Starring roles may be few and far between for Jason Scott Lee, but he is one of those actors that has managed to make something of whatever role he gets. As Russian theatre legend Constantin Stanislavski once remarked, “There are no small parts, only small actors”, a saying that very much describes Lee’s career thus far.

Playing Bruce Lee in 1993’s Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story made him a star, but Hollywood’s a tough town and although he scored the lead in The Jungle Book, his career as a leading man has not yet panned out. Even then, these two roles have managed to build a strong enough foundation for Lee to lend his celebrity to a cause close to his heart: the environment.

He and wife Diana have built a simple, eco-friendly life on their 25-acre estate in Hawaii. Together they share an emotional and spiritual connection with agriculture and believe in ecological stewardship, in responsible farming, eating what you grow.

“One day I just realised that we’ve being causing too much damage to the environment and I just decided to start my own experiment. I started growing my own vegetables, reared chickens and I also do a little hunting,” he said, adding that he had gone green awhile back that he hadn’t realised that going green was the in-thing now.  

“When I started this, I didn’t realise that people were interested in what I was doing. Young people would come over to my farm and learn how to plant vegetables, I gave talks at universities and high schools and I also taught organic farming.”

It’s this love for nature that led him to do Malaysian Journey, a National Geographic Channel eco-travel documentary that aired in 2007 to some acclaim, with ratings that were deemed “above average”. Malaysian Journey follows Lee as he trekked across Malaysia sampling the different tastes, sights and sounds. Lee went on hunts with the Semelais of Pahang, had silat sessions from a local master, experienced life with the Rungus tribe in Sabah, went abseiling down Mount Kinabalu as well as lived with fishermen on the Langkawi archipelago.

Actor Jason Scott Lee talks about his Malaysian journey and going green.

Lee was in KL recently after wrapping up the shoot of the second instalment of Malaysian Journey: Hutan, to present some raw footage as a preview to members of the media.

Hutan sees Lee take viewers on a journey through Malaysia’s famous rainforest regions. The hour-long special will feature such places like the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary, Taman Negara National Park, Tasik Kenyir Lake, Kuching, Gunung Mulu National Park and the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre in Sabah.

Lee expressed that one of the main reasons he came back to Malaysia to film the second instalment was that he was impressed with the experiences he had during the filming of the first.

“I wanted to come back to expand my horizons with new episodes. I also love the food in Malaysia. I am really thankful to the National Geographic Channel for getting me back for this second instalment,” Lee remarked as he recalled how his friends in the US reacted when he told them about his tales of travels in Malaysia.

“When I told them about the stories surrounding the vast culture here in Malaysia, Americans couldn’t understand it. They couldn’t relate to it. I guess it really is something you have to experience for yourself. This show is the perfect platform to promote Malaysia to the world,” he explained.

Fox International Channel (FIC) vice president of adsales and partnerships, Asia Pacific and Middle East, Simon Sawes said that Lee was chosen because of the success he achieved with the filming of the first documentary. FIC also wanted to build a bigger profile for the show to tap into its viewers and gain better ratings.

“Southeast Asia is very foreign to Americans. It’s very hard to explain the culture and language and Lee does it so very well. This is just one part of the projects in the pipeline and we see other productions in the future. We will market the episodes in a two-part programme with plans for Lee to host other shows for Fox” he said.

Malaysian Journey: Hutan will be aired in the first quarter of 2012 depending on how fast the production team can shape it and will be packaged together with the first episode.


This article appeared on the Live it! page, The Edge Financial Daily, October 3, 2011.