Jason Statham, aged 47, is one of the mostwell-known British actors in the world, even though he started acting only in1998 at the age of 29. Previous to his acting years, Statham was a professionaldriver, a fashion model, a black market salesman and a martial artist,acquiring traits he would later put to use as an action movie hero – Statham usuallyperforms his stage combat and stunts himself.
He came to spotlight right at the beginning ofhis career with his very first movies starring in Guy Ritchie’s popular crimefilms ‘Lock, Stock and Two SmokingBarrel’ [1998] and ‘Snatch’[2000].
He then starred and grew his fan base in such well-known action heistmovies as the ‘Transporter’[2002-2008] trilogy, ‘The Italian Job’[2003], ‘Crank’ [2006], ‘War’ [2007], ‘Death Race’ [2008] and the highlysuccessful action-comedy ‘The Expendables’[2010-2014].
Even though Statham will turn 48 on the 26thJuly this year, he has no plans on giving up the action thriller movies, and evenhopes that one day he can play the part of Britain’s most famous spy, James Bond.
“Could I do it? ... Absolutely, Would I doit? ... Absolutely," said Statham enthusiastically in an interviewrecently.
The Britishactor believes that Daniel Craig isa great Bond, but if he were to play the role he would take a vastly differentapproach, away from the somewhat elitist roots of the character.
Craig wascast as James Bond in 2005 (replacing PierceBrosnan), and although he was first greeted with skepticism, hisperformance as the secret agent has been praised ever since and has led hismovies to great success. ‘Casino Royale’[2006], ‘Quantum of Solace’ [2008]and ‘Skyfall‘ [2012] have all beengreat hits among critics and at the box office as well.
The newJames Bond movie ‘Spectre’ willpremiere in November 2015 and is no doubt going to be another successful filmin the franchise. It will be the fourth movie for Craig, who is contracted forone more Bond film thereafter.
This means thatif the 5th movie with Craig would premiere in 2018, that Stathamcould potentially star in the one after that, playing the hero at the age of50-53. Still, he wouldn’t even be the oldest, since Roger Moore played the character until he was 57.
