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Long before Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman whipped up a martial-arts souffle in "Batman Returns," there was Steven Seagal. Before Seagal, there was Jean-Claude Van Damme. Before Van Damme, there was Chuck Norris. And before all of them, there was the man who helped create the martial-arts movie genre, Bruce Lee. The circle is complete with the release today of "Rapid Fire," an action film starring Brandon Lee, son of the legendary martial-arts master. Lee, 27, who began studying martial arts under his father's tutelage at about the same time he was learning to walk, said he is prepared for the inevitable comparisons. "I'm ready for them, but I can't wait until I have a little bit of film work behind me so people will start seeing me for what I do and not for who I am," Lee said. His father rose to prominence through a series of Hong Kong-produced karate films, and was elevated to cult-hero status after his de! ath in 1973 at age 32. The circumstances surrounding his death helped fuel the controversy. Although he reportedly died of heart failure, stories circulated that he was the victim of mob violence. Most family members don't subscribe to the mob version of the legend, and Lee's son likens the conspiracy theories to the "same category as Elvis sightings." ""The nice thing is that most people I meet remember only the positive effects my father had on their lives and they have only good things to say," he said. "Most people don't bring up that conspiracy stuff." Born in Oakland, Brandon moved with his family to Hong Kong before his first birthday and didn't return to the United States until he was 8. He attended a Chinese school, spoke only Cantonese and learned how to kick a board when other kids were learning how to kick a ball. "Martial arts was part of my household; it was how my father and I played together," he said. "My father ! was a fanatical trainer and there were always students around the hous e. I was a part of that. I broke boards. What can I say?" After high school (Brandon, his sister and mother moved to Los Angeles after Bruce Lee's death), the younger Lee enrolled as a drama student at Emerson College in Massachusetts, but left after a year. He moved to New York to perform in a half-dozen small plays and then got his first work in front of the camera. He was cast in the TV movie, "Kung Fu: The Movie" and then starred in his first feature film, a Hong Kong product called "Legacy of Rage." Producer Robert Lawrence said he saw Lee in "Legacy of Rage" and thought he might be able to put together a project with the handsome young actor with the flying feet. "I was very impressed with his screen presence and his martial-arts skills but, frankly, I figured that at best he probably spoke very broken English," Lawrence said. "It was a wonderful surprise to learn that he was articulate." "He's really got all the tools. He's young, ! he's American and he's got that hip factor. There's a certain Melrose Avenue cool about him. And don't forget he's got that pedigree. He's the real thing." In "Rapid Fire," Lee plays a college student on the run from thugs after witnessing a mob killing. Lee said he enjoys the martial arts/action genre, but doesn't want to spend the rest of his life in it. "I always knew I'd get to use these skills in a movie, but this is not what I got into movies for," he said. "I got into this business to act. "I think we've got characters you can care about in `Rapid Fire.' And I think we've got some new martial-arts tricks up our sleeves." Lee said that while he might do other martial-arts films, he has ruled out any possibility of playing his father. "I've had offers for years to play everything from my father to myself avenging his death," he said. "I'm real sensitive to people exploiting his name and most of these projects seemed real classless to me. "Someone is making a film about my father right now. The producers have been very polite to the family and they've shown us the script. I hope they do a good job, but it's not something I care to participate in. I'm not my father."
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by Samantha/BLM |