November 6 

Busy Day on the Set

Today we spent the whole day filming action scenes for The Spy Next Door on location in New Mexico. After planning and rehearsing, it felt good to see it all come together. Lucas, a young actor in the movie, did a great job learning the moves and performing them. Of course it took a long time to get everything perfect, but when we were finished I felt happy and proud of my team and the other actors. I feel very glad to be working with this director; he has a lot of respect for my ideas and experience. He’s open to suggestions and encourages me to share my thoughts about how scenes should be played. I think this is a sign of self-confidence and professionalism on his part.

With director Brian Levant.

Brian stays calm even when things don't go perfectly.

We also filmed some action scenes involving the children and although I was worried that the youngest, Alina, might get scared, she did very well. I just kept telling her that we were having fun; that it was exciting, like a ride at Disneyland. When I looked at her face after the first take, I could tell that she was deciding between crying and laughing, so I kept tickling her and reminding her how much fun we were having and she started giggling. She is such a sweet little girl. Of course we were very careful while filming and everything was fine. No tears…that’s a good day!

I try to pay attention to Alina's clothes on the set for the continuity of the movie.

During the filming of one sequence, my hand was crushed between a wooden chair and a railing, but I put some ice on it and soon it was feeling much better. Everyone was concerned about me, but I tried to tell them that this was normal for me and that they shouldn’t worry. Over the past 30 years I’ve had so many injuries that I can’t even count them all, and I am not going to worry about one more. We kept rolling and soon I forgot that I’d even gotten hurt.

Keeping cool on the set.

Our director Brian is the kind of person who cares a lot about his actors and today he sent two crew members out to buy a ping pong table so that everyone would be able to have a little fun during the times when there was nothing going on. The poor crew members who bought the table had to put it together and after they got done unloading the box, there were pieces everywhere. The instructions were nearly impossible to understand; I’m sure you’ve seen these kinds of instructions: they make almost no sense. Between filming, Brian kept in close touch with his crew, constantly inquiring about the progress with the ping pong table. He was very funny, saying things like, “Never mind the scene we’re filming, how is the ping pong table?!” Of course he was joking. After struggling for a few hours, the guys successfully got the table together and we had a lot of fun playing ping pong. I feel sorry for the guys who will have to take the table apart to move to another location – they’ll have to go through the same thing again when they try to put it together!

I was really impressed with some of the ping pong players. Of course I know that my stunt team has a lot of experience playing ping pong, but I didn’t know that there were so many other people who could play so well! It was interesting to see that the Americans hold the ping pong paddle in a different way than the Chinese do. When I tried to show a few of the American crew how to hold it the way I do, they couldn’t play very well. But it seems like ping pong is a sport that so many different people can enjoy. The kids loved playing and so did the adults. I think it’s important to find moments for fun when you’re working so hard on a movie set. I always bring along a hacky sack for this same reason; it’s the kind of game you can play just about anywhere and it doesn’t take much space or time.

At lunchtime I went to my trailer to watch some television for a few minutes. I couldn’t believe how many channels were available; I think there were over a thousand! I spent the entire time pushing the button on the remote control going from one show to the next. By the time I decided on something I wanted to watch, I was so far up in the numbers that I couldn’t find the channel that had the show I’d seen. I thought this was funny and I also thought that maybe we were better off in the old days when we had only a few channels to pick from. With so many choices, it’s impossible to settle on just one show because you can’t help wondering what you might be missing. Ha ha.

We worked late tonight to get everything done and when we finished we went directly to my favorite Chinese restaurant for a quick dinner. Then it was back to the apartment to get ready for bed; we had another early call time in the morning.

November 7

A Hard Day’s Work and a Wonderful Evening Together

Today we continued filming at a location close to our apartment. One of the actors in today’s scene was a popular comedian named George Lopez. I don’t know much about him, but he seemed to be a funny guy and a good actor too. The weather was sunny and windy and the lighting crew was having some trouble controlling the brightness because the clouds would hide the sun, then blow across and the sun would come out again. Because of this, it took a little longer to film a short scene than it normally would. I spent some time in the parking lot playing hacky sack with my stunt team. As I told you the other day, I think it’s important to make time to have a little fun when you’re filming and playing simple games like this is an easy way to do that. While we were playing, people going by in their cars would beep and wave and call out my name. It was good to see all the smiling faces of the fans, even if they were going by quickly in cars.

There are all kinds of way to have fun on the set.

The stuntmen have their hands full.

Stuntman Guan Hua with Alina.

We were nearly done filming for the day when the little girl, Alina, was bitten by her turtle. It took a long time to calm her down, but eventually she recovered and we continued until we wrapped. I think that working with children and animals is a really challenging career choice, and I give our director Brian a lot of credit for choosing to do this. You might know that he has worked on films with kids and dogs, so he has lots of experience dealing with the unexpected and unpredictable behavior of both. Of course Alina had every right to cry when the turtle bit her; she’s just a tiny girl and was taken completely by surprise when it happened. None of us realized just how far a turtle’s head can come out of its shell. This little turtle had a very long neck and could extend its head very far out and twist it around to reach far back. Poor Alina! But she was a brave little girl and after it was all over, everyone gave her a big round of applause.

Poor Alina.

Since today is Friday, one of the crew members collected money for the Five Dollar Friday drawing. This is a tradition on many film sets and I’m always happy to participate. In order to make the total higher, I like to add some extra money and today I put in a few hundred dollars. The winner was a guy in the transportation department and he was very happy. Everyone looks forward to Five Dollar Friday. We took a photo of the bucket used for collections. Isn’t it creative?

When we were nearly wrapped, I invited the entire cast and crew to have dinner with me at a nearby restaurant. I was surprised by the reaction of many of the people I invited….they didn’t expect that I would ask them to have dinner with me. Well, that’s because they don’t know me yet. If they did, they’d know that I like to take the cast and crew out for dinner once in a while; especially after such a successful week of very hard work. When we arrived at the restaurant we saw that they’d closed up just for us and set up tables to accommodate all the people who we were expecting. For some reason, there didn’t seem to be any waiters or waitresses; just one man and a woman and their children. It didn’t matter because my own staff jumped right in to help. My stuntmen and staff delivered food and drinks and took very good care of my guests. Later on I talked to them about how happy I am with their ability to work as a team, whether it’s on the set or off the set. It’s really important to me to have staff members who understand the meaning of teamwork and who don’t mind jumping in to do all different kinds of jobs – even waiting on tables! Of course I also helped out; I enjoy being the host at these types of parties.

During dinner I decided to have another lucky draw and went around selling tickets to everyone for a raffle. I wanted to draw three times so we’d have three winners, and I asked the kids to help me. When Maddy drew the first name, the man who won insisted that Maddy should take the money. She didn’t want to, so I told her to take it and put it back into the pot. Then we chose the rest of the winners. Amazingly, one of my stuntmen, Alan Ng, won. The reason I say that this is amazing is because his name was also drawn on the first Five Dollar Friday we had two weeks ago. When that happened, I put his name back in and chose someone else’s because I didn’t think that it would be fair to have one of my staff win the money when I was doing the drawing. But I didn’t put it back tonight because I figured that if his name came up again, it was meant to be that he wins. He was very happy.

Alan wins.

Here's Alan with Alina, who picked his name from the bucket.

We spent a wonderful evening together talking and singing (and even dancing). I really enjoy the company of this crew and I look forward to the next time we can have dinner together.

You can't see it very well in this photo, but I was twirling Maddy around the same way I have done in a few of my movies. Remember?

That's Maddy's mom Donna on the left.

During dinner, Brian gave a very touchinng toast.

Will playing around with stuntmen He Jun and Alan.

When the night was over we drove home and relaxed for a while before going to bed.

November 9

Back to Santa Fe

Yesterday we spent most of the day relaxing and rehearsing and today we drove back to Santa Fe. There were two reasons why I wanted to go back. The first is that I wanted to show the children (Will and Maddy) this beautiful town. After visiting Santa Fe for the first time two weeks ago, I knew it was the kind of place that they would love as much as I did. The second reason I wanted to go back was to buy a piece of artwork that I saw there. You may remember that I bought one sculpture in Santa Fe already and I mentioned that there was a second one which I wanted as well. I thought about it for two weeks; trying to decide where I would put it and whether I should buy it or not. I decided that I should, and so my friends and I loaded up into the vans and set off for Santa Fe. My friend Curtis is visiting again from LA, so he joined me and my stuntmen He Jun and Wu Gang, the children and their moms, plus Osumi and Katharine.

When we went to Santa Fe a few weeks ago, I thought we’d seen quite a lot of the town, but I was really happy and surprised to find out that there was more to see than I’d even known about. When we arrived we found a coffee shop and sat down for a snack before we walked over to the gallery to buy the sculpture. While we were in the coffee shop I told Maddy that I had come to Santa Fe today to buy a pig. She mistakenly thought I meant a real pig (actually, I was there to buy a sculpture of a pig), and I did nothing to change her mind. I kept up the joke, talking about what I should name the pig, where it would sleep…it was very funny.

Actually, just joking about owning a pig reminded me of years ago when I owned several exotic animals. I told Maddy about the time that I owned a lion cub, an eagle, and a few other wild animals. In those days we did not realize how dangerous it was to own wild animals and didn’t realize how unfair it was to these animals to keep them in captivity. After my bad experiences owning these exotic pets, I swore that I would never do that again and for many years I didn’t have any kind of pet. Now of course I have my two dogs and two cats, but they are domesticated animals and are meant to be kept as pets. Wild animals should stay in the wild; I learned my lesson about that.

I took this photo of a turtle-shaped bread to show Alina.

After our coffee break, we walked over to the gallery where my pig was and Maddy was just about jumping up and down with excitement; she could wait to “meet” my new pet. When we approached the gallery, I covered her eyes with my hand, put her right in front of the pig sculpture, then removed my hand. When she saw the size of the pig, she screamed and then started laughing. “Oh you!” she kept saying. Ha ha. I tricked her and it was really funny to see her reaction. She has a great sense of humor and found the whole thing quite hilarious.

We took some photos to show you the pig that I bought. I will have him shipped to Hong Kong and put him in my garden. Then someday I will have him at my museum and will make sure that I put his story on a plaque so everyone can read about it. I will tell them that the first time I saw the pig, I couldn’t stop smiling and that I figured that I should own him because he would always make people happy. This is why I bought the pig.

Here's the sculpture I bought two weeks ago.

After the pig we walked around a part of town that we’d missed the last time we came. I’ve never seen so many galleries and sculptures. The town of Santa Fe is so charming….narrow streets and alleys filled with artwork and the low adobe buildings that are popular in this area of the country. When I look at all the different paintings and sculptures, I have so much admiration for the artists. Where do they get their ideas for these things? I just don't know, but I'm glad they do because their art is so great to look at. I think we walked for about four hours, taking photos and talking and looking in all the galleries. It was a wonderful, happy day.

This sculpture is called "Rock, Paper, Scissors" so Maddy and I played the rock, paper, scissors game together in front of it.

I like this kind of clever artwork.

With a friendly dog in Santa Fe.

Of course I had to take a photo with this horse sculpture since I was born in the Year of the Horse.

This sculpture is in the garden outside a gallery. It is constructed in pieces and when you lay them on the ground it looks like the woman is partly below the surface.

There are a lot of sculptures in Santa Fe that you can pose with. I liked this one too.

When Will saw this sculpture, he got the idea for this photo. It's called "Thinking Outside of the Box."

It was getting late and we were supposed to head home to have dinner with the director. I called him and told him that we would have to postpone because we were running late. We found a restaurant in Santa Fe and had a delicious dinner together. As usual, we ordered lots of different things and shared them all, then took the leftovers home with us. During dinner I showed Will and Maddy some magic tricks and Maddy taught me some more English expressions and phrases. I told her that if I spent two months with her, I would end up speaking perfect teenage English.

My costars Will Shadley and Maddy Carroll.

It was night by the time we left Santa Fe and we drove home, said goodnight, and everyone went to sleep after a tiring but wonderful day.

Text and photos Copyright 2008 The JC Group

All Rights Reserved

Nov 6 (星期四)

在现场忙碌的一天：

          今天我们一整天都在新墨西哥的拍摄现场为《The Spy Next Door》拍摄动作场面。我们设计和彩排过后，看到所有都能做得到，感觉很好。戏中的一位年青演员路卡斯（Lucas）做得很好，学习动作和演练了出来。当然，这些动作镜头我们也花了一段长时间才臻至完美，可是当我们完成了它以后，我觉得很开心，也为我的团队和其它演员感到骄傲。我很高兴跟这位导演合作，他很尊重我的意见和经验。他乐于接受建议，也鼓励我多分享自己觉得怎样拍一场戏的想法。我想这是一种对自己有信心和专业的表现。

          我们也拍了一些有小孩子的动作场面，虽然我担心最年幼的阿莲娜可能会害怕，但是她做得很好。我只是不断的告诉她，很有乐趣的，并且很刺激，就像在迪斯尼乐园玩一样。拍了一次之后，我看着她的脸，我可以看得出来她是介于想哭和想笑之间，所以，我继续逗她并提醒她这是非常有乐趣的，她开始咯咯地笑，她真的是一个可爱的小女孩。当然，拍摄的时候我们是非常小心的，一切都很好。没有流泪．．．今天是顺利的一天！

          拍一个连贯动作的镜头的时候，我的手被压在木椅和栏杆之间，我敷了冰不久，感觉好多了。每一个人都在担心我，可是我尝试告诉他们对我来说是很平常的，他们不应该担心的。过去的三十年里，我已经受过无数的伤，甚至我自己也数不了有多少，所以我不会为多一个伤而感到忧虑的。我们继续工作，很快我就已经忘了自己受了伤。

          我们的导演白赖仁是那种很关心演员的人，今天他就派了两位工作人员去买来一张乒乓球桌子，如果没有什么事情做的时候，每一个人都可以享乐一下。可怜的工作人员，他们买了乒乓球桌后，还要拆开包装，把桌子装配起来，那些乒乓球桌的组件则放在地下。那些安装指南接近无法看得明白，看过这些指南后，我肯定你会认为它们是近乎没有道理。拍摄的间段时候，白赖仁一直查问工作人员那张乒乓球桌的进度如何。他真的很有趣，说话就像：「我们拍的镜头不打紧，乒乓球桌子怎么样？」当然他们在说笑呢。挣扎了好几个小时以后，他们成功地把那桌子合成起来，我们玩乒乓球玩得很开心呢。我为这几位工作人员感到难过，因为他们将要把这乒乓球桌子拆卸并搬到下一个场地，还要重复这些过程把桌子合成起来！

          我被打乒乓球的人打动了。当然我知道我的成家班都有丰富的打乒乓球经验，但是我不知道这里有那么多人都打得蛮不错呢！看着美国人以中国人不同的拿乒乓球拍的方法去拿着乒乓球拍，我感到很有趣。当我尝试展示我如何拿乒乓球拍的方法给一些美国工作人员看，他们照着拿就打得不好了。乒乓球似乎是一种不同人都享受的运动，小朋友和成年人都喜爱玩。我想当你在拍摄现场辛勤工作后，找些时间享乐一下是很重要的。所以，我经常都会带着一个小豆袋子，你可以在任何地方玩踢小豆袋子游戏，这并不会占太多的地方或是时间。

          午餐的时候，我在休息车上看了几分钟电视，我不敢相信到底这里有多少个电视频道，我想超过一千个频道呢！我花了所有时间在按遥控选台，一个节目接另一个节目。当我决定要看什么的时候，我已经忘记了那一个电视台号码了，也无法寻回我看过的节目是那一个频道的。我想这是很好笑的，我又想可能在以前的日子，那时只有几个频道给我们选择会比较好。有这么多的选择，没办法只集中看一个节目，因为你可能疑虑会否错过其它的节目呢，哈哈！

          今晚我们拍得很晚，因为我们想完成所有工作，当我们完工后，我们直接去我喜爱的中国餐馆吃一顿快速的晚餐。然后我们就回酒店，准备上床睡觉，明天又是早班呢。

Nov 7 (星期五)

一天辛勤的工作，共渡一个美好的晚上：

          今天我们继续拍摄，地点就在酒店附近。今天的戏份中，有一位演员是受欢迎的喜剧演员，他名叫佐治路柏斯（George Lopez）。我对他认识不多，可是他似乎是一位很有趣的人，也是一位好的演员。对灯光组工作人员来说，阳光普照和有风的天气是有一点烦恼的，因为难于控制光度，因为有时太阳会躲在云层里，但当风把云吹开时，太阳又出来了。因此，拍摄一场短短的戏需时比平常长了一点儿。我就利用这些时间在停车区跟我的成家班踢小豆袋。之前我也说过，我想拍戏之余，做一些有趣的事情是很重要的，而玩这些简单的游戏就是很容易做得到的。我们玩着的时候，经过的车辆会鸣着喇叭，并向我挥手和叫我的名字。虽然他们只是很快的开车经过，但是很开心看到影迷那带着笑容的脸孔。

          当我们快将完成今天的拍摄工作的时候，小女孩阿莲娜被她的宠物乌龟咬了一口。花了一些时间才使她平复下来，最后她都回复过来，我们继续拍摄，直到完工为止。我想跟小孩子和动物工作真是一项挑战，而我们的导演白赖仁选择这样做，值得一赞。你要知道他曾经跟小孩子和狗儿拍过戏，所以他对于处理这两者的不能预计和不能预知的行为有丰富的经验。当然阿莲娜被乌龟咬了以后，她是有权利哭的，毕竟她只是一个小孩子，而且事出突然。我们当中没有人知道乌龟的头从壳伸出来到底可以有多长，而这只小小的乌龟有一条很长的颈，可以伸展得很远，长得可以转过来向后面。可怜的阿莲娜！可是她是一个勇敢的小女孩，当所有事情过去后，每一个人都拍手鼓励她。

          由于今天是星期五，其中一位工作人员为‘星期五五元抽奖’收集金钱。这是很多拍摄现场的惯例，而我一向都乐意参与的。为了令到气氛更炽热，我喜欢多加一点钱，今天我就拿出几百块去抽奖了。得奖者是运输部的同事，得了奖的他非常开心呢。每一个人都期待‘星期五五元抽奖’。我们拍了收集钱的小箱子，有创意吗？

          我们差不多收工的时候，我邀请全体演员和工作人员去附近的餐厅吃饭。被我邀请的人的反应让我感到奇怪，因为他们并没有想到我会叫他们跟我一起吃晚餐的。啊！这都是因为他们并不认识我为人而已，如果他们认识我，就会知道我喜欢时常带演员和工作人员出去吃晚餐，特别是经过一星期勤劳工作以后。当我们到达餐厅以后，看到餐厅关了门，就是为了准备一切招待我们。为了某些原因，这里看不到任何侍者，只有一男一女，还有他们的孩子们。没关系的，我的员工乐意协助他们的。我的成家班和员工帮忙送菜、饮品和照顾我的客人。后来，我跟他们说，我很开心他们无论在现场或是现场以外都能够合作成一团队。我的员工明白团队的意义，和不介意随时帮忙做任何工作，就算是帮忙做侍者，这对我是非常重要的。当然，我也有帮忙的，我也很享受成为这一种派对的东道主。

          晚饭的时候，我决定再举行另一次的抽奖并四处向每一个人兜售抽奖劵。我打算抽三次，那我们就有三位得奖者了，而我请了小孩子们帮我。当麦迪抽第一个名字的时候，得奖的人坚持麦迪应该拿那些奖金。她却不想拿，于是我叫她把钱放回盘里，那我们抽另外的得奖者。出奇地，我的其中一位武师兄弟吴永伦（Alan Ng）得奖了。我之所以说出奇地是因为他的名字在两个星期前的‘星期五五元抽奖’已经被抽中了。我会把他的名字调回盘子里，再抽另一位幸运儿，因为我觉得由我来抽奖，而我的员工再次被抽中不是太公平。但是不是今晚这样做，因为我想如果他的名字再被抽中，那就是他胜了。永伦非常开心呢。

          晚饭结束后，我们开车回酒店，然后休息了一会儿，大家就睡觉去了。

Nov 9 (星期日)

重游圣达菲：

          昨天我们大部份的时间都是轻松一下和彩排，而今天我们开车重游圣达菲。有两个理由为何我想回去的。第一、我想向孩子们（伟和麦迪）展示这个漂亮的镇。两星期前，我第一次到访圣达菲，我知道他们一定比我更喜欢这个地方。第二、我想回去是因为我要买一个艺术品。还记得我已经在圣达菲买了一个雕塑，我说过这里还有第二个艺术品我也想买的。我已经为了这个雕塑想了两个星期，尝试决定应该把它放在那里，以及应不应该买。我决定我应该买的，我和我的朋友坐进客车里，出发去圣达菲了。我的朋友却特斯（Curtis）再次从洛杉矶来看我，于是他跟我、我的成家班何均、伍刚、孩子和他们的母亲，还有Osumi和Katharine一起去。

          几个星期前我们去过圣达菲，我想我们已经看过镇上很多的东西，但是当我发现这里还有很多东西我还不认识的，我还可以看看，我真的很开心和惊讶。到达以后，我们找到一间咖啡厅，我们坐下吃一点小吃，然后才出发到艺术廊去买雕塑。我们在咖啡厅的时候，我告诉麦迪，今天我们来到圣达菲是要买一只猪。她误以为我真的要买一只真实的猪（事实上，我是要买一个猪的雕塑），我没有纠正她的想法。我继续开这个玩笑，说着应该为猪起一个什么的名字，牠应该睡在那里．．．真的很有趣。

          其实，说笑我有一只猪让我想起很多年前，那时候我有几只奇异的动物。我告诉麦迪当时我有一头幼狮、一头鹰和一些野生动物。在那些日子我意识不到拥有野生动物有多危险，也认识不到这样束缚着他们是多么的不公平。这些不好的经验以后，我发誓不会再这样做，很多年以后我也没有养宠物了。当然现在我拥有两头狗儿和两头猫儿，但是他们是家养动物，也被视为宠物。野生动物应留在野外，我已经为此上了一课。

          喝过咖啡以后，我们步行到有我要买的猪的艺术廊，而麦迪则显得兴致勃勃，她迫不及待的要“看看”我的新宠物。我们接近艺术廊的时候，我用手盖着麦迪的眼睛，然后把她带到猪雕塑前面，再移开双手。当她看到猪的尺寸后，她尖叫并开始大笑。她不断的说着：「啊．．你！」哈哈！我哄骗了她，看着她的反应真的很有趣呢。她非常有幽默感，也觉得整件事令人捧腹大笑。

          我拍了几张猪的照片给你们看。我会把它运回香港并摆放在我的花园里。有一天，它将会在我的博物馆里，我还会确保把它的故事写在一个铭牌上，那每一个人可以看看它的故事。我会告诉来看它的人知道，我第一次看到这只猪的时候，我不禁的发出会心微笑，那我就知道我一定要拥有它，因为它将会使人们开心的。这就是我买这只猪的原因了。

          看过猪以后，我们就在镇上走走，看看上一次我们没有到过的地方。我从没有看过这么多的艺术廊和雕塑的，圣达菲这个镇是很引人入胜．．．窄窄的街道和巷都遍布艺术品和泥砖做的矮楼房，在这个地方都是很普通的。当我看到所有不同的绘画和雕塑，我非常欣赏这些艺术家。到底他们从那里找到这些灵感？我就是不知道，但是我开心他们做到了，因为他们的艺术品很好，值得欣赏。我想我们走了大概四个小时，在艺术廊内拍拍照、聊着和看着，今天是精彩和愉快的一天。

          本来我们应该回去跟导演吃晚餐的，现在迟了，我打电话给导演并告诉他晚饭改期吧，因为我们迟了离开。我们在圣达菲找了一间餐馆，一起吃了一顿美味的晚餐。我们如常的点了很多不同的食物一起分享，然后把吃不完的带走。晚饭的时候，我向伟和麦迪展示了一些小魔术，而麦迪教了我一些英文的词句和短语。我跟她说如果我与她相处两个月，最后我会讲很好的青少年英语。

          离开圣达菲已是晚上了，我们开车回去。回到酒店，大家说了晚安，然后各自回去睡觉了，因为我们过了一天既疲累而精彩的一天。

文本和照片版权属于成龙公司（JC Group）所有。

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