Ode to Bruce Lee: 'Warrior' hopefully makes up for 'Kung Fu'

WARRIOR

Actor Andrew Koji plays lead character Ah Sahm in the upcoming television series 'Warrior/'

Little known fact: I once auditioned for Kung Fu, the TV series starring David Carradine.

In 1975, I still had dreams of becoming a screenwriter. I had a writing agent and submitted several ideas for Streets of San Francisco, which was also filming in the city at the time, and other projects -- all with Asian themes.

I didn't consider myself an actor and I make not claims to having any acting talent. I had no formal training (although I did attend the first class conducted by actor Rene Auberjunois which I promptly dropped at Cal) and only appeared in one movie because I was a friend of the director.

Kung Fu was in its third season and apparently, had used up all the known Asian American actors in Hollywood and was in search for new faces. 

My writing agent suggested to the Kung Fu talent scout that he see me. He knew I had some martial arts training and had an 8X10 headshot of me, just in case I sold a script and hit it big. Yeah, we both had high hopes back then.

The auditions were being held in my agent's agency's office, so I trekked my way into San Francisco.

I let the secretary know I was there for the audition. Mind you I had never auditioned for anything in my life. I fancied myself a writer. Being young and naive, I said to myself, "What the hell."

The search for new faces, apparently wasn't going too well, I surmised since I was the only "actor" there for the audition.

Finally, I went in and met the talent scout. He was friendly enough: broad smile, firm handshake and with the upbeat air you'd expect from Hollywood  He handed me a page of a script and asked me to read some lines with him reading the other parts.

I did the best I could, but I knew I was not "feeling" it.

The scout said, "Great, great. That was very good," in an attempt to get me over my nervousness and put me at ease. I thank him for that.

But then, he said, "Can you say the ilnes again with an accent?"

What? The only accent I knew how to imitate was a Filipino accent since I grew up with a community of Filipino American elders, mostly World War II veterans.

I knew what he wanted though. He wanted me to either use a sing-song accent, or a strong, clipped accent like the one used by the Asian American actors that appeared in the Kung Fu series that took place in the American West in the late 1800s.

I opted to imitate the strange accent used by David Carradine, the star of the Bruce Lee-inspired series.

I closed my eyes, imagining myself as the Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine. I went for it.

I knew I had blown the audition despite the enthusiastic scout's encouraging words ending with the dreaded, "You'll hear from us."

As expected, I wasn't surprised I never again heard from the scout or the series. The TV series. Kung Fu was cancelled two months later. David Carradine claimed he had sustained too many bruises and injuries to continue. But the real reason was the ratings were down.

I write all this because Warrior, a new series inspired by martial arts legend Bruce Lee will debut this April 5 on the Cinemax network. It is about a martial arts-trained warrior who arrives in during the Tong Wars of 1800's San Francisco and will feature a predominantly Asian cast who have the acting talent that I lacked.

The story behind the story, says that Lee, who had starred as Kato, the martial artist/chauffeur of the Green Arrow, submitted a script about a Shaolin monk wandering the old West doing good deeds and kicking the hell out of bad guys. The networks rejected his idea, but lo and behold, a year later, Kung Fu was developed starring a white guy doing Yellow Face.

Warrior, is based on the notes of Bruce Lee. His daughter Shannon Lee and Asian American director Justin Lin are among the executive producers.

Ironically, while the white actors in the new series will speak English appropriate to the time period, the Asian actors will speak English with a contemporary tone -- an apparent nod to the show's producers and the #NoWhiteWashing and #NoYellowface movements.

I harbor no resentment towards anyone associated with the old Kung Fu show, including that talent scout who auditioned me, but to them all, I can only say: "Accent? My ass!"

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