Actor Jason Statham first made a name for himself in the film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and since then he’s cemented his reputation as an action hero with films like The Transporter, Crank, and his latest, The Expendables. Jason was recently in London along with some of his co-stars, and he spoke about working on an action film, wearing flowery shirts and being bullied by Sylvester Stallone.

At the screening last week there was a massive round of applause before the film even started, and as each star name appeared there were whoops of joy. To what extent does that level of excitement and expectation bring extra challenges or responsibilities to do something really special with The Expendables?
Jason Statham (JS): It’s all on Sly, I’m afraid. That’s why you chose to work with people that know what they are doing. A lot of the time we don’t get such a luxury in that choice…

Were there any stunts you won’t do, anything you’re scared of?
JS: I won’t wear a flowery shirt… It’s all par for the course. I mean the way movies get made when Sly’s in control. He shoots a lot of the stunts in the camera. A lot of the action directors of today tend to rely on the movie as a visual and it becomes very boring because it’s a lot of CG and people don’t really care too much about it. When you are doing an action movie that requires real men doing real action, it’s an opportunity to do that, Sly’s way – that’s all we’re looking for. We can’t wait to get stuck in and do that kind of stuff.

What was it like acting with the heroes you grew up watching?
JS: Well, Stallone’s a bit of a bully, actually. He carries a big stick around and starts, you know, ordering tea and coffee… It’s not as comfortable as you think… It’s a situation that you get to know the real man behind the camera. It’s not the film-maker anymore, it’s a regular guy. I think, to me that was the best part about working with Sly was getting to know him as a person. There is no substitute for that… We’ve seen all of his movies over the years. We are very familiar with everything he’s done, that’s why we get excited when we get to do films like this, you know?

What was it like acting with Sly, whilst he was also directing?
JS: Well, that’s the great thing about having a guy that is a writer and the director and happens to star in the movie, as well, because you have full liberty to change and improvise. You don’t normally get that. You normally get restrictions with some guy wrote the script and he doesn’t want anyone to mess with that and the director’s not allowed to. So, it’s the best situation you can get, but a lot of humour arises from that kind of situation.

This is the third time you've worked with Jet Li. How instrumental has that been in shaping your career as an action star?
JS: Actually, all the movies I’ve done with Jet, apart from this one, have been no good. [Laughs]. It’s difficult because my first movie I did with Jet wasn’t what it was supposed to be but it gave me the opportunity to work with Corey Yuen, which was instrumental in me playing the Transporter films. So, there was a great relationship that we had there.

It was coincidental that we were doing this film together. It’s not that we tried to beat Sly up and hold him down and say, we want to do another film together – make sure we’re in it! It’s one of those things. In fact I’ll add to that because the films that I have done with Jet Li have been very science-fiction-based, and this is why this one works, especially for me, because it harks back to old school action movies that basically are the ones that I’m interested in doing.