Chan and Tucker, buddies of the 'Hour'

Jackie Chan, right, showed Chris Tucker his old stomping ground in Hong Kong.

(CNN) -- "Rush Hour 2" took the express lane to the top of the box office charts over the weekend, with more than $66 million in ticket sales. In this sequel to the 1998 action-comedy "Rush Hour," Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan once again star as a pair of mismatched cross-cultural cops. This time much of the action is in Hong Kong, where the cast spent weeks filming.

The "Rush Hour" stars paused long enough to talk with CNN "Showbiz Today Reports" correspondent Lauren Hunter about the film and working together.

CNN: How do you make "Rush Hour 2" bigger and better than the original?

Jackie Chan: Part 2, they give whatever we want -- money, time. Then, how can we make (it) better for the audience? We just don't know, but at the end we do the best we can.

Chan says the chemistry works with Tucker because they are from different cultures

Chris Tucker: This movie, we just had more fun and it was a better setup, because (in) the first movie we were establishing the characters, but this movie we already know each other. We know the background of the characters, so we're partners now. (And) we're in a whole 'nother place, Hong Kong.

CNN: Jackie said he took care of you in Hong Kong, that he made sure you were well-cared for.

Tucker: He bought me a ... tailor-made suit from his shop, took me out to his restaurant out there and got something to eat, and we went to his old fighting grounds where he used to get beat up.

CNN: He gave you food that you couldn't identify because you weren't familiar with it?

Tucker: He played a little trick on me about feeding me everything in the sea. I ate a couple of squid legs that I didn't know. I thought it was spaghetti. And he's playing tricks on me like that.

I had some frog spit soup. I didn't think that was funny. You know, you're supposed to tell a brother what's he's eating before he eats.

CNN: It looks like Chris is a lot more involved in the stunts, that he's much more physical, which must be Jackie's doing.

Chan: After Part 1, he (Chris) knows the action is also very important. He has a trainer with him to do martial arts, and he tells me "Jackie, I want more fight." ... I show him how to fight and I just create more things for him -- you know, flip over, punch, kicking. He doing pretty good.

Tucker: Jackie was talking me into doing stuff that I would never do. We had to hang off of a 40-story building in Hong Kong because we didn't want to ... do no fake stuff. So he said, "Come on, Chris, we must get this shot, it is OK. The bamboo won't break." I said, "How you know it won't break?"

You know, I'm hanging off of this building in Hong Kong (and saying): "Why am I doing this?"

CNN: How do you have such great chemistry on screen and off?

Chan: I think (it's because) we both are from different countries. ...He speak English I don't understand, and I speak English and he don't understand. And he's black, I'm Chinese, and he's from America, and I'm from China: different culture, different background. I think that makes the chemistry work.

Tucker: Jackie is just a good, cool guy. ... I admire him a lot, because I like his discipline, his focus, and stuff. We have a good time together, just hanging out, talking.

Chan: We (are) like buddy.