Tell us about your character in the movie?
I play a super villain called Poldark. He wants to own all the oil supplies in the whole world. He’s going to do something to it and his plan is stolen, unfortunately, by a nine-year-old. And, even more unfortunately, that nine-year-old is babysat by Jackie Chan. That’s a huge challenge for him.
Was it fun to play a Bond-style super villain?
He’s a great scientist, but there’s a side of him which isn’t that brilliant. He likes a fight, he likes a challenge. Nothing can stop him in taking over the whole world, in dominating the whole thing – except maybe Jackie Chan. He’s also a fashion freak. He likes to dress well and look nice. But he is surrounded by muscle heads who don’t really understand how he wants to be dressed. They bring him strange outfits all the time. So yeah, he’s ruthless.
You must have laughed when they showed you some of the outfits?
In the beginning of the movie you have great clothes – really fashionable. And Poldark really likes that. Then he’s going to try to blend in and he asks his team to get him the right outfit. And they don’t really understand what he means so they’re bringing him cowboy outfits and all kinds of strange things. Through the whole movie he’s wearing those ridiculous outfits: shorts, Hawaiian shirts and cowboy outfits. And it’s funny. It’s really, really funny.
What was it like to shoot an action movie with the legendary Jackie Chan?
This movie is so great because it’s action comedy. And if you really want to do action comedy, what better person to do it with than Jackie Chan? When they asked me to do it I said, ‘Yes, absolutely!’ And it’s also like a kids’ movie and an action movie and it’s exciting, it’s cool. There are a lot of stunts. I think it’s just about everything in one movie.
They say you should never work with children or animals. What was your experience like with the kids?
Brian Levant, the director, he’s very good at getting everything out of the kids. He pulls it out slowly. He tries to make them comfortable. Because there’s a lot of action in this. I mean, one time, Jackie Chan is lifting up a chair that they’re tied to and the kid’s on his back. And he’s turning and throughout the whole fight scene the kid’s in the back. So there’s a lot of interesting things and Brian’s really good at that.
The Spy Next Door is available on Blu-ray and DVD on 2 August from Momentum Pictures.
