Kung Fu man lands role in Jackie’s film

THE leafy streets of suburbia are a far cry from the glitz and glamor of a movie set, but for Donvale's Gary Shambrock they are the perfect foil for the commercialism of the enter- tainment scene. A martial artist for more than 15 years, Mr Shambrock last year had his first brush with the big screen, working on martial arts cult figure Jackie Chan's latest movie, Mr Nice Guy. While Mr Shambrock, who runs the Choy Lay Fut Buck Sing Gwoon Kung Fu school in St Kilda, has appeared on television, Mr Nice Guy is his first movie. 
"I only did it because of the martial arts," Mr Shambrock said. "I have clone heaps of extra work and a fight scene on Hey Hey It's Saturday -- I just wanted to see what it was like on the sets." Filmed mostly in Melbourne and Muswellbrook, north west of Newcastle, the film is due for release on July 30. Mr Shambrock said working with the legendary Mr Chan was quite an experience. "They make the story up as they go -- they just tell you what to do and you have to do it," he said. "You don't pull any punches, it's all for real -- (in one scene) Jackie really hits me with a chair." Had he known about Mr Chan's penchant for realism, he would have spent a lot more time padding up before the fights. "They make you do it and do it (each fight manoeuvre) until you're all hyped up and you do it for real." 
 Awarded a part in the movie after showing Mr Chan and his team his prowess, Mr Shambrock was asked to bleach his normally brown hair white.


It's all for real: Gary Shambrock appears in Jackie Chan's latest movie.
"I wouldn't do it again -- I didn't put enough conditioner in and my hair started to fall out." But his shock of white hair makes him easy to spot as a member of a group of drug dealers fighting another gang. Both groups end up fighting Mr Chan. Mr Shambrock choreographed several of the fight scenes he appears in with Mr Chan. "I choreographed the fight scene in (Melbourne's) Daimaru. The stunt men took two hours and the director cracked it, so I got to have a go. " Doing his own stunts throughout the movie left Mr Shambrock with stitches in his leg after jumping through a window, but earned him the respect of the rest of the crew. "A lot of the Chinese did the stunts instead of the Australian (actors) because they were scared of the Australian guys hurting them- selves. But I did my own stunts, I didn't have any doubles. "(In one scene) I had to eat about four chillis and I couldn't eat for a week and I couldn't sleep either. " Mr Shambrock is not surprised his determination to do his own stunts impressed the Chinese film crew. "In St Kilda, we train seriously like they do in China, so I just went along (to an audition) and showed them what I could do and got the part." Mr Shambrock turned to Kung Fu as a youngster living in Perth. "I wanted to do kickboxing, but I ended up at a Kung Fu school," he said.
This article appeared in the Donvale Local Newspaper July 98. Text by JODIE MENZIES, Photo by CHRIS EASTMAN.