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Impact Magazine
Nov/Dec 1992
 

Brandon Lee Unleashed

The first magazine I wrote for was Kung Fu Monthly; the late-lamented Bruce Lee poster mag published for EIGHT years after his ultimately passing, the longest running ‘one shot’ in publishing history. Naturally, after five years or so of publication, fresh information on Bruce himself became thin on the ground, and ‘KFM’ devoted column space to the likes of Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris or the then-popular ninjas. A recurring question was : Whatever happened to Brandon Lee? Fans wanted to know if he had continued in his early training in the martial arts, if he too was set on a film career…

Despite this interest, or perhaps because of it, Bruce’s widow, Linda, was steadfast in keeping both her children, Brandon and Shannon, out of the public eye. It was years later that Brandon, who had indeed set his sights on becoming an actor, returned to the limelight. Like his father, he began his career in American television. Bruce made Longstreet and The Green Hornet, Brandon appeared in Kung Fu: The Movie and O’Hara. Both father and son made their starring debuts in Hong Kong, Bruce in The Big Boss, Brandon in Legacy of Rage. Both men were launched in the American market in Warner Bros produced martial arts flicks: Lee Snr in Enter the Dragon and Jnr in Showdown in Little Tokyo. The surface similarities are there, but you have only to set eyes on Brandon to realise that he is not his father’s shadow. His Eurasian good looks are more reminiscent of Keanu Reeves than Bruce Li, and his lean, rangy physique more Eastwood than eastward. Though they share a common spark in the camera’s eye, even Jason Scott Lee looks, more like Bruce than Brandon does. It can be no easy thing to be the son of a legend, but Brandon Lee bears it well, with a genuine pride in his father’s accomplishments and a genuine desire to follow in his own destiny. I was delighted to get the chance to meet him when he came to London to promote his latest film Rapid Fire…

Bey Logan: As someone who’s a devotee of Hong Kong martial arts movies, I was fascinated to see how you incorporated some of the very best elements from their action sequences into Rapid Fire. Was that something you endeavoured to do, or was it the idea of Jeff Imada, your fellow stunt co-ordinator in the film?

Brandon Lee: That was a conscious effort on my part. Those had been the films that had always inspired me the most, so that’s where my influences are.

Bey Logan” That presupposes that you would have the physical ability to pull those moves off. What kind of regimen did you follow prior to Rapid Fire?

Brandon Lee: I had been training pretty hard up until the beginning of the film anyway, so I didn’t have to do any special training. I did some acrobatic classes, very briefly, at the Santa Monica gymnastics club. Pat Johnson turned me on to that, actually. I didn’t find that I had to do any specialised training that I hadn’t already been doing. I’d already been working out pretty hard down at the (Dan) Inosanto Academy. I was doing some weight training and a lot of cardiovascular work, five or six days a week for a couple of hours a day.

Bey Logan: The film was directed by Dwight Little, who made Marked For Death with Steven Seagal. It seemed to combine the ‘street’ realism of his movies with the Hong Kong actioners. Again, was this something you were consciously aiming for?

Brandon Lee: I wouldn’t quite put it that way. I admire Hong Kong films very much because of how creative they are, and the sheer ability of the people who are in them, and the Way they’re shot. You can break those things down into individual pieces of film and you realise how much coverage they needed to get to able to do it the way they did it. I think it’s a real mistake to write the things off as being simplistic, because theyre not.

In terms of complexity, they’re head and shoulders above anything that’s done in America. However, I think perhaps the reasons why they don’t tend to work in America, aside from the obvious cultural barriers, is the fact that they tend to cross the line, for an American audience, into unbelievability. Now I don’t mind that, myself, because I enjoy the sheer theatricality of it, but I think that when you’re making a film for a mainstream American audience that realistic setting that Rapid Fire had is important. You’re not presupporting that the character is a superhero, and you have to walk a very fine line between reality and fantasy. You want to make things a little bit heightened in terms of their reality, but you can’t go too far or else you start losing people in the audience. That’s the balance I was trying to strike.

Bey Logan: The first time I saw you on screen was in the D and B film Legacy of Rage, which was kind of interesting, because I would have thought that the most obvious thing for a Hong Kong company to have done with Bruce Lee’s son would be to have made a Bruce Lee movie, instead they made a John Woo-style gunplay thriller. Again, was that a conscious effort on your part to do something in a different direction from the one taken from your father?

Brandon Lee: At that stage, it was very early in my career, and I wasn’t confident at all with the fight choreography. I didn’t really have anything to do with the fight choreography in that movie, or in  Showdown in Little Tokyo. I didn’t take it onto my own shoulders until Rapid Fire, because I didn’t have a hand in it. I was very uncomfortable just doing what somebody asked me to do.

It’s not that Legacy of Rage fight arranger, Mung Hoi wouldn’t have done a great job, because im sure that he would have, it’s just that I personally wasn’t too comfortable with it because I didn’t know him. I didn’t want to churn out a movie that had martial arts in it that was not a very personal thing for me. Rapid Fire is very personal because I chose the moves. It’s not to say it’s better, it just makes me more comfortable.

Bey Logan: I love the scene near the end of Legacy of Rage where you and Mung Hoi just shoot the fuck out of the bad guy’s lair. Did you have any experience with the firearms prior to the film?

Brandon Lee: Oh, not. None at all.

Bey Logan: That must have been pretty hairy then, because I know they don’t mess around over there in terms of using squibs and even live ammo.

Brandon Lee: Yeah. We went out onto a beach with the weapons master and just shot the hell out of this beach for a couple of days. It was a lot of fun.

Bey Logan: How was it working in Hong Kong on Legacy of Rage? Did you have any trepidations about walking in your father’s footsteps?

Brandon Lee: Well, in the heart of the night, definitely, but I have a strong drive to do this work as an actor, and that tends to overcome my worries I have. That’s not to say they’re not there, but you can’t let it them come to the forefront of your mind or your spirit or you’ll be crushed. You have to hold tight to your own purpose, and just go after it.

Bey Logan: D & B announced that you were going to make Legacy of Rage 2, which was to co-star Donnie Yen and be filmed in the US. Why did the film never happen?

Brandon Lee: You know, I don’t even know anything about that. I never even heard about that until just now. That’s funny…

Bey Logan: The next thing I saw you in was Kung Fu: The Movie…

Brandon Lee: Well, I did that before Legacy of Rage, but that was a television film…

Bey Logan: It was interesting casting, because of course, your father had been considered for the role of Kwai Chang Caine in the original series…

Brandon Lee: Beyond being considered for it, I think he was very instrumental in developing the role, and the series as a whole, and was then passed over for it due to his race.

Bey Logan: The original Kung Fu series had a tremendous effect in turning America on to martial arts. How did you feel about working in this American T.V legend, especially in light off your father’s aborted involvement in it?

Brandon Lee: I don’t watch television at all. I’d catch the occasional episode of Kung Fu at somebody’s house, but because of the association with my dad having not had the opportunity to do the show, it was not one that was near and dear to my heart! When the chance to do it came along, I did find a kind of poetic justice in that.

Bey Logan: Also, as Orson Welles said “ A cherry picker goes where there are cherries”, meaning that you have to do the work that’s available to you…

Brandon Lee: Exactly. I was talking to someone the other day, and they were asking me about my criteria for selecting a role. I certainly DO have a criteria in selecting a role, but right now the main criteria is Can I get a job?(laughs.) I’m just trying to get a job right now.

Bey Logan: The movie that really established you in the minds of action movie fans was Showdown in Little Tokyo, in which you played a Japanese-American cop. One thing I’ve always wondered about is the fact that you are unfailingly cast as an Asian Pacific, whereas like actors like Keanu Reeves and Phoebe Cates, who are just as Eurasian as you, are not. Do you feel that you’ve been locked down into ethnic roles because of your father’s legacy?

Brandon Lee: Yeah, I think that happens. I don’t think it will always happen, and it’s not something, frankly, that I resist, because I AM Eurasian. It’s not something I’d wish to pretend I weren’t. By the same token, while I don’t particularly resist it, I don’t have a mandate about ALWAYS playing Asian-Americans in everything I do.

Bey Logan: How do you feel about Showdown, as a American movie debut vehicle, when you look at it now?

Brandon Lee: I think it’s a little bit of a ‘fluff’ movie, but the thing I like best about it is that I think it’s kind of funny! That’s what I enjoyed most about the film: not taking it too seriously. There are a couple of scenes in the film that I really like.

Bey Logan: My favourite line is the one where you’re being fried by Gerald Okamura and you say “You’re supposed to baste us between cooking cycles”… Your martial arts ability had taken a giant leap forward between Legacy and Showdown…

Brandon Lee: From the time I was in Hong Kong, I really stepped up my martial arts training. I mean, Legacy of Rage was seven years ago. Frankly, I don’t even think much of the fights in Showdown. I’m quite proud of the stuff in Rapid Fire.

Bey Logan: Well, I’m an admirer of the Hong Kong actioners and I’ve actually worked in that industry, and I can tell you that Rapid Fire is the closest an American film has come, in my view, to matching that style of action.

Brandon Lee: That’s very gratifying to hear. Jeff (Imada) and I sat and talked and said that was what we were trying to do.

Bey Logan: Apart from the fighting, you manage to get a performance in there as well. Do you have to fight with the producers to get depth into the role, where they might prefer a ninety minute blitzkrieg of violence?

Brandon Lee: A little bit. The people who make that kind of film are generally interested in getting the action in. They think that what’s going to put people’s butts in seats, and they could be right, for all I know!, but that’s not what drives me. I’ve had the opportunity to make a lot of bad martial arts movies, and I’ve passed them up. What I liked about Rapid Fire was the story. It’s not Driving Miss Daisy or Being There, but I think it’s an HONEST movie. I think the characters are honest, they have some heart, they take a journey from the beginning of the movie to the end. I think there’s the opportunity to really care about those people, and that’s what it should really be about.

Bey Logan: The line that brought the house down when I saw the film was the one where Powers Boothe tells you to “ Take your fists of fury outside”! I think it’s great that you’ve got this sense of humour…

Brandon Lee: That was just a little aside. That’s all that was…

Bey Logan: That final fight with Albert Leong is really something else…

Brandon Lee: Yeah. That’s my favourite fight in the movie.

Bey Logan: As a Chinese film fan, it’s fascinating for me to spot where some of the techniques or stunt sequences seem to have come from. Do you actually rent out Hong Kong films and sit there with a pad and pen, or is it more subliminal than that?

Brandon Lee: It’s more subliminal. For example, I’ve noticed how in Hong Kong movies they always make good use of the props in the room when staging fight scenes. That’s something that’s not done in American movies that I want to try to do. Like kicking through the banister, kicking the table up into the guy’s face…

I’ve seen Jackie (Chan) do a number of interesting ways of disarming someone and having the gun come to him, so I improvised on that and did the arm break with the gun coming up the catch.

Bey Logan: You mentioned before that you were happy to bring a little more depth to Jake Lo than is evident in most martial arts movie heroes. Did you change the script at all during shooting?

Brandon Lee: I’m careful not to tamper with the script too much. It’s just not my place. It’s the director’s vision of the film. I trusted Dwight (Little) and liked him very much. I tend to just deal with my character.

I’ve nothing against the unstoppable superhero, if THAT’S the kind of film you’re making. In this case, it wasn’t. It’s REASONABLY normal young man who finds himself in an extraordinary circumstance. I wanted to stay true to that fact. Like the scene with the FBI guys where he runs a fork into that guy, that’s the first time he’s ever killed someone in his life, and he wasn’t planning on it, it just happened out of instinct. I wanted all of that to show. He’s not a cop. He’s not a superhero. He’s just a kid who gets caught up in these circumstances and wishes he could go home.

Bey Logan: What do you have lined up as your next project?

Brandon Lee: It’s called The Crow. It’s a supernatural film. I play a rock and roll musician who is murdered and then given the chance to return from the dead to avenge the murder. There isn’t any martial arts in the film, but there will be action in it, maybe along the lines of The Killer or something like that. I still want to have intricate, inventive action sequences. Theyr’e just not going to be MARTIAL ARTS sequences, per se, because the character’s not a martial artist.

Bey Logan: I read that you were interested in playing the character Wolverwine in the live-action X-MEN movie. Wasn’t James Cameron developing that at one stage?

Brandon Lee: He was. He isn’t any more.

Bey Logan: Were you talking to him about doing that?

Brandon Lee: I was TRYING to!

Bey Logan: I remember reading in another interview you did that you’d consider going to Hong Kong to make a couple of movies, just for the experience. Was that just a whim, or were you serious?

Brandon Lee: I’d love to work with someone like John Woo or Jackie Chan. It’s doesn’t necessarily have to be in Hong Kong, though. I know Jackie would still like to work in the states, and John Woo IS working in the states right now. Perhaps with the coming of Communism back to Hong Kong, more Chinese film-makers will want to work in the states. I know that Ronnie (Yu, director or Legacy of Rage) would like to work in the states, and I think there’s room for those people.

Bey Logan: I’ve avoided talking too much about your father, because I’m sure you must have been inundated with these kind of questions in every interview you do. I’d just like to ask you this, though: From your unique perspective, is there any aspect of Bruce Lee that you think has been UNDER-appreciated?

Brandon Lee: A couple of them. I don’t think many people particularly appreciate that my dad only made four films, and died at the age of  thirty-two. So, from the perspective of someone who’s only had one film in his career, in terms of staring roles, and who is only just beginning to find what you can express, I’m confident that, had he lived longer, my dad would have gone on to have done many different kinds of fascinating things that we’ll just never know about. He wouldn’t just have been a martial arts star. Aside from that, I think that most people only see him as a movie actor, and they aren’t aware of him as an author, a philosopher, a thinker… Someone who was very gifted. A rare human being, and not just somebody with a great body who could do martial arts. That’s a side of my father that bears more examination.

Bey Logan: I heard that they approached you to play your father in the Universal bio-pic, Dragon…

Brandon Lee: Yeah, I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around it…

Bey Logan: It’s too overt an homage. I think it’s better to be more indirect, as in the title Legacy of Rage, or the “ fists of fury” line in Rapid Fire…

Brandon Lee: I agree. That’s how I felt about it.

Bey Logan: I presume you will see Dragon when it comes out. How do you feel about the film?

Brandon Lee: Well, I’m a little apprehensive about it, because it’s a story about my family. I’ve read the script, and met most of the people involved with making it. It really is a biographical film. It’s not just about his film career, it’s about his whole life and our family life, so I’m just hoping they do a good job…

Bey Logan: You have quite a following in England, judging from my mailbag, anyway, so do you have any message for your fans here, apart from “ Go and see Rapid Fire”, that is…?

Brandon Lee: Well, just that I LIKE action movies. I feel offended when I see one that only has very little plot and very little character development in it, but also doesn’t do anything particularly innovative with the action. If you’re going to offend me by not having a good story, couldn’t you at least do something innovative so that I enjoy the action sequences? I just don’t feel that, coming out of America, that that’s done that frequently. I don’t intend that every movie I do will be martial arts action movie, but I’m sure I will do another one, and I want each one that I do to push the envelope just a little bit more and bring something new to it each time.

Bey Logan: Brandon, I’m sure you’ll achieve that goal, and thanks for talking to IMPACT.

Brandon Lee: Thank you.