Growing up, my inspirations were Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, all these martial arts legends. I wanted to express my talent on screen in a certain way. I felt that it made me a little different.
I came to Los Angeles only after filming 'A Good Day to Die Hard,' when I was cast in the independent movie 'Delirium.' Director Lee Roy Kunz was looking everywhere for a Russian actress. He saw my photos, and only then he learned where I starred before! Eventually, I spent several months in the U.S., and we made the film quickly.
I was a pretentious teenager, so of course I had, you know, 'Raging Bull' posters and all of that. 'Raging Bull' is not a pretentious movie, but me having the poster was a pretentious action. I even grew a goatee and had a Knicks cap, because I thought I wanted to be like Spike Lee.
I enjoyed my time at DC. Dan Didio, Geoff Johns and Jim Lee were great to me, and I'm very grateful for the opportunities they gave me. Having said that, I think it's important to try new things and work with new people to keep myself fresh.
I believe that one of the reasons I get to play golf all over the world is because of the barriers that Lee Elder broke down. I just think he's amazing.
People like Howlin' Wolf, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, John Lee Hooker, Nina Simone, Captain Beefheart - all of these artists were what I grew up listening to every day of my life. And there's a very healthy music scene in the west country of England, where I grew up.
My mom and dad played this music all the time when I was growing up, so to me songs by Jerry Lee and Fats Domino are the classics, they're the best songs ever.
I'm such a fan of actors and also enjoy watching them work so that I can help their acting in any way I can. Sometimes it walks a tricky line because you want to be entertaining to some degree. But honesty is always entertaining to me. I'm a big Woody Allen and Spike Lee fan, and I find their films to be very honest.
I can't imagine that I would have been cast in the role, without Jamie Lee giving me a thumbs up.
Oddly enough, Bruce Lee wrote some great philosophy.
Men, when they fight in movies, it's a very different style. Harrison Ford was so cool when he had the whip, and Bruce Lee was such an artist that you couldn't take your eyes off of him.
I'm John Lee Hooker in the sense that he was a blues man and he played blues his whole life. I'm a rock guy and I'm going to play rock music my whole life.
My father was, like, the token bad white guy in all the old Jackie Chan/Bruce Lee films.
Bruce Lee was just so lightning-fast. People try to emulate him in whatever way they can, but to try and do what he was doing... you're just inspired by it; you're not trying to say, 'Look, I can do that.' No one can do what he did.
Lee May's about the same age as me; he's got about the same stats. So how come he's making about one-eighty, two hundred thousand, and I'm the best damn paid player in the game? I'll tell you why: Because I put the meat in the seats!
From beginning to end I worried that Ang Lee wouldn't be satisfied with my work. So I worked as hard as I could to earn his trust, because you only get a chance like this once.
Spike Lee is obviously more stupid than anyone can be by accident.
My cousin Malcolm Lee is also a filmmaker.
I was a student of Sanford Meisner for three years at the Neighborhood Playhouse, and I studied with Lee Strasburg for five years and became a member of the Actors Studio. What I studied came right from the horse's mouth. My students have a lot to learn from me, and I am so eager to share it.
I heard Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, and that was it. I didn't ever want to be anything else. I just started banging away and semi-studied classical music at the Royal Academy of Music but sort of half-heartedly.
Bloom County was set in a tidy, rural environment probably because of Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird.'
When Little Richard used to stand up and play it was just fabulous, and Liberace had the candlesticks and the rings and the gift of the gab. The piano's is the most ungainly rock' n' roll instrument of all time but those two people transcended it, as did Jerry Lee Lewis.
I grew up with Woody Allen and early Spike Lee movies in which New York was such a specific character. The city has a certain vibe and beat which really informs your entire existence.
When I started working on 'Battlestar Galactica' in Canada, I was told to get as fit as a marine for my character Lee 'Apollo' Adama. So I did. But now I have a problem with suits, because I'm 5 ft. 9 in. with a 40 inch chest and a 31 inch waist, so I'm rather too big for that very tailored British look, and they always have to be altered.
You can use martial arts to tell a different story. Ang Lee used martial arts in 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' to talk about love.
When I worked with Jamie Lee Curtis in 'True Lies', she told me, You need a plan B, because when you have six months to a year off, you can go nuts. You need to have another focus.
One of my favorite people is Gypsy Rose Lee. She bears out the Biblical promise that he who has, gets. And I hope she gets a lot more.
In the film industry, we tend to pick up where others have left off, and I'd like to think the influences I picked up from Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme are visible in my work.
I guess I feel like it's a gift to meet those talented artists like George Lucas and Oliver Stone, Spike Lee and Richard Kelly. Even if it's a small role, it's a gift to be working that closely with them.
It's been a twisty-turny path for me. I was studying to be a history professor, and then I left that, went to film school, and tried to be like my heroes, like, Spike Lee and Hal Hartly.
You're always trying to do something that, on one hand, honors all those stories, that is still in some way the same character that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were doing back in the sixties. But, at the same time, you want to be able to tell new stories and not just rehash what's come before.
I'm inspired by my master's movie 'Kerd ma lui,' Bruce Lee's 'Fists of Fury,' and Jackie Chan's 'Police Story.'
Throughout the '50s, tons of unknown locals came through Sun to record their demos. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis all made their first recordings at the former Memphis Recording Service.
I had no idea it was going to be like this. People come up to me all the time, but it's never, 'Oh, you're Sheryl Lee.' It's, 'Oh my gosh, you're Laura Palmer.'
I would still work with Mel Gibson! He's talented, man! Come on, he came up with 'Apocalypto,' man! I want to work with this guy. I've worked with Steven Seagal. He's out of his mind. I mean, I've worked with Spike Lee for four films. I've worked with some people that you can say are right there teetering between genius and madness.
I've played such good golf, and it was hard coming up and it wasn't easy in any matches or any shots. It means a lot. I think hopefully it will mean a lot to New Zealand because I'm the next winner of the U.S. Amateur after Danny Lee.
