On July 27, 2008, just prior to the Beijing Olympics, Jackie Chan took his official first disciple. Jack Tu bowed before Chan on top of the Great Wall of China in the finale episode of Jackie Chan’s DISCIPLE, a popular reality TV show based on Jackie’s worldwide search for a successor. Here Jack Tu talks about his current and future projects.

Screen Power: How do you feel?

Jack Tu: Ah, well, before it was very calm, then very stressed, but now I feel very excited. There’s a whole bunch of new opportunities. In the past, I never thought of going into movies or the entertainment industry. In the past, I thought I was just going to follow in my dad’s steps.

SP: Traditional kung-fu?

JT: Yes. I never knew I was going to start doing movies.

SP: So tell us how it went for you.

JT: The DISCIPLE started in June last year 2007. They had the selection in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. That went okay and then we went to China. We had 128 people from all over the world. Eliminations happened every week. Every week we have to do talents and martial arts and acting. And we kept going until the top 36. The top 36 were eliminated to 26, 26 to 16. At that point I thought, “All right, just like another show, just like China’s AMERICAN IDOL.”

SP: Last year, you were a finalist on another Chinese kung-fu star talent search T.V. show, K-STAR.

JT: It’s similar to that. Then we had a break. We met Jackie Chan later in the winter. When the show ended, he came and we did a Chinese New Year show. And then, during that time, we’re still not sure about where the show is going to go. We have no idea. Our future has a question mark. All 16 ask, “What are we going to do?” And then we came back to the U.S.A. and we had a one month break. We went back to China in March 2008.

When we go back, we thought it’s going to be another talent show with singing and all that stuff. But when we go there instead it’s like, “Prepare your luggage and then make sure you have your phone and laptop ready to hand in.” We’re like, “What? Our cell phone and laptop? Hand in for what?” They said, “Oh, we have to take all your communication devices away from you. We’re having this military type of training set up for you guys.” Okay, so we hand in our cell phones and our computers and everything that we can use to contact the outside. And so, during that time, they had total control over us. They controlled our sleep, our food, and all that stuff. So we are all locked up in these little Chinese houses – North of Beijing there’s a big water resort, Wenyu Shui Chen. During that time, we don’t know what’s going to happen.

The first day was crazy. We slept for two hours and they woke us up at 3:00 in the morning. They came in with this big speaker, “Come on! Wake up! Emergency meeting! Emergency meeting!” And everyone just got up and started running outside and it was winter. It was really cold. It was – 10 degrees and we had to run out of our room to another place. So we charged there. 3:00 in the morning. Everyone had a big jacket. Some people were still wearing pajamas. And we had to stand outside and the JC Stunt Team, one of Jackie’s very close stunt team captains named He Jin, he started lecturing us. “This is for acting in the film industry. You always have to be prepared for unexpected stuff. Sometimes there’s a scene that needs to be done at that time, or that light is just perfect. You have to get up and go do the scene.” We are all like, “This is crazy!” We couldn’t even contact outside and everything’s controlled by them.

After that day, they woke us up again. “Oh, we have something to do tonight. We’re going somewhere.” “Okay,” and we follow them and we don’t even know what’s going to happen. We’re like, “What are we going to do? What are we going to do?” They said, “Oh, you go there. You’ll know.” So we all went there. “Okay, did you guys bring extra t-shirts and pants?” We’re like, “For what?” They said, ‘Ah, you’ll know. As long as you bring extra t-shirt and pants, it’s okay.” (laughs) We went to the Olympic pool, near the Bird’s Nest.

SP: In the Olympic park?

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