Renegades: Shannon Lee (Co-Founder, Bruce Lee Foundation)

Enacting Bruce Lee-sized impacts for joy and healing

Shannon Lee

Actor, Co-Founder, and Chair
Bruce Lee Foundation

Welcome to Renegades, a series spotlighting Asian Pacific leaders and creatives who are carving their own paths and defying stereotypes along the way.

This week, we’re featuring Shannon Lee, co-founder and president of the Bruce Lee Foundation. Shannon tells us about the pressure to live up to being Bruce Lee’s daughter, feeling grounded in her own identity apart from her father’s legacy, and executive producing on Warrior and expanding Bruce Lee Foundation programming to reach and heal more communities. If you aren’t caught up with Warrior, watch the third season HERE, now streaming on Max.

What did you want to be when you were growing up, and how does that compare to what you do today? 

I wanted to be an attorney initially, and then President of the United States. I wrote a letter to Jimmy Carter asking to be invited to the White House when I was [seven]. They kindly responded that I wouldn’t be able to come. Haha. [T]his relates to what I do today i[n] that I have a deep desire to effect positive change and be of service. And while I am personally very deeply spiritual and creative, I like to approach all things with a certain level of real-world practicality and accessibility, so that it can land for as many people as possible.

You studied vocal performance at Tulane University before moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting. What was the motivation for switching from stage to screen? 

It’s never been about stage versus screen for me. It’s been more about the experience of different types of creativity and what feels most right at which time in my life. I love to be creative in all things. And I love to experience my own expression through a variety of mediums – even business. I have never been one to work too much in a mold or a routine, and my desire to express and create follows this path as well.

Your father, Bruce Lee, is recognized as one of the most influential martial artists and a popular culture icon. Has his legacy put any pressure on you to pursue a similar career path?

For sure! But as I always say, though there has been outside expectation and pressure to a degree, there is no pressure greater than the pressure I have put on myself. I studied martial arts later in life than one might think, but I didn’t do so out of a desire to follow in his footsteps (impossible) but rather out of a desire to get to know him through this thing he loved and his art of jeet kune do. I followed into acting not because of pressure either but a desire to express my creative soul. So, any pressure to attain perfection and excellence on a Bruce Lee-sized level has been often hugely self-inflicted in a way that has paralyzed me many times.

I’ve had to learn to follow my father’s own advice and figure out how to “be me.” I think in the end, I’ve just had to flip the script on myself, and rather than say things like “You’re not good enough to be Bruce Lee’s daughter,” I say things like “You were born Bruce Lee’s daughter because you are fully capable of being Bruce Lee’s daughter.” After all, his legacy is all in pursuing what works for you rather than what does not.

Is the process of establishing your own unique identity challenging, particularly when trying to differentiate yourself from primarily being recognized as Bruce Lee’s daughter?

YES! It’s been a lifelong process – though on a certain level, I’m not sure it’s much different than anyone else’s process of self-identification and evolution – just a different set of circumstances. Sometimes I have struggled to know where he ends and I begin, and what I’ve found is there are some places that are just profoundly entangled in the most beautiful way. After all, we share DNA, and energetically our quest for personal growth and learning is very much aligned and fully personal. We just have very different ways of expressing that in our own lives. I have struggled to be my own formed self, and I still do find myself getting too Bruce-centric sometimes and forgetting myself. I think now the challenge lies in just keeping myself focused and my head down on creating what is most important to me personally and letting my work speak for itself.

As the co-founder and chair of the Bruce Lee Foundation and CEO of the Bruce Lee Family Companies, you’ve shared his art and philosophy through the book, Be Water, My Friend, your kid’s summer camp programs, the Bruce Lee podcast, and television series, Warrior. What’s the biggest challenge or joy that you’ve experienced through these entities?

Every time someone tells me that my book has profoundly impacted their lives, I am gratified and filled with joy. Every time a young person goes through one of our summer camps or workshops and feels empowered, I am grateful for having been the provider of that experience.

A highlight of my life was also seeing the first episode of Warrior on screen. It was so profound because it was so tangible and complete. It was right there and such a full-circle moment. It really lifted my spirits. There have been other successes that have been arguably bigger, like getting the commercial rights to my father’s name and likeness back, but there’s nothing quite like being of service or lifting someone else’s spirits as a signpost that I am walking a purposeful path, and it feeds my soul. 

Warrior evolved from Bruce Lee’s original concept and treatment. As an executive producer of the series, what went into the creative process to realize his vision?

For me, I have an inner barometer of what is energetically aligned with my father’s legacy and what is not. [I]t is on me to speak up if I feel that creatively we are venturing off that path. And I do speak up. That said, with Justin Lin and Jonathan Tropper, we have been aligned from the very beginning and operated from a place of mutual respect, which is partly what made this project such a dream process. It was a lot of work to modernize the story format and storytelling my father envisioned for current audiences and build out a complex and multilayered world, while also making sure we remained true to the […] legacy of Bruce Lee. It was my job to hold those energetic boundaries [but] not stifl[e] any creativity and possibility for the show, and hopefully, add to the mix of that creativity as well. It’s just something I have to feel my way through and learn to trust as I collaborate.

Currently streaming its third season on Max, Warrior deals with sibling and tong rivalry, bigotry against early Chinese settlers in America, and the inception of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. What makes Warrior a must-watch for new and returning audiences?

I truly believe that this show has something for everyone. It has action; it has drama; it has history and culture; [and] it has intrigue and style. It’s much more than a straight-ahead martial arts actioner, [a]nd it feels contemporary even though it is a period piece. It is also complex and multilayered while being pulpy, funny, and badass. All of our characters are relatable in their desire [to create] a better life for themselves, [and] we get to see the fear that inhabits everyone’s experience. The show is just downright entertaining and trope-busting in so many ways. And, we are just upping the stakes and the personal dynamics with each season.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Bruce Lee film, Enter the Dragon. What’s your perspective on featuring an Asian lead in the 1970s versus now?

Well, I think the remarkable thing about my father’s performances back in the 70s is that they still excite, inspire, and hold up today, even if the films themselves are feeling a bit dated. He and his presence still jump off the screen in a way that is relevant and timeless. And, it was SUCH a monumental task for him to get the opportunity to express himself and shine in this way that I hope, pray, and believe is finally shifting now. My father had to break down huge barriers and flow like water around giant systemic obstacles to create the opportunity [to] Enter the Dragon for himself through sheer force of will, humanity, and faith. I know there are still obstacles today, but I am more and more gratified to see beautiful, fully expressed AAPI and API artists getting to strut their gorgeous talent on a global scale. [To see that] I think, “That’s right, baby. Get it.”

What are you currently working on that’s exciting you the most? 

I am super excited for an animated project that we are creating right now that comes straight from my heart and soul. It’s scary—but all good and new things are—and I’m here for it. I am also hugely motivated to grow our work through our nonprofit, the Bruce Lee Foundation, and impact people’s lives in the realm of mind, body, spirit, and healing, in particular for youth in communities of color where less access and more stigma exists around mental health and personal wellbeing. I want to make some Bruce Lee-sized impact in the world through education and entertainment and try to be a cause of healing and joy for as many as I can.

Lightning Round

Daily Habit
Sitting in quiet contemplation daily

Favorite Martial Arts Style
Jeet Kune Do to do, Chinese Gung Fu to watch

Comfort Food
A bowl of rice with sauce/furikake or spaghetti bolognese

Best Writing Tip
Get something on the page every time you sit down no matter how you feel—you can always rework it later—and learn to feel what you write

Most Productive Time of Day
10am-3pm

Favorite Book
Hard to choose but I love: Musashi by Eli Yoshikawa, The Gene Keys by Richard Rudd, and Dune by Frank Herbert