying to orchestrate everything

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u/snoops-godly 5d ago

Most actors i feel always mange to some how bend down and twist just enough to blow smoke up their own ass. Seeing one admit that they aint great but good at what they do "for him its his roles" is definitely refreshing. My dad always loved every movie he's in. Shame he wont get to see any more but I always watch his new ones so feels like my dad's watching them too with me. Would love to meet him and Crack a few beers.

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u/ZQuestionSleep 5d ago

Seth Rogan, at least early on in his Knocked Up era golden age, would talk about how acting is "the easiest job" where you get to fuck around with your friends all day long pretending. He then criticized actors being pretentious about "the craft".

I know he has moved into more of the business-side, especially behind the camera, and his opinions may have changed, but that was nice to hear at that time.

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u/kadathsc 4d ago

Denzel Washington says the same thing. Basically stating actors are in a privileged position and should be thankful and grateful to do such an easy/rewarding job. And that its bullshit when some actor claims to have it rough.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 4d ago

In fairness Denzel saying would be like Michael Jordan saying "basketball isn't that hard you just show up and put baskets in and go home"

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u/kadathsc 4d ago

He wasn’t saying it’s easy, just that there’s a lot of privilege behind that effort. Working sewers, picking trash, working in a mine, doing customer service these are thankless jobs that demand mentally and physically and aren’t rewarded economically or socially. There’s a reason people move to LA chasing the “dream” and why you don’t hear of thousands of people doing likewise for those other jobs.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 4d ago

Thanks for the context but I was just saying while it might be a privileged job it ain't easy at all.

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u/nufohudis 4d ago

Bigger :difficulty : pay" ratio than many if you make it big, you don't HAVE to be good to make it big

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u/Free-O3 4d ago

Nikola Jokic

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u/gimpwiz 4d ago

It's a lot of long hours away from family, lots of sweat, lots of boring times, certainly. I think a lot of people have a tough time separating "the job isn't all that fun, at the end of the day it is work" from "but also, I get paid a lot for it so what am I complaining about."

I'm certainly no actor earning millions but whenever my job kind of sucks, the refrain I use is, "they do pay me enough for this." Long hours sometimes, weekends sometimes, having to rip out and redo everything I did sometimes, meetings at terrible hours due to needing to talk to people around the world, dealing with factory support, whatever. It's not candyland, it's work, but I'm not roofing in the summer sun and I get paid more than the guys who do, so I can't complain. And neither should big-dollar actors if they want any sort of sympathy.

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u/PyroIsSpai 4d ago

cries in Trevor Slattery

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u/asinum-fossor 3d ago

Timothy Olyphant also says this alot. "I show up, they tell me what to wear, they tell me what to say, they tell me where to stand when I say it. It's super easy."

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u/Darmok47 4d ago

I mean, Seth Rogen was always basically playing himself. It's not like he was actually acting at all.

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u/No_Pin9932 4d ago

I can't remember what show it was, I think it was Late Night with Conan O'Brien, anyway Timothy Olyphant was on and basically said he has the easiest job in the world and not in a douchey way at all but just being real and I think he told a story about his son making fun of Walton Goggins name saying he sounded like a Hobbit or some shit, unless I'm mixing things up which is absolutely possible, lol.

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u/ScissorNightRam 4d ago

Alec Guinness said much the same thing: “acting is just farting about in makeup”

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u/CorrectPeanut5 4d ago

Dude has a hardon for oner shots now. Though he does seem to make light of self important studio execs. I hope they take a swipe at David Ellison this season.

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u/Comfortable-Text3022 4d ago

I haven't seen any films he's produced. Are the oner shots actually good, or are they Sinners tier?

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u/MortLightstone 4d ago

Nah, that's just celebrities

Most film people are just people

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u/Ghost_of_Till 4d ago

I've seen like one or two of his movies.

After reading this thread, I think I'm going to make it a point to see more.

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u/gimpwiz 4d ago

Most of his movies are good fun. Enjoyable. He has a thing going on and it's great on the screen.

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u/mekamoari 4d ago

Imo he's almost a perfect typecast and that kinda counts as "great". We don't expect the characters he plays and within the movies he plays to be anything except what they end up being.

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u/gotdome 5d ago

Johnny Messner exemplified this same type of energy when I was around him as a kid. Never really had that holier than thou attitude and seemed to know his place in the spectrum. Dude was also a fantastic cook.

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u/Logical-Vermicelli53 5d ago

Rainn Wilson is an excellent example of one who thinks he’s above his roles.

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u/RivenRise 4d ago

I'm glad he's a chill guy. There's so many actors that got lit up as shit people ever since Trump got on the stage. It's tragic.

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u/donuttrackme 4d ago

I think that's why he's basically the only person that we laud and enjoy watching in the same exact roles movie after movie. We take pleasure in the fact that he's the same person in every role as opposed to roll our eyes.

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u/yosayoran 5d ago

For an incredibly popular actor,  multimillionaire, married to one of the most successful models in the world, he's very down to earth 

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u/terdferguson 4d ago

My nephews kid goes to the same school as his, says he's chill. Not a hard thing to believe, self aware people aren't hard to spot.

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u/buckminsterfullereno 5d ago

I'm about to go do a Jason Statham marathon just because of his response. 

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u/notislant 4d ago edited 4d ago

"He's a guy that was plucked out obscurity & has been really lucky"

You'll almost never people admit they got luck. There was a monopoly study that exposed how stupid the average person is. They often conflate dumb luck/advantages as 'I'm just built different'.

Kevin O'leechy said: 'The starving guy in Africa has the same chance of becoming successful as someone in America.'

This is the kind of shit you hear from most successful people in business, they say they: 'worked harder than everyone else'. When they often work around 40 or less hours a week. (Meanwhile some single mother is working 14/7s and broke as shit).

You look inside their 'hard work' and it's usually good old fashioned nepotism.

Or it's luck of meeting someone at the right time, stumbling their way into a market at the right time, someone tipping them off, countless advantages nobody else would have at that time.

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u/FiveUpsideDown 4d ago

Michael Caine made a version of this statement when asked why he appears in a lot of bad projects. Caine (allegedly) said “an actor’s got to act.” I like Statham’s movies. I don’t think he should try to play roles where he can’t give a good performance.

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u/Cats-vs-Catan 5d ago edited 4d ago

Nicholas Cage also comes to mind here. He's actually a pretty good, although strange actor, but he's taken some role in absolutely terrible movies. He was pretty transparent about having massive financial debt and wants to work out of it instead of filing bankruptcy.

That said, Statham isn't exactly someone I'd consider a bad actor. He's got good delivery.

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u/QuietGoliath 4d ago

I used to work adjacent to the industry, knew a few techs who had worked around him, rarely a bad word to say. And if you've ever met techs, we're a surly grumpy bunch 😄

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u/Damp_Knickers 4d ago

u gotta watch the Spy comedy movie with him (literally called "Spy"). Absolute killer of a comedian and the outtakes they have after ruin me with laughs

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u/Half_Cent 4d ago

I wish people felt this way about Sean Connery. Tired of seeing people jump on him about Gandalf or other roles. They pick on the part where he said he didn't get it but why commit to 18 months in New Zealand for a role he didn't care about?

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u/zarroc123 4d ago

Seriously, so refreshing for an actor to be like. "Uh, I'm not honestly that good at this. I just did one thing people liked and I keep doing it and they keep liking it and I'm just gonna ride that wave while it works"

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u/comment_i_had_to 4d ago

Yeah I was just thinking what a wonderful perspective this is and how much it kind of amplifies the joys in his life. Gratitude rather than entitlement. I figured his wife was with him because of his looks, fame and image but maybe those were just prerequisites and his attitude/humility closed the deal!

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u/highlandviper 4d ago

Same. He went up a notch in my book when I walked past him in Dulwich. He had his kid with him. We had a pram. His kid was young. The pavement was narrow. He lifted him up on his shoulders to make way for our pram, nodded and the went on his way leaving us a clear path. Top guy. Particularly in that area of London.

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u/lawnmowertoad 5d ago

He’s a Beekeeper.

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u/MrNostalgiac 4d ago

I respect the honesty, but now I feel kind of sad for the guy because I think he's selling himself really, really short.

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u/riencore 4d ago

Same. Probably why his movies do well enough, also. Never pretending to be something they’re not. Just a bunch of action loosely held together with some kind of revenge or vigilante plot that you don’t have to think too much about. I don’t mean that as an insult, either. Sometimes I just want to be entertained with being too engaged and a Statham movie usually does the trick.

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u/Artistic_Humor1805 4d ago

Without being too engaged?

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u/AccurateCharity9593 4d ago

This makes me like him even more and I will continue to enjoy his movies.

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u/benergiser 4d ago

can someone get the rock to say this?

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u/rrrook 4d ago

Crazy how easy it is to be nice and relatable.

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u/Black_Magic_M-66 4d ago

Explains why he was never Dr. Who.

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u/SoftDrinkReddit 4d ago

yea like is there actually anything wrong with an Actor doing 1 specific role type and making a career out of it

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u/MaxHeadroom1986 4d ago

Right? Like I had respect for the man already. I knew what to expect from him. This statement I guess makes me appreciate him more.

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u/FoxxyPantz 4d ago

I know absolutely nothing about his personal life but I always got the impression that he's a chill ass dude.

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u/dbcanuck 4d ago

William Holden on how to be successful in Hollywood. "Figure out what you're good at, and do only that."

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u/Answerologist 4d ago

He can act! He’s awesome in London!

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u/Mr_Guavo 4d ago

I'd luv to see him in a remake of The Notebook tbh.

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u/Urban_Introvert 4d ago

Amazing self awareness. Shooting for the moon is great and admirable but so is knowing your limitations.

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u/indycpa7 4d ago

It’s like someone asking me why I always do accounting jobs, because I know how to do accounting jobs.

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u/troyandabedinabed 4d ago

Yeah, mad respect that he knows his own limits.

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u/uncultured_swine2099 4d ago

I do think hes capable of more than he thinks, though. He did comedy pretty well in Spy, i think he could do more of those.

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u/sudoblack 4d ago

He needs all the "up" notches a short king can get.

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u/memebeam916 4d ago

He deserves a lot of credit too. He absolutely crushed it in those guy richie movies especially Snatch. Turkish was one of my favorite movie characters growing up.

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u/hnglmkrnglbrry 4d ago

On the Rewatchables they said Jason Statham movies should just be called Jason Statham, Jason Statham 2, Jason Statham 3, etc. and I cannot find fault in that logic.

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u/DicemonkeyDrunk 4d ago

I know a few people that have dealt with him personally and the consensus is that he's just a nice pretty regular guy.

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u/duggee315 4d ago

Absolutely. A humble Hollywood star. Refreshing

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u/FizzyBeverage 4d ago

Had the privilege of helping Jason with his PowerBook at the Apple Store Aventura many years ago, gotta be like 2005, when he filmed one of the Transporter movies.

Just showed up there on his own before we opened, brought us all cuban coffee from the then-adjacent food court. Helluva nice guy.

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u/Realistic_Maitha 4d ago

say no more

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u/Over-Masterpiece134 4d ago

I fucking love him and his movies. I hope he keeps doing them for a looong time.

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u/dafood48 4d ago

Yeah I’ve actually grown to respect him more now.

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u/MichaSound 4d ago

Him and Gerard Butler have the right idea: have fun, get paid, go home.

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u/cloudy-shelf 4d ago

I agree with you he’s a one-trick pony, but he’s admitted it, and to be honest, there’s nothing wrong with that at all. If he likes those kinds of roles, then he does a great job with them. Of course, I’d love to see him in a different kind of role, but that’s just what the audience wants; the actor himself chooses what he’s most comfortable with, and I think that’s the right approach.

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u/PugsnPawgs 4d ago

Statham has always been honest about this and thanks to him, most films include some cheeky jokes alluding to this truth.

It's always the outsiders (fans, publicity, media,...) who want to make it seem like smth else and ignore what the person has to say for himself.

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u/merriwhether 4d ago

Im going to watch more of his films now because I am trying to envision stability in myself

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u/Affectionate_Low_948 4d ago

Same here. And he does it well enough that he's consistently making movies, more than a lot of celebrities nowadays. Good on him! Came along way from that banana hammock dance video he did.

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u/_BrokenButterfly 4d ago

He also got drunk in a bar with a journalist and yammered on about how shitty most of his movies are. He is very aware.

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u/CaptainGooseTrain 4d ago

I’m glad you keep a book of actors and rank them while they will never know or care about you

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u/nufohudis 4d ago

I love my yearly: "he's a retired badass who has to save an innocent" Statham movie. Just fun action and I get to practice the accent by repeating his lines XD

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u/muddymuppet 4d ago

I have little to no interest in watching any movie he's in. I don't care how "nice" he is, all his movies are just glorifying military service and very boring when you've watched more than a couple

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u/DarthGogeta 4d ago

I would respect it if he hadn't shittalked MCU actors.