{"id":27423,"date":"2026-11-03T14:51:40","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T14:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scandalplanet.com\/?p=312814"},"modified":"2026-11-03T14:51:40","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T14:51:40","slug":"jason-statham-and-bai-ling-the-crank-2-set-photos-behind-the-viral-weirder-sequel-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ghanahookup.com\/videos\/jason-statham-and-bai-ling-the-crank-2-set-photos-behind-the-viral-weirder-sequel-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Jason Statham and Bai Ling: The Crank 2 Set Photos Behind the Viral \u201cWeirder Sequel\u201d Post"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Nico Grey \u00b7 Published

The viral photos of Jason Statham with a woman grinding on his leg come from the set of Crank: High Voltage (2009). She is actress Bai Ling, who played Ria, a wild street girl who glues herself to Statham\u2019s Chev Chelios after he saves her life.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every set has one actor who\u2019s working and one who\u2019s living. On the Crank 2 set in 2008, Jason Statham was working. Bai Ling was living. Seventeen years later the internet finally noticed, and 3.4 million people needed a minute.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Nico
Nico Grey \u00b7 Photo: Mirko Tabasevic \/ NicoGrey.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The post that started it went up on Nov. 2, 2026, from @Laineytales<\/a> on X: two photos, one caption, \u201cJason Statham realizing the crazy sequel just got even weirder.\u201d By the next night it had passed 3.4 million views and 14,800 likes, and the replies were split three ways: people who knew it was Crank 2, people who swore they had seen her at a Halloween party, and people who just wanted to know what the hell they were looking at.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what you\u2019re looking at. Bai Ling, in a purple crop top, denim hot pants, candy-striped socks and pink heels, one hand on Statham\u2019s head, one leg wrapped around his. Statham, in his black zip jacket, staring into the middle distance like a man calculating how many takes are left. That\u2019s not a paparazzi ambush. That\u2019s a working day on the Los Angeles set of Crank: High Voltage, shot in spring 2008 with the camera guys in the frame (ComingSoon<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Bai Ling as Ria with Jason Statham in Crank: High Voltage (2009). Open the clip<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/video><\/p>\n

This is Ria in her natural habitat: an LA sidewalk. Bai Ling sprints after Jason Statham\u2019s Chev Chelios in denim hot pants and a ripped purple crop top, ends up flat on the pavement with her top giving up the fight, then pops back up to tell him \u201cI\u2019m clean like a baby.\u201d Same outfit as the viral set photos.<\/p>\n

Bai Ling as Ria with Jason Statham in Crank: High Voltage (2009) (0:18) \u00b7 more Bai Ling scenes<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jason Statham realizing the crazy sequel just got even weirder. \ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n

\u2014 Lainey (@Laineytales) November 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Who is Ria, and why is she climbing Jason Statham?<\/h2>\n

Ria is Bai Ling\u2019s character in Crank 2, and she\u2019s written about as subtle as a car alarm. In the film she gets blown out of a second-floor window, Chev Chelios saves her life, and from that moment she decides she belongs to him. \u201cFrom now on, that you saved my life, I am yours,\u201d is how Bai Ling described it to Dark Horizons<\/a> in 2009. Chev is busy hunting the Chinese gangsters who stole his heart and replaced it with a battery, so he tells her to get lost. She tells him: \u201cYou need me like Whitney Houston.\u201d<\/p>\n

The script even spells it out. One of Ria\u2019s lines is \u201cYou want sticky me?\u201d, followed by the stage direction \u201cstarts humping Chev.\u201d If you\u2019re wondering what the set photos look like on screen, that\u2019s your answer.<\/p>\n

\"Bai<\/a><\/p>\n

Bai Ling told Gizmodo<\/a> she rewrote most of it on the spot. \u201cThey ask me to read specifically what they\u2019ve written, because they think it\u2019s funny. I ask, \u2018Can I do something else?\u2019 They say sure, so I start to improvise,\u201d she said. \u201cSo they let me do whatever I want to do, and say whatever I want to say. \u2018Just keep going, Bai Ling!’\u201d She also did her own stunts, including getting hit by a car on wires, and nearly smashed her face on the pavement doing it.<\/p>\n

On set, she called Ria \u201ca beautiful, free, giving and loving character\u2026 She\u2019s crazy, but she\u2019s innocent\u201d (Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>). To 8Asians<\/a> she was blunter: \u201cShe\u2019s just a funny, fearless, and bold crazy character.\u201d<\/p>\n

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NICO\u2019S TAKE<\/span><\/div>\n
\"Nico<\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve been behind the camera since 2001 and shot more than 2,000 scenes, and I know that look on Statham\u2019s face. It\u2019s not shock. It\u2019s a professional doing math: how many more takes, how much light is left, and whether the leg is going to be in frame.<\/p>\n

And I know the other look too. Bai Ling wasn\u2019t acting crazy for the photographers. That\u2019s a woman who got handed a thin part and decided to set it on fire. The directors let her run. Half her dialogue is hers. That\u2019s how you steal a movie from a guy who gets electrocuted every ten minutes.<\/p>\n

My take: the internet thinks this is a funny photo of a confused action star. It\u2019s actually a photo of the only person on that street having more fun than the camera crew. Seventeen years later she\u2019s still the most talked-about thing in the movie. Statham would tell you the same, if he ever said more than four words.<\/p>\n

Her wild side, scene by scene, is on her Scandal Planet page<\/a> \u2192<\/p>\n

\u2014 Nico<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The crazy sequel: what Crank: High Voltage actually is<\/h2>\n

Crank: High Voltage is the 2009 sequel to Crank (2006), written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. Statham\u2019s hitman Chev Chelios survives the helicopter fall from the first film, wakes up with an artificial heart, and has to keep jolting himself with electricity to stay alive while he hunts for his real one. It was filmed in 31 days in Los Angeles, from April 28 to June 9, 2008, on cheap consumer HD camcorders, with the directors shooting much of it themselves, Neveldine sometimes on rollerblades (Wikipedia<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Statham knew exactly what he signed up for. \u201cHigh voltage is an understatement,\u201d he said in 2008. \u201cThey locked themselves in a room for three days with five bottles of tequila and wrote the most offensive, outrageous script I\u2019ve ever read.\u201d Then he added: \u201cPoor Amy Smart, that\u2019s my concern. There is a very indulgent sex scene on a race track\u201d (Gizmodo<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Crank: High Voltage official trailer (Lionsgate Movies, YouTube)<\/p>\n

The critics didn\u2019t save it. The New York Times called it \u201cboorish, bigoted and borderline pornographic.\u201d The Guardian\u2019s film blog asked if it was \u201cthe most offensive film in recent memory\u201d (The Guardian<\/a>). It opened at No. 6 in North America with about $7 million and finished at $34.6 million worldwide, then sold more than 800,000 DVDs and became a cult film.<\/p>\n

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\"Bai<\/a>
Bai Ling as Ria chasing Chev Chelios down an LA street in Crank 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bai<\/a>
Bai Ling on the pavement as Ria in Crank: High Voltage (2009)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jason<\/a>
Jason Statham as Chev Chelios looking down at Bai Ling in Crank 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bai<\/a>
Bai Ling and Jason Statham in Crank 2: ‘I’m clean like a baby’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Who else is in Crank 2: Amy Smart, the racetrack and the catfight<\/h2>\n

Bai Ling isn\u2019t the only woman making Statham\u2019s day weird. Amy Smart<\/a> is back as Eve, Chev\u2019s girlfriend, now working as a stripper, and she gets the scene Statham was worried about: public sex on a racetrack in front of a crowd (the scene was shot at Los Alamitos Race Course), to keep his heart charged. Ria and Eve also get into a catfight. \u201cShe beats me, too. She\u2019s tough. It\u2019s fun,\u201d Bai Ling told Gizmodo.<\/p>\n

The cast also includes Dwight Yoakam, Efren Ramirez, Clifton Collins Jr., David Carradine, Corey Haim and Geri Halliwell, plus cameos from Lauren Holly<\/a>, Ron Jeremy and Jenna Haze. Statham, for the record, is now married to model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley; here\u2019s what she looks like when she\u2019s not at a premiere<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Bai<\/a><\/p>\n

Bai Ling before and after Crank: the nude scenes<\/h2>\n

Crank 2 was not Bai Ling\u2019s first time making a set uncomfortable. She was Myca in The Crow (1994), Will Smith\u2019s distraction in Wild Wild West (1999), a topless peep-show dancer in David Mamet\u2019s Edmond (2005), Coco in the Cannes-premiered Shanghai Baby (2007), and a working girl at Helen Mirren\u2019s brothel in Love Ranch (2010). In 2009 she told 8Asians the media put \u201ctoo much emphasis on the nipple shots.\u201d Fair. Here are the scenes anyway.<\/p>\n

Bai Ling in Edmond (2005): the topless peep-show scene. Open the clip<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/video><\/p>\n