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When I was backpacking in Morocco last summer, an incident occurred which has been on my mind ever since. Being Asian, I was usually greeted by the locals with the “Konnichiwa!” perfected for Japanese tourists. But once, a young boy, correctly guessing my Chinese origin, said to me, “Jackie Chan!”

That was my first indication of how universal Jackie Chan, the funnyman and action hero, has become. Even in the desert country of Morocco, which seemed a haven free of outside influences, Jackie Chan was known and loved as he is in Asia and America.

Recently I’ve become interested in the role foreign actors play in Hollywood. So I’ve been dutifully watching lots of Hong Kong films with Jet Li and Chow-Yun Fat and French films with Gerard Depardieu and Vincent Perez.

The tie that binds them is that they are all superstars who have been lured away from their native lands by Hollywood. But their common fate has been a failure to cross over to an international audience the way Jackie Chan has.

Hollywood is eager to cash in on actors who have enjoyed success in America after successful careers overseas. But judging by some of the recent American vehicles for these actors, it seems like Hollywood doesn’t have a clue how to use this foreign talent.

I’m sorry to report that Jet Li has been heinously wronged in both of his Hollywood ventures. In “Lethal Weapon 4,” Li plays a bad guy who chokes people with his Buddhist prayer beads. I won’t be petty and dwell on the mistake of casting him as a villain (but really, Jet Li is good as a good guy).

His other Hollywood movie, “Romeo Must Die,” equally disappointed me. When I saw this film, I was struck by the fact that Hollywood filmmakers seem to have trouble with actors who don’t fit the American ideal of beauty.

I was chatting with film director Chi Muoi Lo (well, okay, I was just interviewing him and the subject of Jet Li came up) and he agreed that the filmmakers of “Romeo” had done Li a great disservice. They hadn’t used a proper lens filter to adjust for Li’s complexion, so everybody in the audience sat there looking at Li’s pockmarks and wondering how a guy who looked like that got to be such a huge deal in Asia.

But aside from his complexion, how they managed to make Jet Li so unattractive is a mystery to me. Li is a guy who can look hot even wearing a pigtail.

A similar crime was committed against Vincent Perez by the makers of “I Dreamed of Africa.” Did they never see him in”Indochine?” Was there nothing in the quasi-divinity of his good looks and performance to study and replicate? “Africa” certainly managed to nearly extinguish his charm and reduce him to a balding and dusty pedestal for Kim Basinger’s glowing beauty.

Personally, I like it when filmmakers hide the imperfect human side of my onscreen idols and indulge my schoolgirl obsessions. For Hollywood filmmakers who want to use popular foreign actors, I have this piece of advice: Take half as much care filming them as you do of your middle-aged actresses and our foreign men will hold their own.

Action super-director John Woo knows how to make the best of his actors. He said in a recent Premiere magazine interview, “When I shoot Chow Yun-Fat, I know his specialty: His eyes are very charming, very dramatic, so I focus always on his eyes.” I wonder if Andy Tennant, director of “Anna and the King,” spent any time figuring out how to specifically shoot Chow, as opposed to any other actor.

But beyond this merely cosmetic concern is a worrisome lack of understanding about how to make a foreign actor fit into a Hollywood-style film. Just as Harrison Ford is good at playing a certain type of character, these foreign actors also have certain roles that help them shine. But no effort is made in Hollywood to study their previous work and to learn what these roles are.

Jet Li, for one, is most charming as an innately noble character, very skillful at whooping ass (but only in self-defense), and totally clueless about his effect on the female characters in the film. Hollywood has yet to make use of this effective and highly entertaining type.

Another travesty of filmmaking is Hollywood’s treatment of Gerard Depardieu. Most Americans know him as an oafish Frenchman from roles such as the repulsive musketeer Porthos in “The Man in the Iron Mask.” He’s a larger-than-life figure in French cinema, but nobody in America likes him. That’s primarily because, to get a job in Hollywood, he has to play up the stereotype of the slimy French guy. Never mind that he has built a career in France by portraying elegant and complex characters.

My biggest worry is that Americans who have only seen these wonderful actors in their miscalculated Hollywood ventures will wonder what all the hoopla is about. To these people, I urge and plead with them to endure the subtitles, and to judge foreign actors by some of their own countries’ films.

Get your hands on Jet Li’s “Once Upon a Time in China,” Chow Yun-Fat’s “Shanghai Beach,” Gerard Depardieu’s “The Last Metro” and Vincent Perez’s “Indochine” unless, of course, you’re afraid of agreeing with me.

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