Sitting down for a one-on-one conversation with Jet Li, even for a little over ten minutes (13-minutes and 43-seconds to be exact), is truly a seminal moment in a person’s career. Well, a seminal moment in my career, I can’t speak for anyone else. I discovered the martial arts superstar during my first year of college, and from that point on an entire smorgasbord of Asian film was unleashed upon my consciousness.

Li, Chan, Woo, Hark, Lam, Yun-Fat, Yeoh; it’s a very real possibility I wouldn’t have learned to embrace any of them had I not discovered Once Upon a Time in China and Jet Li. “Thank you,” said the actor, grabbing my hand in both of his and shaking it warmly with one of the most pleasant smiles I’ve ever encountered, “thank you very much. I am so pleased you like my work.”

I was at the Four Seasons Olympic in downtown Seattle to talk to the actor about his latest film, Jet Li’s Fearless, an historical spectacular following Chinese hero and legend Huo Yuanjia. Making a movie about the character had been a lifelong dream of Li’s. Now, upon its release in the United States, he’s even announced it will be his last motion picture dealing with the subject of martial arts.

“In Chinese martial arts we call Wushu,” states Li, scribbling furiously on a piece of paper diagramming what it is he’s trying to say. “It’s two words put together. ‘Wu’ is ‘stop.’ ‘Shu’ is ‘war.’ Bringing together they are ‘stop war’ or ‘stop fighting,’ that is what Wushu means. What real martial arts means.”

Jet Li and Sun Li - Photo copyright © Focus Features

“Now, in the past, even I and a lot of other people make a lot of action movie more focus on fight. More focus on ‘war’ and less on ‘stop.’ We see a lot of action film and mostly we see them talk about the physical martial art; the good guy have trouble learning martial art but then at end beat up the bad guy, use violence against violence. It’s like that kind of story.”

At this point Li apologizes for his English. I tell him his English is just great and I say I’m sorry for not learning Chinese for our interview. This makes him laugh. “No American learned Chinese yet to interview me. Maybe next time you be the first.”

After we get done chuckling, Li continued expounding why this movie was so important to him. “This film talk about the more mental. Physical is only part of martial arts. If you want to be a real martial artist, if you want to know how to learn martial arts; why we learn martial arts, what is martial arts, why we need martial arts; this is why. We always find enemies from outside our bodies but [in Fearless] we talk about [how] real martial artist faces enemies within himself. You need to beat up yourself. That’s the most important thing.”

“I heard a lot of parents complain about action films because it’s like violent, violent, violent. But think about it. The gun by itself [not] violent; no good, no evil. It all depends on who uses it. Martial arts also is not good and is not evil. It depends on who uses the martial arts. How do they use it. That’s a very important part of it.”

But what does this have to do with Li and his career? “In the past I’ve made some movies and I see the younger audience out on the street saying, ‘Cool! Jet Li! Martial arts! Beat someone! Beat someone!’ They are more focused on the violence.” The actor takes a sip of water, crossing out a few of the scribbles on notepad before finally switching to a clean page. “They more focused on the violent things. They believe in someone who might have the ability [and] that’s the cool thing because they can do whatever they want. Beating someone up, that’s the cool side.”

“But I feel guilty just giving that partial information about Wushu. I wanted to give more. Wushu is much more than that. Not just physical. Not just violence. You need to [have] honor. You need to have the ability. You need to understand the philosophy. You need to [have] responsibility. You need to become a nice person. Now you know how to use martial arts. For that point I talk about how this [Jet Li’s Fearless] is the last Wushu martial arts movie I will do. Everything I want to say, everything that I believe personally from learning martial arts over thirty years, I put [all] into this movie.”

"Jet Li's Fearless" - Photo copyright © Focus Features

Of course, that doesn’t mean Li is done with action movies completely by any stretch of the imagination. “I will still be making movies,” grins the international superstar, “and they will still have some action in [them]. But action like any other movie, not specifically about martial arts. Cop beats up the mafia, that kind of fighting. But fighting is just physical contact, it is not martial arts. Two arms, two legs, fighting; it is part of the action story. It is just like a car chase in action films.”

“This [Jet Li’s Fearless] gave me the opportunity to use real martial arts life to tell the story about Huo’s life. You can see it in the movie. You can see what I want to share with the audience about my personal martial arts beliefs.”

And those beliefs can be found in the journey the main character takes in the film. Huo begins as prideful martial arts champion looking to destroy all opponents. By the end of the picture the character is more concerned about respecting his adversary and upholding the honor of his countrymen than he is in beating people up. He respects his challengers and he respects himself, and it is that personal growth and maturity Li hopes people will take note of.

“In martial arts movies we see lots of people always looking for revenge,” comments Li. “My father died and you killed him and now I must get revenge. We see in human history [people] always looking for revenge, thousands of years of fighting, and maybe we imagine in another two hundred years they are still fighting over same things. Fighting fighting fighting, revenge revenge revenge.”

“This circle, it never stops. What I talk about in martial arts is that the physical contact is just one step. The next step is without the physical contact. If you can stop fighting, if you use you knowledge, if you use your intelligence, if you use your everything to stop the violent behavior before the contact than [that] is better.”

“The last part is love. If you can learn love than you can turn your enemy to become your friend, not just kill them. Kill them is just easy [but] they will revenge. A third party; their friends, their relatives, their loved ones; will come back and revenge. Loving them is bigger. It is better. This is what happens in [the] film. This is what I wanted to talk about with the martial arts.”

Talking about different cultures gets the actor excited, his scribbles becoming even more animated and his eyes brightening the more he gets to expound upon his beliefs. “[Journalists] ask me all the time if Chinese Wushu martial arts better than Japan? Japan better than American? American better than Thailand? Thailand better than China? Lots of these kinds of questions.” Li catches his breath and takes another drink of water. “I want to [answer] that it really depends on who is learning. It is not the sports by themselves. It’s the person. They make it better. People always confuse [these] types of questions.”

It was this philosophy that pushed the action icon to want to play this particular character so badly. “It was very important to me,” comments Li, “because martial arts is his life. Everything he learns in life he learned through the martial arts.”

“Jet Li also. Since eight-years-old up to now, I [have been] learning martial arts. Martial arts is part of my life. I learn everything; my philosophy, how I look at the world, politics, acting, business; everything is from a martial arts philosophy.”

And did the eight-year-old little boy ever imagine he’d be a world-wide superstar thirty-plus years later? “No, of course not,” laughs Li. “In the beginning few years I only learned the physical part, nobody [taught] me the mental until I was 16 or 17. That was when I start learning. Wushu always talk about the balance, the yin and yang. That was how I learned to see the world.”

“When you see the world man always complain to the woman. The woman always complain to the man. Children complain to their parents. The parents complain to their children. Employee complain to the [boss]. [Boss] complain to the employee. Country complains to the other country. Always is two sides.”

“Because of my Wushu philosophy I try to look at things from the other side. Look at how the other is thinking. If you do this a few times you will start to understand why the employee would want more vacation, why the boss would want the employee to work harder. You know the ‘why’ of what it is the other wants. Because you know this you understand their heart and you can respect their work. Because you understand you can reach compromise.”

Suddenly the actor turns serious. “The other motivation to make this movie is, in China, there are quarter-million suicides. Very terrible thing. This very painful to me. So I make this movie to tell people in Asia, ‘Don’t give up. Be strong.’ Because everybody, even the [person] you think is a tough guy hero, they all have pain and hardship in their life.”

“Jet Li may be your idol but Jet Li also have a hard time in his life. I’ve broken my leg, I’ve broken my ribs, the doctor tell me stop working but I cannot; I’ve had a hard time, too. So, be strong. I want to tell the younger people to be strong, to not get up. Life is not easy but by being strong and not giving up you can make it wonderful.”

With Jet Li’s Fearless completed and with it saying all he wanted about the subject of martial arts, what could Li have up his sleeve next? “I did a movie already,” says the actor. “It’s just your typical action movie for Lionsgate and will be out next year. And then, now, I am getting ready to work on another movie.”

Li’s eyes light up and big smile crosses his face. “A lot of people talk about Jackie Chan and Jet Li and whether they one day make a movie together. I think we finally do that. Start shooting next April. We’ve been friends long time and we been talking about making a movie together for fifteen years. Finally we can make it. It will be a good movie for families.”

Any more details? “No,” laughs Li. “You will just have to wait and see.”