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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
WHAT HAPPENED TO JASON SCOTT LEE?
e's played an Inuit Eskimo (Map of the Human Heart), a Polynesian prince (Rapa Nui) and practically every Asiatic ethnicity in between, including the ultimate icon of his own (Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story). Five have been bona fide romantic leads -- a major achievement for an Asian American actor. What has made Jason Scott Lee's roles so memorable for many is their animal physicality.
Sweat glistening over rippling muscles, Lee has battled, raged and made hot love -- not exactly the images Hollywood often links with Asian men. Like a true hero, he has saved studios big bucks in wardrobe costs and spared millions of females the rigors of imagining the physique attached to those smoldering eyes and full lips.
So what happened to him?
After Jungle Book (1994) and the cinematically beautiful, financially ugly Rapa Nui (1994), Lee sleepwalked through several forgettable movies. The last most of us saw him, he was Aladdin in the 1999 Hallmark miniseries Arabian Nights -- unless you were in London the following year and caught the stage production of The King and I.
Few Hollywood careers have risen to such a sustained crescendo, then faded so quickly.
Lee was born in Los Angeles on November 19, 1966 to a Chinese-Hawaiian father and a Chinese mother. He was two when his family moved to Hawaii. An undistinguished record at Pearl City High left him few options. A year after graduation Lee enrolled at Fullerton Community College. Before long he turned to acting and landed a bit part in Cheech Marin's Born in East LA. A credible portrayal of a tortured young Inuit led to an audition for The Last of the Mohicans. Too Asian to play an Indian, decided the director. So he suggested Lee for the lead in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993). The young actor's success in capturing the icon's moves and moods brought international celebrity, making him a latter-day reincarnation of Bruce Lee to the under-40 set.
It was a key that opened many doors, but they all seemed to lead to the great outdoors. Having been typecast as Primal Man, Lee couldn't seem to get near a role calling for street clothes. Meanwhile, he now spends a lot of time indulging his passion for growing tropical plants. He's even considering a career as an herbalist.
Hollywood careers built in loincloths having seen their heyday when Johnny Weissmuller played Tarzan, could Lee's physical beauty and animal magnetism have sent him down a dead end? That's one theory. What's yours?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:00:50 PM)
He is not being marketed very well - maybe by choice. I have gone to his official website many times over the last year and it STILL is " in progress". Sigh.
Poo
Wednesday, April 10, 2002 at 10:41:03 (PDT)
He was in that god-awful movie with Kurt Russell, "Soldier". Maybe it was that decision that did it. Too bad that America won't expand Asian roles in Entertainment. It isn't for lack of trying. Hundreds of Asians are vying for a handful of roles in today's film industry. What needs to be done is more stories written by Asians about Asians need to be produced. We have to pave our own roads to Hollywood success because Hollywood is not going to do it for us.
nsearch
Tuesday, March 26, 2002 at 03:41:33 (PST)
Well I don't imagine he'd want to be huge Hollywood star, I think his priorities are probably wayy different... So many movies go by a set formula which plays over and over... Jason Scott Lee transcends all that nonsense. He chose roles which I think were an insight for him and a challenge.
Much as I'd love to see him on the screen again....he is the most beautiful man I've ever seen. I think his beauty is part of who he is; that pure, free spiritual essence which glows from his eyes. He couldn't be that and also be a part of the glitz and fakeness which goes with Hollywood.
I hope he enjoys his simplist lifestyle with herbs and plants. I know I'd love to live that sort of life & I'm sure we'll hear of him again... maybe publishing a book on herbalism. He seems the type to succeed at whatever he turns his hand to..
Best of luck to him.
hendrending@yahoo.co.uk
Sunday, March 03, 2002 at 11:28:50 (PST)
I think JSL is the most achingly beautiful man on the planet, and I want him back at my local multiplex NOW! In a loincloth or otherwise.
I would like to see him play something more challenging and less typecast, he proved in Map of the Human Heart - as grim and depressing as that film was - that he certainly has the ability. Sadly, I believe it will take many years before Hollywood gets over it's sun-kissed-blonde-All-American hero fixation, by which time it will probably consider the divine Mr JSL all washed up.
Maybe he should come over to the UK instead. The weather's crap and the food's terrible but hey - when we do manage to make a film (about every 10 years on average) they generally turn out to be amongst the best in the world (Though please forgive us Talos the Mummy), and I'll gladly put him up at my place. Come back Jason! We adore you!
gallileeUK
Salammeo@aol.com
Wednesday, February 27, 2002 at 14:04:58 (PST)
i think he should play a role in a sci-fi movie or another martial arts action flick! hey its my real opinion you know! i mean he really did try and do well with that dragon movie. perhaps some director could consider him to play a tekken character in a official movie release! that will be cool!
jason
leung50002002@yahoo.co.uk
Tuesday, February 26, 2002 at 07:45:23 (PST)
To An Insider ~ Reality check time!! You PERSONALLY know JSL could not handle the spotlight and the fast pace of Hollywood? Mmmm hmmm. Well thats not what I have read, my friend. You contradict yourself, in a sense, saying in one breath you know all these actors merely and ONLY because they are famous and therefore well known...NOT because you are in any position to run in their circles. In the next breath you basically claim to be a cozy insider to Mr Lee.
As Dr Phil would say " where do you stand on the Easter bunny...? '
Tired of peeps pretneding they know movie stars and then write ridiculous forum comments.
Thursday, January 17, 2002 at 17:46:40 (PST)
>In my statement I did not contend, as
>Naki implies, that all (or even many)
>Asian actors are "sexually ambiguous."
>I said that Jason Scott Lee was.
What exactly makes you say this? I don't see anything sexually ambiguous about JSL. Your comment about Di Caprio also makes me wonder a little about yourself. Perhaps a little too much wishful thinking and masturbation while watching gay porn has gone to your head, "Admirer". Just because gay men lust after a straight actor does not make that actor "ambiguous".
Miscegenation is great
Thursday, January 17, 2002 at 15:25:12 (PST)
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