50 Fun Facts About Jason Statham

Jason Statham spent years in Great Britain's national squad for which sport before he became an actor?

Diving was Statham's first career, and a sports modelling agency spotted him while he trained at London's Crystal Palace. That led to clothing adverts, then film.

Which director gave Jason Statham his first film role in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels?

Guy Ritchie needed someone to play a streetwise con artist and cast Statham after hearing he had worked on market stalls. The role paid him £5,000.

What is the name of the vengeful older brother Jason Statham plays in the Fast & Furious films?

Deckard Shaw first appears in a mid-credits cameo in the sixth film, then hunts the heroes to avenge his comatose younger brother. Later entries turn him into a reluctant ally.

In which 2006 film must Jason Statham's poisoned hitman Chev Chelios keep his adrenaline pumping to stay alive?

Crank sends its hero through brawls, car chases and a hospital raid for epinephrine, all to stop a synthetic drug from slowing his heart.

Which Hollywood star plays the bare-knuckle boxer recruited by Jason Statham's fight promoter Turkish in Snatch?

Brad Pitt plays Mickey, an Irish Traveller whose accent is so thick that the other characters can barely follow him. He is told to throw a fight and wins it anyway.

What is the name of the knife-wielding former SAS soldier Jason Statham plays in The Expendables films?

Lee Christmas is the mercenary team's blade specialist, and Statham played him in four films between 2010 and 2023.

Which comedy star plays the desk-bound CIA employee who upstages Jason Statham's boastful agent in the 2015 film Spy?

Melissa McCarthy leads the film as Susan Cooper, while Statham sends up his own tough-guy image as Rick Ford. Critics singled out his unexpectedly comic turn.

Which former wrestler shared top billing with Jason Statham in a 2019 Fast & Furious spin-off partly set in Samoa?

Dwayne Johnson and Statham play bickering rivals forced to work together, and Statham also co-produced the film. The Hawaiian island of Kauai stood in for Samoa.

What did Jason Statham say he sold on street corners to make ends meet while working as a model?

Fake perfume and jewellery kept him afloat, and the hustle paid off twice: his patter as a street seller is what convinced a young director to cast him as a con artist.

Which Oscar-winning actress plays the mother of Jason Statham's character in the Fast & Furious films?

Helen Mirren first played Magdalene in an uncredited cameo in the eighth film, and she has returned to the series several times since.

Which footballer turned actor made his film debut alongside Jason Statham and later led the comedy Mean Machine?

Vinnie Jones played the enforcer Big Chris in the 1998 crime comedy that launched both men, and it won him the Empire Award for Best Debut.

Which French filmmaker co-wrote The Transporter as a star vehicle for Jason Statham and produced its sequels?

Luc Besson wrote the script with the partner who later joined him on the Taken films, and the idea was inspired by a series of promotional short films made for BMW.

Which martial-arts star shared the screen with Jason Statham in The One, War and three Expendables films?

Jet Li made five films with Statham in all. In the first, back in 2001, Statham was still a supporting player.

Which action star wrote the script for Jason Statham's 2013 thriller Homefront after first planning to star in it?

Sylvester Stallone first conceived the story as a Rambo sequel, shelved it for a decade, then produced it and handed the lead to Statham.

In a 2013 interview, Jason Statham argued that the Academy Awards should add a category for which film workers?

Stunt performers were, he told Vanity Fair, unsung heroes who risk their necks while actors pretend to have done the work. He is known for doing much of his own action.

In the 2003 remake of The Italian Job, which member of the heist crew is Jason Statham's getaway driver?

Handsome Rob is the crew's wheelman, and the plan relies on three heavily modified Mini Coopers small enough to carry stolen gold out through a mansion.

Which of the four friends does Jason Statham play in his debut film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels?

Bacon is one of four small-time London criminals who pool £100,000 for a card game that turns out to be rigged, leaving them a week to find £500,000.

What is the name of the rule-bound driver for hire Jason Statham plays in the first three Transporter films?

Frank Martin is a decorated former special operations soldier who takes illicit driving jobs in the south of France and holds himself to three strict rules.

Which high-street clothing brand was Jason Statham modelling for when he met the director of his first film?

French Connection said it chose Statham because it wanted a model who looked like a normal guy, very masculine and not too much like a male model.

Jason Statham represented England in 1990 at which multi-sport event, where his best finish was eighth?

The Commonwealth Games saw him place eighth, tenth and eleventh across three events. He later said his years in the national squad taught him discipline and kept him out of trouble.

Jason Statham's 2011 hitman thriller The Mechanic remade a 1972 film that starred which American tough-guy actor?

Charles Bronson first played Arthur Bishop, an assassin who makes his killings look like accidents. A trailer for the remake was banned in Britain for excessive violence.

The Bank Job cast Jason Statham in a story based on a real 1971 vault burglary at which London address?

Baker Street is where thieves emptied the safety deposit boxes of a Lloyds branch, and the film's makers claimed the story was hushed up to protect a member of the royal family.

In Death Race, Jason Statham's framed convict is forced to race behind the mask of which legendary driver?

Frankenstein had died after his last race, so the prison warden offers freedom to a skilled stand-in who can keep the crowd-pulling legend alive behind the mask.

In The Beekeeper, Jason Statham's retired assassin seeks revenge after his landlady loses her savings to what?

A phishing scam empties her accounts, including $2 million belonging to a charity she runs, and he traces the thieves to a call centre and then far up the chain.

In Wrath of Man, Jason Statham's secretive new recruit, known only as H, takes a job guarding what?

Armoured trucks are his way in: the film, loosely based on the 2004 thriller Cash Truck, slowly reveals that the new guard is hunting the robbers who killed his son.

Jason Statham voiced which lawnmower-racing bully from the Red garden in the animated film Gnomeo & Juliet?

Tybalt is the hero's nemesis and Juliet's cousin, modelled on the hot-headed kinsman of the same name in the Shakespeare play the film loosely follows.

Jason Statham makes a fleeting appearance, credited only as Airport Man, in which 2004 Tom Cruise film?

Collateral gives him only moments on screen, and the co-director of his first driver-for-hire film has said he reads the scene as that same character making a delivery.

Jason Statham has an uncredited role as a murdered football coach in which 2006 comedy co-starring Beyoncé?

The Pink Panther opens with his character, France's coach Yves Gluant, killed by a poison dart just after a win, while his priceless diamond ring vanishes.

Which actress plays the Florida estate agent who teams up with Jason Statham's thief in the 2013 film Parker?

Jennifer Lopez plays Leslie, a struggling divorcee who discovers the thief's identity is fake and, desperate for money, offers to help with his next job.

Which two-time Oscar winner plays the captive mentor Jason Statham's retired assassin must free in Killer Elite?

Robert De Niro plays Hunter, whose life depends on his protege finishing a $6 million job. The film is based on Ranulph Fiennes's 1991 book The Feather Men.

While filming The Expendables 3, Jason Statham drove a truck with failed brakes off the road and into which sea?

The Black Sea swallowed the truck at Varna, on Bulgaria's coast, after its brakes malfunctioned during the shoot.

Which actress appeared with Jason Statham in a 30-second Super Bowl advert for the website builder Wix in 2017?

Gal Gadot shared the spot with him during Super Bowl LI, and CNET reported that the advert went on to reach 22 million user impressions.

Jason Statham appeared in three British television adverts in 2003 for which chocolate bar?

Kit Kat put him in three commercials in 2003, the year after he took his first lead role in an action film.

Which British rom-com star plays the arms dealer opposite Jason Statham in Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre?

Hugh Grant plays the dealer trying to sell a stolen high-tech device to the highest bidder, while Statham's agent, Orson Fortune, races to get it back.

Jason Statham's 2015 film Wild Card, about a bodyguard with a gambling addiction, is set in which city?

Las Vegas is where his character hires himself out as a chaperone. The film remakes a 1986 Burt Reynolds thriller, and both are based on a William Goldman novel.

In The Fate of the Furious, Jason Statham's character rescues whose baby son from a villain's plane?

Dom Toretto strikes the deal through the rescuer's mother, offering to arrange freedom from government custody for her two sons if they get his child off the aircraft.

Jason Statham plays the lead villain, a kidnapper traced through a stranger's phone call, in which 2004 thriller?

Cellular has a kidnapped teacher dial a random number from a smashed phone and reach a young man played by Chris Evans. Her captors turn out to be crooked LAPD cops.

Which veteran horror director gave Jason Statham an early Hollywood role in the 2001 film Ghosts of Mars?

John Carpenter's film was meant to have Statham in the lead, but the producers wanted more star power, so Ice Cube took that part and Statham played Jericho Butler.

What job is Jason Statham's former Royal Marine doing when his employer's daughter is kidnapped in A Working Man?

Construction foreman Levon Cade has tried to put his military past behind him in Chicago, and at first he refuses the family's money. The film adapts the 2014 novel Levon's Trade.

Jason Statham was born to a dancer and a street seller in Shirebrook, a town in which English county?

Derbyshire was home only briefly: he moved to the seaside town of Great Yarmouth, where he chose martial arts over following his father onto the market stalls.

Before his film career, Jason Statham appeared in the 1994 music video for Run to the Sun by which synth-pop duo?

Erasure shot the video in Berlin, and it was one of three pop promos he turned up in during the 1990s, along with clips for the Shamen and the Beautiful South.

Which Spider-Man villain was drawn to resemble Jason Statham in Marvel's Ultimate comics at the writer's request?

Vulture got the actor's likeness from artist Mark Bagley because writer Brian Michael Bendis told him to. In that universe the man in the wings is Blackie Drago, a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

Jason Statham's 2007 fantasy film In the Name of the King was inspired by which video game series?

Dungeon Siege reached the screen through director Uwe Boll, and the $60 million budget made it the most expensive film he had made.

According to The Guardian, Jason Statham expressed interest around 2015 in playing which famous British screen hero?

James Bond was within his range, the paper's writer argued, since the character's accent had already wandered between Sean Connery's Scottish and Timothy Dalton's Welsh.

In Transporter 2, Jason Statham's driver fights off carjackers who try to steal his new car from which German make?

Audi supplied the A8 W12 saloon he drives in the sequel, and another A8 crashing into his house is what sets the third film going.

Which actor replaced Jason Statham as the lead when the Transporter series was rebooted in 2015?

Ed Skrein took over after Statham turned down a three-film deal, unhappy with the pay on offer and with being asked to sign before he had seen a script.

Jason Statham played a car racer in the 2014 music video for Summer, a hit by which DJ and producer?

Calvin Harris premiered the Emil Nava-directed video in April 2014, and the single went on to earn two nominations at the following year's Brit Awards.

Which American actor plays the casino-owning crime boss Macha opposite Jason Statham in the 2005 film Revolver?

Ray Liotta plays Dorothy Macha, whose orders once sent Statham's gambler to prison. The two actors shared the screen again two years later in a fantasy film.

Which actor plays Gator, the backwoods meth-lab boss who menaces Jason Statham's former agent in Homefront?

James Franco plays Gator Bodine, who is pulled into the feud by his sister after a schoolyard fight between her son and the hero's daughter.

In the 2011 British thriller Blitz, Jason Statham's detective hunts a serial killer who is targeting whom?

Police officers in South East London are the victims, and Statham plays Detective Sergeant Tom Brant, a recurring character from Ken Bruen's crime novels.