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Hollywood worries about Trump as stars honor Jackie Chan

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AFP Los Angeles
Action movie star Jackie Chan accepted an honorary Oscar as Hollywood A-listers sounded a cautionary note over President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the polls.

Left-leaning Tinseltown overwhelmingly backed Democrat Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House, and stars at the Academy's glitzy Governors Awards yesterday told AFP of their dismay at her defeat.

Asked to compare the night's honoree with Trump, double Oscar-winner Tom Hanks told AFP: "Jackie Chan has the wisdom of the East and the discipline of a master martial artist."

After a lengthy pause, he added: "Our president-elect has a big responsibility and much to prove."
 

For "Big Bang Theory" star Simon Helberg, who plays engineer Howard Wollowitz on the hit comedy series, Trump's victory in Tuesday's election was "a terrible moment for the world".

The 35-year-old, who starred alongside Hugh Grant and Meryl Streep in "Florence Foster Jenkins", said change was needed but hoped a Trump presidency wouldn't "damage our future".

"The truth is not enough people showed up and that's what we have to listen to. I hope that we can squash the violence and the bigotry, and whatever else this has unleashed before it gets out of hand," he told AFP.

Andre Royo, best known for starring as a heroin addict in HBO crime drama series "The Wire", said he was feeling "stressed out" by the prospect of a Trump White House.

"But I think we took for granted our perception of our country," Royo told AFP.

"I think we were a little delusional and a little naive... And now we got reminded that we've got work to do and growing to do, as a culture."

Chan, known for his comic timing and acrobatic fighting style, has appeared in around 200 movies since becoming a child actor in his native Hong Kong in the 1960s.

His Hollywood breakthrough came with "Rumble in the Bronx" in 1996, and he has gone on to be become a global star through the "Rush Hour" movies, "Shanghai Noon", "The Karate Kid" and the "Kung Fu Panda" series of animated films.

The 62-year-old -- who shared a table with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone -- left politics out of an unscripted acceptance speech.

But he roused Hollywood's Ray Dolby Ballroom with an anecdote about realizing how badly he wanted an Academy Award after going to Stallone's house 23 years earlier and touching, kissing and smelling the American actor's Oscar statuette.

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First Published: Nov 13 2016 | 9:42 PM IST

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