Did Jason Stathma have martial arts training before he made The Transporter?
No, he didn’t have any martial arts experience. He was a professional diver in Europe, so he caught on pretty quick. Jason put a lot of time and effort into training for The Transporter – three months. He worked very hard for the role. I thought he did quite well. He was very impressive. He also moves very differently from Hong Kong martial arts-trained performers. He’s bulkier and bigger, but very threatening. In one scene in the film, toward the end, where Jason takes off his clothes and they fight in oil, he has to kick four consecutive times. Before that, he could only kick twice, one-two, but I said, “I’m sure you can do one more. Try to kick three.” Jason said, “I can’t do it.” I said, “Just try.” After several tries, he could do it, three kicks. So I said, “Try one more kick, make it four.” “No, you’re crazy!” “Just try.” So he tried and finally he got it down. One camera, four kicks: One, two, three four. I look forward to working with Jason on another project. Hopefully we can
