WTF Happened to Jason Statham?

When you think of Jason Statham, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? If it’s a fit bald dude beating the shit out of a nameless goon, good. That means we’re on the same page. Range is not Jason Statham’s forte, nor would we expect his characters to be able to spell “forte”. But the man has marked himself as maybe THE action star in modern movies. And that’s good enough for us and his millions of fans. As Frank Martin said in The Transporter: Never change the deal.

Jason Statham was born on July 26th, 1967 in Shirebrook, England. A natural and gifted athlete, Statham was competing in everything from football to diving (he would later be inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame). Then came modelling because, well, look at that jawline!

But it was the screen he was destined for. With a gruff yet composed demeanour and an easy bald dome that showed he had more on his mind than maintenance, you took one look at this dude and knew he meant business. So, too, did Guy Ritchie, who he linked up with for 1998’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and 2000’s Snatch, playing hoods and boxing promoters. (He’d later return to Ritchie with 2005’s Revolver and 2021’s Wrath of Man.)

Jason Statham would plow through a number of movies in his post-Ritchie breeze, playing yet another gangster persona in Turn It Up (2000), a sergeant alongside Ice Cube and Natasha Henstridge for John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars (2001), doing a Longest Yard remake with pal Vinnie Jones called Mean Machine (2001) and co-starring with fellow martial arts devotee Jet Li in The One.

Statham would truly break on his own with his first franchise: The Transporter (2002), playing Frank Martin, who quickly became his signature character, a former Special Forces op turned driver who sticks to a code as he weaves through increasingly escalating action scenarios (and international traffic). It would expectedly be followed by 2005’s Transporter 2 and 2008’s Transporter 3. Keen eyes will also spot him in Michael Mann’s Collateral (2004), part of a spoken plan to only have the character do cameos should he not return for more movies…which he wouldn’t do, leaving after the trilogy because the studio wanted to pay him less – and Jason Statham knows his worth. But despite the fast cars and slick suits, the dude isn’t exactly Bond material – although there was a time when he would have strongly considered it, saying, “Could I do it? Abso-F-ing-lutely.” (No, he doesn’t want to be a Bond villain.)

2003 would bring his first movie to gross over $100 million, The Italian Job, although that had more to do with Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron. But that’s not to say Jason Statham didn’t have his following, who would turn up to see him whether he was a corrupt cop (2004’s Cellular), playing supporter to Chris Evans (2005’s London) or pairing with Wesley Snipes long after anybody gave a damn about Wesley Snipes (2005’s Chaos).

That’s because he made it look all so damn easy. And he knows it. As he put it, “If someone wants me to jump off this balcony and land on a crash pad, that’s a piece of cake for me.” (That said, the brakes on truck he was driving while making Expendables 3 did put him in the Black Sea, so it’s not like he doesn’t know the risks…) As such, Statham would get his next franchise, starting with 2006’s Crank, playing an assassin who has to keep his adrenaline up or he’ll die (think Speed but in the endocrine system). It would be followed up by 2009’s Crank: High Voltage. This was all a perfect set-up for Statham, who was positioning himself as the heir apparent to the likes of Arnold and Stallone and JCVD, who all had faithful fanboys who devoured every piece of action – however dumb to the objective eye or, really, even the die-hards – that paired with their popcorn. More sequel fun would come in the form of 2011’s The Mechanic (and its 2016 follow-up), a remake of the Charles Bronson classic. As Statham said of the stunts that give such action flicks their flair, “The adrenaline is a great rush, and if you’re successful it’s rewarding. I love it, but it is quite stupid.”

And the stupid kept coming. 2008 was his most prolific year yet, giving fans The Bank Job (leading, yes, a bank job), playing a man avenging the death of his family for Uwe Boll in In the Name of the King and taking over the role originated by David Carridine in the Death Race remake. He, too, would serve as narrator for a pair of docs on the 24-hour Le Mans endurance race, showing his passion for all-things high-speed.

2010 proved to be another important year for Statham, as, after the gamblin’ and gunplay flick 13, he was put alongside some of the best action stars ever in The Expendables. After sequels in 2012, 2014 and 2023, the franchise was yet another piece that solidified Jason Statham in the pantheon of great action stars. There he was with Stallone and Schwarzenegger and Dolph Lundgren and Chuck Norris and Bruce Willis and Wesley Snipes and…At this point, one wonders, who really are Jason Statham’s contemporaries, because by and large, the rest have aged out? And it makes us wonder, will Jason Statham play Chev Chelios again two or three decades down the line when he needs a paycheck like Sly with Rambo or Arnold with Terminator or Bruce Willis with John McClane? It’s possible and we know for sure that his fanbase will turn up, whether in the theater or streaming or direct-to-video.

And they won’t care what his character is – only that the character is kicking ass. Objectively, Statham may be the defining image of the modern action star but he doesn’t exactly have a wide range. Check out these professions and character traits: a detective sergeant hunting down a killer (2011’s Blitz), a mercenary (Killer Elite), an MMA fighter/former cop (2012’s Safe), an ex-special force op engaged in London’s criminal underbelly (2013’s Hummingbird), a DEA agent entangled with a meth kingpin (2013’s Homefront), a thief out for revenge (2013’s Parker, playing Donald E. Westlake’s famous character), a bodyguard mixed in with the mob (2015’s Wild Card)…In 2018’s The Meg found him playing a retired enforcer who finds himself swimming with sharks, who are also running an underwater gambling scheme – OK, not really, but you almost bought it because it’s so on brand.

And so there’s an insanely narrow-sighted irony when he says, “I’ve always wanted to mix it up as much as possible. You can’t keep playing the same record, can you? And you get bored doing the same thing.” But apparently he doesn’t, save for maybe Gnomeo & Juliet (2011). Even Spy (2015) – in which he was effortlessly funny – played off of his persona (2023’s Operation Fortune didn’t quite hit.) And neither do his fans, as Statham’s movies have grossed $1.78 billion domestically and none of his movies have gone direct to video, something you can’t say about Sly or Arnold or JCVD or Chuck or Bruce. Granted, a chunk comes from his roles in the Fast & Furious franchise, which admittedly don’t rely on him but there’s no doubt an obvious reason he was lured to it.

The idea is that Jason Statham will keep doing what Jason Statham does: walking tall, swinging tough and beating the ever-loving shit out of any henchman who comes his way. One of his latest movies, The Beekeeper, was something of a return to form for him in terms of quality. But even then he’s playing a retired assassin who is brought out of his quiet life to enact revenge. After that was this year’s A Working Man, playing a former commando who takes on kidnappers that topped the box office chart. Next year will see Mutiny, playing a former special forces tough who is pulled back into his former life.

So, no, nothing will change for Jason Statham. And no, he has no range. But for about 30 years, he has blown people up, set them on fire, done insane things with guns and blades, punched people into propellers, thrown them from choppers, tossed them at sharks. And so long as he has a career, he’s going to spend it blowing people up, setting them on fire, doing insane things with guns and blades, punching people into propellers, throwing them from choppers, and throwing them at sharks. Even if it’s direct-to-video, his fans will still turn up. Never. Change. The. Deal.

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