As actors, it's so hard to get your hopes up about anything.
— Reggie Lee
I think that one of my favorite movie roles has been a film that I did with Jason Statham that was out last year called 'Safe.' I played the main bad guy in that.
How often, really, do you get a Filipino story line in a show? Not very often. I can't think of any.
I love being the character actor. I get to stretch my muscles a little more.
I have the biggest sweet tooth, and just recently a doughnut shop in Portland called Pip's Original introduced a doughnut inspired by me called the 'Dirty Wu.' It is a cinnamon-sugar doughnut with sea salt, drizzled with honey and Nutella.
I always tell Asian actors, especially Filipinos wanting to break into Hollywood, to study, study and study and show their best. I haven't stopped studying. There's an abundance of roles, and all you have to do is prove to them that you are good for the role.
I cannot see myself sitting at a desk from nine to five!
My dad is an ob-gyn - he's retired now - and he wanted to come to the States to make a better life, for opportunity. My mom said that, on the plane ride here, I did not want to speak a word of English - I spoke Tagalog. And then, after the first day of school, I didn't want to speak anything but English.
Most of my background is Filipino and partly Chinese, but mostly Filipino.
Definitely for myself, I find myself gravitating towards dramatic work. In terms of sitcoms, you know, I always tell my agent I don't want to be seen.
You want something? Go get it with single-minded devotion.
I took the 'Lee' from my grandparents, who took care of me during the day while my mom was away working.
When you're a kid, you think 'Oh, it's so great. I'm going to go to Hollywood. I'm going to go to Broadway.' For a long time, it was such a novelty.
I don't play a regular guy at all - never.
I consider myself a fortunate working actor, but I really work at it all the time. If I have a couple of weeks off, I'm taking class. You never stop. I started when I was 10 years old in Cleveland, and I've never stopped working my butt off.
I swear to God I was freaked out about the Aswang when I was a kid in the Philippines.
I've played a lot of cops and a lot of bad guys, so I would like to play a regular person and just live a regular life with something interesting about it. I love the idea of television and kind of infiltrating that.
I'm a quarter Chinese and three-quarter Filipino. I don't look Filipino; I look more Chinese or Korean. It actually works in my favor: in terms of roles, it gives me a broader canvas.
For the working actor, there's nothing more stable than a network television show.
The other day, a doughnut shop in Portland called Pip's Originals tweeted me telling me that they named a doughnut after me called the 'Dirty Wu.' It is a cinnamon sugar doughnut drizzled with honey and Nutella. It was so good. I just won the Oscar in the sci-fi world.
The acceptance to Harvard was more of trophy than a real possibility to me. I would have been miserable.
The announcement that I was going to be an actor was made when was I was 10 years old. And that didn't go down all that well, but I had a lot of years to butter up my parents. My parents have mellowed quite a bit, but, growing up, there was a sense that the only real professions were doctor, engineer, lawyer. Those were your choices.
I speak Cantonese, and I speak Tagalog.
There was a week where I was depressed with the rain, and people were telling me to get a light box. But I live on the 14th floor of an apartment complex, and I see the Broadway Bridge and Mount Hood, and it keeps me such company. And like true Oregonians, I don't carry an umbrella anymore.
I'm the type of actor that, if I'm not filming something, I'm in class.
My parents have mellowed quite a bit, but, growing up, there was a sense that the only real professions were doctor, engineer, lawyer. Those were your choices.
When I was about 10, I saw Timothy Bottoms in a tele-movie called 'A Shining Season,' and it really moved me. I was maybe 8 or 9. Timothy played a runner who had cancer, and he defied the odds by coaching a girls' team to victory.
There's this list on Internet Movie Database that I'm on, and it's called 'Actors with High Body Counts.' I'm always playing the bad guy.
I was made fun of in the Midwest - I was the only Asian in my graduating class of 200. Fortunately, I found my niche, and it was fine. But I wanted to be so white, you wouldn't believe it. I was like, 'I want to be white; I don't want to be this anymore.' But now I embrace it.
I would love to play a normal human being with a little bit of a comedic bend that had a love interest. I would love to explore comedy, like a half-hour kind of single-camera comedy. I think that would kind of suit me best.
When I was growing up in the Philippines, the story that was read to me most was Pinocchio.
From the time I made my announcement that I was going to be an actor, I auditioned for community theater, did shows at Greenbrier, interned at the Cleveland Play House for a summer, took voice lessons, took ballet lessons. I did everything that Cleveland allowed me to do - everything that was available to me.
I don't fancy myself as a very sarcastic person in real life.
