Jason Statham doesn’t so much get nervous as he gets energised.
After more than three decades of car chases, fight scenes and near-death stunts, the British actor says the familiar pre-shoot jitters now register as excitement rather than fear.
The 58-year-old is back on screens in Shelter, a new high-octane thriller that casts him as a reclusive former assassin whose quiet life is blown apart when he rescues a young girl and is forced to confront both violent enemies and the past he thought he’d left behind.
Statham has long made a point of performing as many of his own stunts as possible and has repeatedly argued that stunt performers deserve their own category at the Oscars.
It is a commitment that has come at a cost. In previous interviews, he has spoken about tearing a bicep and “screwing up” his neck while filming, and Shelter proved no exception.
“I’m still going strong,” he tells The Standard.
One of the most gruelling sequences involved an open-sea rescue, which he describes as particularly punishing. Even so, nerves are no longer something he dwells on.
He added: “You get excited, it’s nerves in an excited way,” he tells The Standard. “It’s more of an issue of ‘I want to make this good’, ‘I want to push the bar up a little bit’. I want to do everything I can to give the most I can give.”
When he is not leaping off boats or outrunning explosions, Statham’s version of downtime is surprisingly low-key.
Asked where he escapes the red carpets and flashing lights, Statham, who shares two kids with partner Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, laughs: “As my Shelter? Crystal Palace skate park, how ’bout that?
“With the boys. Come down every Saturday, we’re there.”
His young scene partner, played by Bodhi Rae Breathnach, says working with Statham on her first action film was “inspiring”.
Breathnach, who also appears in awards contender Hamnet, describes being on set with him as formative.
“I think it was just seeing him work on set and being so passionate,” the 14-year-old says. “[And] getting to work with the best of the best on my first ever action film that itself is so inspiring to me and I was so grateful I got to work with him.”
Director Ric Waugh, who also has Statham on board as an executive producer, calls the collaboration “awesome”, praising both his energy and attention to detail.
“I heard he was a force of nature, I might have underestimated [him],” Waugh, known for Angel Has Fallen and Greenland, admits. “He shows up on set, he’s in it to win it.
“He gives me the space to be a filmmaker but he’s embracing me in a way that makes me feel supported and knowing that I’m going to support him so when you have that kind of collaboration, hopefully great things happen.
“I’m really proud of this movie and of he and Bodhi Rae - I think their chemistry is undeniable.”
Statham, meanwhile, jokes that audiences “will be sick of me by the end of the year”.
He has several films slated for release in 2026, including Mutiny, a sequel to The Beekeeper, and Viva La Madness, which reunites him with longtime collaborator Guy Ritchie.
“I owe Ritchie a lot as he started my career so I'm excited to be back with him,” he says, before admitting he was keeping his lips sealed about the project, other than that filming starts next week.
Shelter hits cinemas on Friday, January 30
