During the filming of Rush Hour 3, Jackie's dialogue coach Diana Weng interviewed crew members, asking them to talk about what it was like working on the film and working with Jackie.

Glen "G-Dub" Wilson, Stills Photographer

Glen is from Columbus, Ohio and studied at Yale in art history and American Studies, an interdisciplinary program that combined history, literature and art. He did a great deal of studio arts, which combines graphic design with photography and videography. He also received his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of California, in San Diego.

I’m on set everyday looking to make images, photographing everything that is going on in front of the camera and behind the camera to create images that the studio and production can use to market the film for advertisement and marketing purposes. I got into the business through a friend who was already in the industry. I was coming out of art school as a photographer and he was working on a film that he was directing. He needed someone to fill the Stills position and he called me. I decided that I could keep doing my conceptual artwork on the side but that I needed to pay some bills. So I checked out a movie set to see what it was all about. I also liked the filmmaking process and I thought it was a chance to observe the process without going to yet another school.

This is my third occasion to work with Brett Ratner. I think while the hours are very long, and perhaps that’s the only downside, the big upside is the crew is always dynamic, interesting and generally positive. Everyone’s doing work in the creative field for the most part so everyone is pretty dynamic and it’s been fun. You learn from other people. I get to observe other people doing their thing and I learn a lot. And I also have managed to make some friends, which is fun.

I think Jackie is a very interesting cat. I don’t know what I expected. I had only seen a handful of his films, all of which I thought were fun and interesting. I keep telling people that he reminds of a combination of a master martial artist, Charlie Chaplin and a bit of Henry Ford thrown in. He seems to have his finger on the pulse of a lot of different things. The martial arts is something that is like old hat to him. He can improvise almost like a jazz musician but he also has comedy infused into his moves. He’s really interesting to watch.  Then there’s the entrepreneurial enterprising part of him, which comes through.

I also love the fact that he’s very human, the way he conducts himself on set. He is in touch with everybody and is aware of all the different roles that people have. He’s not afraid to participate on every level, a people person. It’s been fun and it would be fun to see him work on his home base…that would be cool.

Cederic Von Sydow, Film Documentarian

Cederic is an actor, director and writer from France. He’s been with the production since the first day of filming, in Paris where he currently resides. He and his friend, Jean Dalmasso made a short film Debric and Debroc www.debric-debroc.com, a series of animated shorts, with the generous donation of a piece of green screen material from Steven Spielberg during the filming of Minority Report.

I started making Debrec and Debroc on August 2001, when I was working on Minority Report with Steven Spielberg. Every day I asked the grip if they had any green screen material they didn’t need. At the end of the shoot, I went around and was saying goodbye to everybody and Steven said, "Have you lots of footage?"  I said, "Normal."  He said, "I heard that you have asked for this." Somebody arrived with a big red bag and inside was green screen material.

When I got back to France, my friends said, “Let’s make a movie with the green screen.”  At first there were ten or twelve friends who were interested. But after a month, everybody left because there was no money. Only one friend stayed, Jean. We made our first short in three months. It took us a long time because computers were not as advanced at that time. Five years ago, it was…difficult. We were putting our shots together during the day and running around during the night, editing. We sent it to a festival and the film was a success. We decided that we only needed two people to make a film after all. We could be the actor, director, set designer and take on every role that was necessary.

I am making a documentary not about the director and the actors, but about all the people behind the scene. The crew members like the grips and electricians because they are really the ones who do a lot of manual labor. Another crew will be making the Behind the Scenes of our film. I met Brett Ratner in the month of August last year. Because my father, Max, was in the movie, I had a chance to have a rendezvous. I asked him for five minutes of his time. I told him I was interested in doing a documentary and he said that he already had somebody who was doing it.
I told him that I made shorts too. He asked if I had a DVD and I said yes.  He said, “Let’s go into my room.”  It was the first time I had met him and I was wondering if it was a good idea for me to go into his room. But there was a nice girl with us, so it was ok.

We spent about an hour and a half and he cancelled all his appointments. He told me that I  must come with him, because Debric and Debroc is the future!  He said, “Let’s bring you on Rush Hour 3 to make a documentary and you and your friend can make a parody of our film.”  My friend, Jean and I drew out the storyboard and wrote the scrīpt already. When I go back to France, we will start making Debrec and Debroc: Rush Hour 3.  My girlfriend, Mathilde Beaugean, and I will also edit a one hour documentary about this film.

I’ve made 12-15 documentaries but unfortunately, I was not given credit for some of them because I was an assistant. Sometimes you put in a lot and in the end, you don’t even get your name. I like being both in front of the camera and behind. It’s nice to be in front after having been behind because you know what you can ask of the actor after having been one. I have made two films where I was a star and I have appeared as an extra on numerous films too. It’s nice to be a principal actor and work for ten days of filming; I really enjoyed that.

I like Jackie. I like his spirit. He’s such an example to us all. Paris is a dirty city. I am so sad about that, that the French people are so dirty. Jackie took a broom and was cleaning the streets, cleaning the cigarette butts and garbage. I was really impressed. When I came here to film in America, I decided to make a change in my life and quit smoking.

Jackie is not like the kind of movie star that you can’t approach. If you want to ask him something, he will answer your question with a smile.  He’s always smiling or he tries to.

Working on this film was a long experience but I am happy to be working on such a big budget feature film. I have learned so much which will help me become a better director.

Lynn Hamilton, Production Assistant

Lynn answers the production telephone, distributes mail and keeps production going.  She graduated from the University of Southern California where she studied film production.

This is my first big show and it’s really exciting. Working on this film has been incredible, it’s my first big film and I’m so excited to be working around all these great people who work so hard. It’s been wonderful. I think Jackie is amazing. He works so hard and he has a great sense of humor from what I can tell. He is great and everybody says Jackie’s the best! I hope the move does well and everything goes great. Maybe I can do another movie with Jackie some time soon.

Michael D. Weldon, First Assistant Camera

Michael  is responsible for putting the camera crew together, maintaining and servicing the camera equipment and keeping the actors in focus, literally. He’s been in the business for thirty-three years and has made over fifty-eight films.

I started through Disney studios in the mail room. In 1974, I got the opportunity to get into live action. My first movie was The Apple Dumpling Gang for Disney Studios and the rest is history. I had the privilege to work on Alfred Hitchcock’s last film as a Second Assistant Cameraman and that was Family Plot.  At that time, I didn’t realize how fortunate I was. But looking back, I realize what a real joy and treat it was, to have worked on one of his pictures; that was really quiet something for me.

I worked on all three of the Rush Hour films and I’ve always enjoyed my relationship with Jackie, Chris, and Brett. This is my 6^th time on a Brett Ratner film and I’m always privileged to be invited on anyone of his shoots. This is a business that I truly love and I hope it’s a business that doesn’t come to an end for me any time soon.

I love Jackie. He’s a professional. I think he’s a consummate movie maker. He really understands what it takes to put things on film. I appreciate his energy and also his knowledge. He’s really, really quite knowledgeable in terms of editorial action type work, so I enjoy that part of the work very much. I think highly of him, not just as an actor, but also a person. I know that he is quite a humanitarian and does wonderful things for people. He has done so many wonderful things for just us! I always appreciate his generosity and thoughtfulness. He’s so giving of himself but also so giving of items and gifts and that type of thing. It’s greatly appreciated. I know that he does a lot of things on the outside, with all types of groups and I think he’s just wonderful.

Peter Wu, Videographer/Webmaster

Peter Wu is a Videographer and Webmaster for Brett Ratner, the Director. He’s from San Francisco but was originally born in Taiwan. He went to Chapman University in Orange County, where he studied film. He is also a director and will be making his first feature film later this year.
I videotape Brett directing and making a movie. All this footage will be used for the DVD and his website.

Learning and watching everyone work and talking to people on the set, listening to their stories and how they got here, is what I’m doing. It’s been fantastic working on this film. It’s been one long, crazy movie. I’ve only worked with Brett on these big movies so this is all I know. I’ve heard things are different on other shows, but it’s been fun for me because I get to watch the drama.

Jackie is amazing. He really seems to know what he’s doing. I like to watch him go through all the different disciplines of filmmaking. He seems to have it all down. Besides just knowing him to be a martial art star, he’s also a filmmaker, which is really impressive. It’s been really good to watch people whose work you’ve seen for a long time to see how everybody lives up to what you imagined and more.

Joann Perritano, Unit Production Manager

Joann manages the entire production, hires below the line crew and prepares the budget. She also makes sure that equipment is brought in when needed and wrapped when not. She is from Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from Emerson College, where she had a B.A. (Bachelor’s Degree) in Communication, with a concentration in T.V.

Trying to stay within the budget is hard to do on a film like this. I also worked on Rush Hour 2. This film is definitely bigger because Paris was such a big endeavor. Las Vegas, which was one of the major locations used in Rush Hour 2, was much easier. The great thing about Las Vegas was that we were in one location. We just moved into that casino and stayed there. In Paris, we were out in the streets and on the Eiffel Tower. The fish was just bigger.

I think Jackie is awesome, one of the best most professional actors I’ve had the privilege to work with in my career. He’s just a professional, a stand up guy. I think this film is going to be great. It’s been hard work and it’s been a long run. I think everybody is ready to get off the train, but I just expect great things for it.

Carol Strong, Key Make-up Artist

Carol is the person who gets the actor ready in the morning and gives them whatever is needed, either make-up, sunscreen or special effects. She’s from Portland, Oregon but spent much time in Seattle, Washington. She has been in the business for twenty years. She’s also a documentary filmmaker.

I made a documentary called Sunday Driver. It’s about Low Rider cars in South Central, Los Angeles. It’s a car club called The Majestics. It’s primarily a Black car club and was one of the first Black Low Riding car clubs in Southern California, therefore, the United States and therefore, the world. It’s an interesting topic because most of the guys in the car club were in gangs at one point. And they have transcended the gangs and into a club. Yet, they still keep that cohesive group together while moving out of a life of crime.

I saw a newscaster talking about these guys who were causing trouble on Crenshaw with their cars, bouncing and playing around. What I saw was these restored classic cars and it was just this huge scene. So I said, I have to check this out because I’ve never seen this.  I drove some friends down there and we checked it out and it was amazing. We’ve never seen anything like this. It was like a party on a street, a cacophony of voices, people and sounds…just all over the place, all mixed together. It was kind of a joyous experience. I thought, “This is like urban art.”  And so I thought I would go down there and find out what’s going on.

At first I just wanted to film the cars as these beauty pieces. It’s urban art! Look at this, this is beautiful! But the more I explored it, the more I saw there was a story there. I was fortunate enough to let these guys open the door for me and I walked in.  I followed them around for like eight years. I really got to know these guys and let the story develop. It really had a curve, a real arc. It was an eye opener, a great experience for myself and them as well. What’s funny was that I was their first white friend. And it was cool because I would have never been able to hang out in Compton, California, a white girl from the Northwest - no! They opened the door and it was a great experience.

I went to college, but not to study filmmaking. I am from Seattle and Portland and they have a real strong group of independent people making films. So we all helped each other on making films. You do whatever you can do. It’s not like here in Hollywood, the larger the film, the more segregated departments become. When you are in a smaller environment, everybody pitches in and does everything. It’s just through osmosis that I learned to do it. Besides, I have a lot of friends who are filmmakers. I have friends who are D.P.s (Director of Photography), editors and writers. I called upon my friends, and that’s what any director does, they call upon people to help them make a film because nobody does it by themselves. I just had the vision, is basically what it was and stumbled my way through it and figured it out.

If something interests me, I would make more documentaries in the future because you really have to devote a lot of time and life to it. You can’t just walk away from it. You have to totally engross yourself in the subject or you are not going to have a very good piece. It’s on Showtime right now but you can also buy it at Amazon.com.

I love working on this film. The cast is wonderful and everybody is really nice. We have a wonderful crew and it’s been fun. It’s a comedy…it should be fun. It’s gone longer than I expected, but that’s a gift, because we are all working longer. I have no complains. We also went to Paris for five weeks and we were kept in the best environment. You wouldn’t believe the hotel, we had a wonderful time! So I’ve loved it.

I think Jackie is a great man, a good guy. Very open, very generous, he likes to talk to everybody. He’s probably one of the most energetic and hardworking actors I’ve ever met. He really is. I really feel fortunate to have met him and worked with him. I like him a lot, I truly like him. It’s not like it’s one of those "Yeah…I like him."  No, he’s a good guy. I think everybody likes him. I can’t imagine anybody not liking Jackie Chan. Why would you ever not like Jackie Chan? That would be weird! He’s a good man.

I think this experience has been great because I haven’t hung out with a lot of people from Asia before and it’s been wonderful. The more you get to know people, the more you realize that people are all the same. I love the Jackie Chan stunt guys, they are great, hard working people. It’s just been really nice working on this film because it’s an international group of people…and that’s been really nice. It’s not just our little group of Hollywood people. It’s been people from all over the world and I’ve really enjoyed that. I felt lucky to have worked on this film.

Text and photos ©2007 JC Group. All Rights Reserved.

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