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In Rapid Fire, Brandon Lee plays a pensive art student -- but not so pensive that he can't do flips, kicks and spins in the best martial arts manner. The 27-year-old Mr. Lee was born to play the part. The son of Bruce Lee, he was just 8 when his legendary father died in 1973 at the age of 32. But that still provided enough time for them to train together. "I've always remembered our training together,' he says during a recent Dallas visit. "There were lots of those times. That was the way he lived. Training was such a big part of his life.' His father achieved fame with such camp classics as Enter the Dragon, Return of the Dragon and Fist of Fury. The younger Lee was treated with respect because of his father's celebrity -- as long as his father was alive. Things changed after his father's death, which is ironic considering that Bruce Lee's fame grew larger posthumously. "Maybe it was just a case of my entering into that ! age group where the kids are really mean to each other,' he recalls. "By the time I got to high school, it was definitely "the fastest gun in the West' syndrome. I had a bad temper, and all it would take was for someone to push my button. And kids that age are naturally rude. They'd walk up and say something like, "So you're Bruce Lee's son. So what?' Then they'd punch me in the face, and I was not one to walk away.' Within the movie industry, being the son of Bruce Lee has proved a blessing and a burden. "It helped me get cast in action films,' says Mr. Lee, who starred opposite Dolph Lundgren last year in Showdown in Little Tokyo. "But it hurts in terms of expectations. But I've gotten used to the burden of expectations, and I'm certainly not crying about it. Besides, it's very early in my career.' Mr. Lee was raised largely by his mother, Linda Cadwell, a kindergarten teacher who has remarried and lives in Boise, Idaho. His sister, Shannon, is an asp! iring opera soprano. He feels that the Bruce Lee phenomena was partly a result of timing. "He was the first person to do those kung-fu action films with any kind of production values in America. That made him seem like a pioneer.' Mr. Lee views the motion picture industry cautiously. "Sometimes making a movie can be like climbing a mountain to reach a rose,' he says. "By the time you reach the rose, you've lost your sense of smell. It really is a cutthroat business. Fortunately, I've worked with people I like. But I try not to deal with the business side, which can get very discouraging.' His thoughts on Rapid Fire are completely positive, he says. "On an action level, I definitely like it. It's fresh, different, interesting. You care about the characters. It's not a slugfest.' Still, his favorite films are along more cerebral lines: Being There, Fellini's 8 1/2 and particularly Harold and Maude. "I used to drive a Cadillac hearse in homage to Harold and Maude,' he says. "I just loved that film.' His dream would be to play the role of Eddie if a film were made of David Rabe's searing drama, Hurlyburly. In the play, Eddie is the pseudo-philosophical leader of a group of Hollywood wannabes, a man who is less in control of his life than he likes to believe. "I love the way the dialogue is written. It doesn't read well, but it comes out of the actors' mouths beautifully. All the people in Hurlyburly are absolutely desperate. As social creatures, we put so much veneer on us in order to convince ourselves and others that we're doing fine. People who shed that veneer fascinate me.' Mr. Lee's dream role may have to wait a while. His next film, scheduled to start shooting in October, is The Crow. He'll play a rock singer who comes back from the dead.
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