Jason Scott Lee was an A lister for a brief time
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Jason Scott Lee
jeffyoung1 — 13 years ago(March 03, 2013 09:03 PM)
Jason Scott Lee came out of almost nowhere to overnight celebrity stardom in the successful, 1992 biopic of Bruce Lee, THE DRAGON. Suddenly Lee was a household name. He looked to be on the threshhold of achieving permanent celebrity stardom, something that Bruce Lee had in his grasp at the time of his death in 1973.
Jason Scott Lee was not alone. He had a contemporary, the handsome, tall, Russell Wong, who was just 1/2 Chinese but looked almost pure Asian. Both men were thought to be on the threshhold of breaking the glass ceiling for Asian actor super celebritydom.
Somehow it didn't pan out. Lee had the main role in the following, JUNGLE BOOK, which enjoyed middling success. But after that, Lee quickly fell from A status into B status. To be fair, it's hard to maintain A status, much less achieve it. It's more like, one day up there, the next day down there. The good roles eluded Lee and he became a fixture with action and sci fi films, no doubt earning a stable, decent income, but not the multi-millionaire, A list celebrity star he hoped to maintain, as well as legions of disappointed fans. Lee is past his prime years now, but fortunately, continues to find acting work to keep him employed and financially stable, for which we are happy for him. -
Davejohnson316 — 12 years ago(August 29, 2013 12:43 PM)
I was thinking about it and Lee's biggest problem was his high profile roles were in period pieces. Map of the Human Heart, Dragon: Bruce Lee Story and Jungle Book were all set in different time periods with different costumes. Those films that would work with an Asian-American actor don't come by too often, especially when one of them is a bio for a dead actor. Another rarity was that his love interests in those films were white women. They definitely won't come too often.
He also took a break after Jungle Book, about 3 years between his next release. Easy to get forgotten. Also turned down Mortal Kombat which was a success in the box office.