A sizable hit that would earn Statham increasingly prominent roles in such high profile pics as The Italian Job, and Cellular, The Transporter established Stratham as a bankable international action star and was eventually followed by a 2005 sequel that miraculously managed the improbable feat of upping the ante of the previous installment's over-the-top cartoon violence. Just as audiences were finally standing up to take notice of the amiable tough-guy, Stratham stepped into his own as the action lead of the explosive 2002 adrenaline ride The Transporter. A chance to reteam with former Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrel co-star Vinnie Jones proved too fun an opportunity to resist, and Stratham would round out a particularly busy 2001 with his role in the prison-bound sports remake Mean Machine.
By 2001, he had finished shooting John Carpenter's sci-fi thriller Ghosts of Mars and joined Delroy Lindo in the cast of the Jet Li vehicle The One. In 2000, he made his American film debut as a British drug dealer in Robert Adetuyi's Turn It Up starring Pras Michel. The Guy Ritchie oeuvre that supplied his breakthrough performances is not Statham's only acting arena. By the time of the film's theatrical release, Statham received top billing as its narrator and chief anti-hero. The role began as a small supporting part in Snatch's star-filled ensemble cast but expanded throughout shooting. As this amateur but respectable hoodlum, Statham is attractive, urbane, immaculate, and smart enough to be bewildered by even his own laughable criminal ineptitude. In the director's follow-up crime comedy, Snatch, Ritchie rehired Statham to play Turkish, a smalltime hood vainly trying to break into the world of underground boxing. Bacon supplies a streetwise discipline and restraint that the other characters lack and a sense of humility crucial to Ritchie's film. This unorthodox audition resulted in Statham's big screen debut as Bacon, one of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels' four primary characters engaged in a risky get-rich-quick scheme to repay a massive gambling debt. When the director attempted to return his worthless acquisition - pretending that the gold had turned to stainless steel - Statham was so graciously inflexible that Ritchie hired him. Statham was evidently so persuasive that Ritchie bought four sets. The director challenged Statham to impersonate an illegal street vendor and convince him to purchase a piece of imitation gold jewelry.
Intrigued by Statham's past and impressed by his modeling work, Ritchie invited him to audition for a part in the film. Thus, when French Connection's owner became one of the biggest investors in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, he naturally introduced the diver/model/hustler to knave-hunting Ritchie. Meanwhile, Statham had also earned local fame as a street corner con man, selling stolen jewelry and counterfeit perfume out of a briefcase. This led to an appearance in a Levi's Jeans commercial and a fledgling modeling career. In the late '90s, a talent agent specializing in athletes landed Statham a gig in an ad campaign for the European clothing retailer French Connection.
He was a member of the 1988 British Olympic Team in Seoul, Korea, and remained on the National Diving Squad for ten years. Although Statham had the familial background to go immediately into entertainment, he excelled first on the high dive. Raised in Syndenham, London, he was the second son of a lounge singer and a dressmaker turned dancer. Actor Jason Statham is among the best of them.Ī one-time Olympic diver, fashion model, and black-market salesman, Statham came to acting by way of commercials and "street theater" - a euphemism for hustling tourists on London's Oxford Street. Preferring to cast for authenticity rather than resumé, Ritchie handpicks many of his actors from the true-life cult figures and rascals of London's underbelly. British director Guy Ritchie frequently attributes the success of his unorthodox crime films - 1998's Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, 2000's Snatch - to the fact that his offbeat miscreants are more than believable, they are real.