From Straits Times - one of the few articles that left an impression on me..
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The Zen Man - Actor Jason Scott Lee prefers the simple life to Hollywood Glamour
If you think movie stars all own huge mansions, drive fast cars and wear big rocks, you might do a double-take when you meet Asian-American actor Jason Scott Lee of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story fame.
The 40 yr-old actor's home at the edge of a rainforest in Hawaii has no electrity, hot water or flush toilet - and the self-professed "environmentalist" prefers it that way.
Lee, arriving at the interview casually clad in a black hooded sweater, khaki berms and worn-out slippers - explains that "in Hollywood a lot of things are done for show. I wanted to get a reality of my own".
The Chinese-Hawaiian actor arrived in town over a week ago to kick-start his upcoming movie Dance of the Dragon, which will be filmed and produced in Singapore by Easternlight Film Productions. It is slated for release early next year.
In the film, the chiselled actor stars as a martial arts champion and boyfriend of a ballroom dancer who has to fight to keep his love from being stolen by a young aspiring ballroom dancer from China.
Lee made headlines in the mid-1990s as one of the few Asian-Americans to snag leading roles in films such as Map in the Human Heart (1993), Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994) and of course Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (!993), where he played martial arts legend Bruce Lee.
His profile may have dipped somewhat since then, but he continues to act in both lead and supporting roles when 'good roles come along' like Aladdin in Hallmark's Arabian Nights (2000) and Oraz in Nomad (2006).
Most of his time, however, is spent on greenie activities, including educating Hawaiian children about taking care of their environment.
Laughing easily, he says his religion is 'naturalism' - and although he's joking, it's certainly not far from the truth.
He rarely eats processed food. Indeed, most of his food is from his 10 ha farm in Hawaii, of which several hectares have been cultivated. He also fishes and hunts for much of what he eats.
"I think about 90 per cent of food that I eat is something I grow or forage for," he reveals, although without explaining how he copes while away for long periods of filming.
That's nothing like the extravagant movie-star life people imagine, but with Zen-like calm he says that "all things that are material don't interest me".
"When I become a star, I thought, Do I keep filling my pockets and acquire more and more, or do I use it to better the world around me?"
However, he says that his twin passions of acting and conserving nature can be reconciled.
"I use my money from acting to perpetuate nature."
Melissa Lee, The Straits Time Feb 3 2007
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