Jackie Chan has praised new technology for making stunt artists' jobs safer.

The king of live action performances is one of the stars of The Lego Ninjago Movie, in which he helped choreograph the animated stunts with his team.

While he insisted the animated film is not a departure from performing his own stunts, he said technology is improving action films while keeping performers safe.

Chan, 63, told the Press Association: "I think it's amazing. When I was young I risked my life doing a lot of stunts.

"Technology is really, really good at helping a movie, helping action sequences, helping all the car chases - in the old days we really used the car and were flipping, hurting so many stunt guys. But these days you don't you just sit with a green screen behind.

"It's so clever. That's how movies should be. Why are you making a movie, hurting myself, hurting my stunt guys.

"Right now, when I'm making a movie I protect all my stunt team because all those years so many people got hurt."

But, he said, he will remain doing his own stunts because of audience expectations and said other actors are lucky that they can rely more heavily on technical trickery.

However, 2017 has seen two rare and high-profile deaths of stunt workers.

John Bernecker, 33, died after falling during filming The Walking Dead and Joi Harris reportedly died during the making of Deadpool 2.

:: The Lego Ninjago Movie is out on October 13 in UK cinemas.