For the same reason I still love Kevin Spacey in just about any movie he’s ever done — because we seperate the art from the artist. Jackie Chan, the man, isn’t very pleasant. Adulterer, lousy father, very opportunist about his political beliefs… but in a rotten industry, he’s far from the worst.

Just because Jackie Chan cheated on his wife of four decades with Miss Hong Kong and had an out-of-wedlock daughter whom he didn’t raise or want any association with, doesn’t mean his movies aren’t good, does it? And just because he went from being fully in support of Hong Kong independence to shamelessly licking the arse of the regime in Beijing does not make Jackie Chan’s stunts are any less impressive or that he isn’t a martial arts icon.

In 1989, Jackie Chan was singing heartfelt songs at a memorial concert for the victims of the massacre at Tiananmen Square. He was quite the activist, and he genuinely cared to bring freedom and democracy to China. Fast forward thirty years and Jackie Chan is an enthusiastic supporter of the Chinese state who didn’t mind pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong getting crushed and fully agreed the city of his birth should be brought to heel…

Is this disappointing? Yes. We all love to think the people who play heroes on film are heroes in real life. But that’s just naive. Jackie Chan plays a hero just fine, doesn’t mean he is one anymore than Sean Connery and Tom Cruise are actual spies, or any more than Henry Cavill can actually fly. Meanwhile dopey-looking Steve Buscemi was an actual firefighter who saved several lives and volunteered during 9/11 — you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.