Ultimate week, simply ahead of the discharge of “Mulan,” Disney’s live-action remake of its 1998 animated function a few lady warrior who saves imperial China from invading avengers, Jason Scott Lee, who performs the executive avenger, was once stress-free at house, in Hawaii. His “Mulan” personality, Böri Khan, has flowing locks, a scarred face, eyeliner, and a livid expression; he’s regularly noticed thundering throughout a dusty undeniable, screaming. Lee himself has a extra affable vibe. That day, he was once clean-shaven, in a teal-blue T-shirt and a baseball cap with shades at the brim; his lounge has a colourful Tibetan thangka putting, a inexperienced wall, and an orange sofa. “It looks as if Pee-wee Herman’s area,” Lee mentioned, cheerfully. From time to time, a tiny lady in a crimson blouse that mentioned “Shh! I want my attractiveness leisure” ran in to cuddle.

Within the nineties, “Mulan,” filled with sweeping vistas and provoking songs, was once a leap forward of types: a mainstream American film fuelled via lady energy and focussed completely on Asian characters, even supposing one, voiced via Eddie Murphy, was once a wisecracking dragon named Mushu. Within the new film, directed via Niki Caro, Mulan (Liu Yifei) has a feminine enemy-warrior-mentor (Gong Li) who says such things as “More potent in combination” and will turn out to be a flock of birds. Lee’s personality has developed, too. “Against this to the animation, the place the unhealthy man was once a large, hulking monster, we attempted to make him very sinewy, sharp, reducing, with a function,” Lee mentioned. Caro (“Whale Rider”) is from New Zealand, the place a lot of “Mulan” was once filmed, and for inspiration she despatched Lee to a grasp of the Maori warrior dance, the haka. “It became out he was once an previous good friend of mine,” Lee mentioned. “I’ve numerous Maori ties. He were given me immersed within the land and what the haka have been about.” Just like the Maori, and the Hawaiians, Böri Khan is aware of one thing about imperialist land grabs: that’s what he’s seeking to avenge.

Lee, fifty-three, and his circle of relatives live to tell the tale a twenty-five-acre mountaintop farm; he purchased the valuables 20 years in the past, after a cousin alerted him to it. “Hawaiians aren’t given land very readily, so we need to purchase it again,” he mentioned, smiling. He grew up on Oahu, in a circle of relatives of 7; his oldsters are of Cantonese and Hawaiian descent. As a child, he went on, “going to the film theatre was once at all times a different luxurious, now not an on a regular basis or perhaps a per thirty days incidence.” Asian-American citizens in distinguished roles have been uncommon, with a key exception: the kung-fu grasp Bruce Lee. “He was once a God,” Lee mentioned. “He simply jumped off the display.” Later, in his personal occupation, alternatives have been restricted: bit portions on “Matlock” and “The A-Staff,” after-school specials. Then, in 1992, manufacturers requested him to megastar in a bio-p.c—of Bruce Lee.

“I used to be surprised,” Lee mentioned. “I didn’t even wish to try it.” He additionally didn’t do martial arts. However he discovered, and in “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Tale,” from 1993, he glints between simple, enthusiastic grace and oiled-up action-movie depth. Different large roles adopted: Mowgli, in Disney’s 1994 live-action “Jungle Guide” (“Baloo hit me within the chest together with his snout”); Aladdin, in an “Arabian Nights” miniseries; a kindly Hawaiian surfer (“So, you’re from outer house, huh? I heard the browsing’s selection!”), in Disney’s “Lilo & Sew.” His courting with martial arts has persevered. “After some time, it turns into part of you,” he mentioned.

Lee went outdoor: bright-blue sky, lush plants. “It’s up within the rain wooded area, yeah?” he mentioned. “There’s an overly explicit, lilting birdsong right here”—of the finch-like ’elepaio—“and I fell in love with that.” He headed towards a greenhouse. “That is some Kahili ginger, yellow plants in bloom. It’s more or less a ache within the butt, as it grows so all of a sudden up right here. Right here’s a few of my previous tomato trellises and stuff.” Lee’s lawn is overgrown. Lately, he and his circle of relatives have lived in Singapore, after which in San Diego. Within the spring, when “Mulan” was once meant to return out, he went to London for the première and got here again with Covid. (Others did, too; “Mulan” ’s eventual free up was once streaming handiest.) He recovered, and the circle of relatives returned to Hawaii indefinitely—“The youngsters can run round”—and, now that his power is again, he’s gardening once more. “I’m making an attempt a brand new pressure of taro,” he mentioned. “Blueberries—they’re more or less fickle.” He persevered on: mamaki tree, curry-leaf tree, mulberry bush, Hapu’u tree ferns, rainwater-fed reservoir.

Gardening, too, turns into part of you. “A couple of years in the past, I did this documentary”—“Secrets and techniques of Shaolin with Jason Scott Lee”—“at Shaolin Temple, in China,” Lee mentioned. “The medication man mentioned, ‘I counsel you do much less kung fu and extra meditative paintings.’ The gardening motions with the hand gear I take advantage of are very similar to the martial arts—the posture, the respiring, the comfort.” He appeared contemplative. “It’s extra of a noncombative feeling of poetry in movement.” He laughed. “And, aging, I believe find it irresistible’s more straightforward at the joints.” ♦