No stranger to physically demanding roles, action star Jason Statham’s previous career as a member of the British diving team has come in surprisingly handy. “If you’re doing a lot of stunts, you have a very great sense of distance and timing. It’s definitely paid off,” he explains.
The diving background definitely helps for his latest film, “The Mechanic,” which calls for Statham and co-star Ben Foster to careen down a 30-story office building, supported by a single rope. Statham insists it was a blast, though maybe not as much for his co-star. “He was pooping himself,” he says of Foster. “Just being strung up with Ben to see how scared he was when he was going the down the side. … It makes me sound a little bit sadistic. It’s great.”
But aside from taking glee in a co-star’s trepidation, Statham admits stunt-heavy roles are more satisfying for him. “When you do something good, there’s a great excitement to it,” he says. “You do a good dramatic scene, there’s no one clapping for that. If you do a good stunt and it works out well, there’s a great euphoria on set. That just doesn’t happen in dramatic scenes. You just don’t get that immediate reward.”
A remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson film of the same name, “The Mechanic” asks Statham to step into some storied shoes — but he’s not worried. “There’s always the comparisons that are going to be made, and it’s not the first remake that I’ve done,” he says. “There are a lot of people that won’t remember the original or won’t even have seen it. There’s a whole generation — it’s 30-odd years ago. Almost 40 years ago. Yeah, I don’t think we’re too bothered by it.”
