Jet Li is one of Hollywood's most accomplished martial arts actors who has showcased his talents in a multitude of demanding and diverse roles.

Li began training at the Beijing Martial Arts Academy at the age of nine. Just two years later he captured the title of China's National Martial Arts Champion.

This earned him a slot on the prestigious Beijing Martial Arts Team that would go on to tour America. As part of a world tour in 1974, he had the honour of performing a two-man fight for President Nixon on the White House lawn.

By his mid-teens, he was already a national martial arts coach. By 18, Li had earned the title of National Martial Arts Champion a total of four times (1975, 1977, 1978 and 1979) a record no one has broken.

Li retired from competition at 20 and was immediately offered many starring film roles and subsequently began his film career with director Chang Hsin Yen for Shaolin Temple (1979). Upon its release, Li was propelled into instant movie stardom and he would go on to act on the two sequels that precipitated the kung-fu mania in 1980s China.

Jet Li was bitten by the silver screen bug.

In the late 80s he moved his career to Hong Kong where he played such martial arts icons as Huang Fei Hung in Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China (1991); Fong Shi Yu in The Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk (1993); Zhang San Feng in The Tai Chi Master (1993); Chen Zhen in Shaolin Kung Fu (1994); and Hung Hei-Kwun in The New Legend of Shaolin (1994).

In homage to the great Bruce Lee, he remade Lee's Fist Of Fury, as Fist Of Legend (1997). Li then expanded his repertoire to include comedy, drama and romance genres with Bodyguard from Beijing (1994) and My Father is a Hero (1995).

Despite his growing fame in Asia, Jet Li was still largely unknown in North America and Europe. This would all change when he took on the role of Mel Gibson's nemesis in the high octane block buster, Lethal Weapon 4.

Li was quickly shaping up to be a global force to be reckoned with. He built on his initial success taking a starring role in Joel Silver's explosive inter-racial take on Shakespeare, Romeo Must Die (2000).

In 2001, Li continued to challenge himself with The One, playing the Jekyll and Hyde police officer, Gabriel Yulaw.

His latest success was Kiss of the Dragon (2001) where he played the starring role as well as donning writing and producing hats.

Li's future projects include a Joel Silver produced action-adventure film in the vein of Indiana Jones. He has also teamed up with Mel Gibson's Icon Productions to produce a martial arts television series for TBS entitled Invincible.

Jet Li's Kung Fu features have attracted millions of viewers worldwide. He has earned credibility from all sectors of society from teenagers (nominated MTV Awards for Best Villain for Lethal Weapon 4 as well as Best Fight Sequence for Romeo Must Die) to women (voted one of the Top 25 Sexiest Men in Showbiz by E! Online).

Q: Would you describe Hero as a martial arts movie?

A: I believe you can use martial arts to tell a different story. Ang Lee used martial arts to talk about love, between one man and two women. Zhang Yimou is one of the best directors on mainland China - this is his first action film, but he has done his own story.

Q: How difficult is it to put one of these fight scenes together?

A: We spent six months shooting in China, with post-production for another year. It is not so difficult in that we didn't have a time schedule when we were shooting, everybody supported the director: with the kind of martial arts needed to support a character, the kind of locations we needed, and so on. Everybody supported him. Thankfully he did a wonderful job.

Q: Is it ever dangerous?

A: Not dangerous at all for me. It is okay, after the training for the other actors. For me it is not dangerous at all.

Q: What do you see as the themes of the movie?

A: The whole film is a unique action movie. Different colours talk about the different story perspectives, they have love with very beautiful scenes. The most important message is that violence is not the only solution.