Tony Jaa Career

Stunt work

Tony Jaa initially worked as a stuntman on Panna Rittikrai's team Muay Thai Stunt, appearing in many of Panna's films. He doubled for Sammo Hung when the martial-arts actor made a commercial for an energy drink that required him to grasp an elephant's tusks and somersault onto the elephant's back.He was also a stunt double in the Thai television series "อินทรีย์แดง" ,in english is "Insee Daeng " or (Red Eagle).

Acting  

Panna Rittikrai and "Tony Jaa"  developed the "Muay Thai Boran", an ancient style of Muay Thai and worked and trained for 1 year at the art with the intention of developing a film around it. Eventually they were able to put together a short film showing what Jaa could do. One of the people they showed it to was producer-director Prachya Pinkaew, who was duly impressed.  This led to Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior in 2003, Jaa's break-out role as a leading man. Tony Jaa did all the stunts without mechanical assistance or computer-generated effects and it showcased his style of extreme acrobatics and speedy, dance-like moves. Injuries suffered in the filming included a ligament injury and a sprained ankle. One scene in the film involved fighting with another actor while his own trousers were on fire. "I actually got burned," he said in a 2005 interview. "I really had to concentrate because once my pants were on fire the flames spread upwards very fast and burnt my eyebrows, my eyelashes and my nose. Then we had to do a couple more takes to get it right."

His second project major movie was "Tom-Yum-Goong" or "The Protector" in the US named after a type of Thai soup and including a style of Muay Thai that imitates elephants.  In August 2006, he was in New York to promote the USA release of The Protector, including an appearance at the Museum of the Moving Image