Jason Statham - Hollywood's 'cold-faced gentleman'

With a cool and masculine appearance, “the transporter” has been the world's top action star for over a decade.

The role of “transporter” Frank Martin in The Transporter series is the most prominent and also the most characteristic character in Jason Statham’s career. He is an “anti-hero” with an ambiguous background, always keeping a cold face, good at action and willing to transport anything as long as he is paid a high price.

In most of the films Jason Statham has participated in since 1998, he often plays such characters. And without having to be a hero, the British actor is enough to attract tens of millions of fans worldwide.

From athlete to actor

Born on July 26, 1967 in Derbyshire (England), Statham's father was a salesman and his mother was a dancer. From a young age, he was interested in sports, specifically martial arts (kickboxing and Karate), diving and football. Thanks to his daily training, Statham was selected for the British diving team. At the 1990 Commonwealth Games, he represented the British team.

Jason Statham's cool style.

With his growing reputation, Sports Promotions invited Jason Statham to model for the French Connection fashion brand with the reason “We wanted a model with a masculine appearance but not too much like a normal male model”. From here, the opportunity to change his life really came to Statham when he was noticed by director Guy Ritchie.

Madonna's ex-husband was casting a street swindler for the film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels at the time, and Statham's looks quickly won him over. After hearing Statham talk about the time he had to help his father sell fake jewelry, perfumes, etc. on the streets, Ritchie decided to give Statham the role of Bacon. Released in 1998, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels quickly became a critical and commercial success with its thrilling content and unique comedic style.

Two years later, Statham continued to participate in another Ritchie project, Snatch. This time, his co-stars also included international stars such as Brad Pitt and Benicio del Toro. The role of the Turkish boxing ring organizer helped Statham really enter Hollywood, after Snatch became one of the highest rated films of 2000.

A Boost with “The Transporter”

Statham's Hollywood journey began with Ghosts of Mars and The One in 2001. The films starred Ice Cube and Jet Li, respectively, but Jason Statham didn't have to wait long to make his mark. In 2002, he was cast as Frank Martin in the action film The Transporter, written and produced by French filmmaker Luc Besson.

Martin is an excellent driver, willing to deliver any item for hire and always on time. He has three rules for himself: "Once an agreement is made, it must be followed", "Never reveal the name" and "Never open the delivered item". A mission has caused trouble for the "mercenary". Martin is assigned to transport a "item" to a notorious gangster. On the way, this "item" reveals its true form as the beautiful girl Lai (Shu Qi) and puts Martin in danger...

The Transporter was a breakthrough in Jason Statham's career. With a budget of 21 million USD, the film grossed 43 million USD despite not being well received by critics. Statham's extremely "cool" appearance and the eye-catching fighting and shooting scenes helped The Transporter attract a large fan base. The Transporter had two more parts in 2005 and 2008, reaching a total revenue of nearly 200 million USD.

This is also the work that introduced Hollywood to an action superstar from the land of fog. In addition to his angular face, cold eyes and voice, Jason Statham also performed all the action scenes in the film without the help of a stuntman.

Jason Statham is associated with the image of "The Transporter" in the trilogy of the same name.

“I spent years honing my skills,” explains Statham. “When I got on set, the male competitive instinct kicked in. I always wanted to do my own action. My influences were Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, they were incredible. When I watched their movies back in the day, I always felt like I was in the movie. Now with CGI, even my grandmother can be an action star. But the action has to be real, because nothing can replace it.”

Since The Transporter, action movie scripts have been continuously sent to Jason Statham. The type of characters he plays are usually non-heroic roles but are good at martial arts and put in difficult situations. Movies like War, Crank, The Bank Job, Death Race, Killer Elite or Hummingbird... honor Jason Statham as a superstar of "anti-hero" roles. The actor explains: "In my childhood, I met a lot of outlaw personalities and could not know what they were going to do. So now, I play such people and rely on my own experiences."

A dream life

Most of Statham's films are B-grade action films: not focused on plot or psychology but on action, chases... and are poorly received by critics. Jason Statham himself is aware of this and once stated: "You will never get an Oscar for a movie like Crank. And I certainly haven't won any for the movies I've been in."

But behind Jason Statham are millions of fans. His status is now an action superstar, standing in the same ranks as veteran names such as Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dolph Lundgren. The three installments of The Expendables in which Statham plays knife-throwing expert Lee Christmas have grossed up to 786 million USD worldwide.

In the summer of 2013, just a few seconds of Statham's appearance in the final scene of Fast & Furious 6 was enough to make the audience excited and anxiously await his role in episode 7 as the villain.

Jason Statham shows off his muscles, admired by many.

Fast & Furious 7 saw fans' expectations come true. Statham plays Deckard Shaw, the older brother of terrorist Owen (Luke Evans) in episode 6, and is determined to take revenge on Dominic Toretto's (Vin Diesel) group for crippling his brother. As a former special forces member, Deckard is extremely dangerous. Right from the first scene of the film, this character attracts attention when he destroys a hospital and sends a bomb warning to Dom. In this blockbuster, viewers get to witness what made Statham famous: car chases, shootings, and top-notch close combat (against Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel's characters).

After only two weeks of release, Fast & Furious 7 has reached the $800 million mark and become one of the highest-grossing films of 2015. That success was largely due to the contribution of the “villain” Jason Statham. This summer, he has another notable film, the action-comedy Spy, co-starring with Jude Law and Melissa McCarthy.

As one of the most stylish men in Britain, dating beauty Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and having films that attract millions of viewers, Jason Statham's life is the dream of countless people.

According to VNE