Jason Scott Lee: The quiet revolutionary

"We take care of the land because it takes care of us."

If fame is a measure of greatness, then I guess you could say Jason Scott Lee has already enjoyed a generous helping of the great life. Until 2003, Jason had been a busy Hollywood actor with dozens of movies in his filmography, including high-profile projects such as Map of the Human Heart, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and Lilo and Stitch.

But this wasn’t the reason why I interviewed him. In fact, until I did the Google thing, I had no clue who Jason Scott Lee was. But my brother Paolo, a Las Vegas artist and photographer – yes, he took the photos you saw on the Home page – had told me about this guy who had turned his back on Hollywood to live off the land and off the grid on the edge of a mountainous rainforest on Hawaii’s Big Island. This was no fancy resort-style property either, according to my brother. Instead, this guy had built a spartan two-room house using mostly recycled material, including an old horse trough reincarnated as a bath tub.

He was living without electricity and modern plumbing and was raising chickens, tending to a variety of vegetables, and bartering with local hunters for such items as boar meat, which he sometimes pays for with poi, the staple Hawaiian food made from taro root. He was also reforesting parts of the property, which had been clear-cut and littered with garbage left by previous occupants.

“It’s all about ‘malama aina’ – a concept rooted in old Hawaiian culture that says we take care of the land because it takes care of us,” Jason tells me over the phone from his house, built on a 25-acre property in an area of the island known as Volcano. He doesn’t have a landline so he’s asked me to call him on his mobile phone.

“I’m trying to do my part by living within nature, giving back to the land that’s sustaining me and really trying not to create more activity and waste. Hopefully in this small, quiet way I am helping to create some balance and harmony on the planet.”

So how does one go from living the high life in Hollywood to living in the rough?

“After I had become entrenched in the entertainment industry and was spending so much time in airplanes and hotel rooms, I would often think and ask myself ‘if I had a choice, what would I do if acting was something I chose not to continue?’” Jason recalls. “So I began thinking more about how I can have a happier, more contented life and I recalled my childhood when my Dad took us camping in Hawaii – those were the happiest moments of my life.”

Today, Jason’s life on Volcano isn’t exactly a camping trip. He spends his days doing a lot of manual work – planting trees, chopping firewood, and tending to his gardens of taro, sweet potato, kale and tomatoes. Sometimes he’ll butcher a chicken for dinner. Other times, he’ll get in his kayak or pedal boat and venture out in the ocean for fish.

“I’ve been in lots of situations out there when the motor on my old motor boat was not right, or I’m in a kayak and a sudden squall comes up and I’m fighting gale force winds,” he says. “And I would be like ‘shit, I’m screwed.’ But these are all things that have made me strong mentally, and also made me more careful and respectful of nature.”

Nurturing the new trees he plants in the rainforest is an ongoing challenge, says Jason. “It’s not as easy as putting the trees in the ground and then simply walking away. All the trees we’re planting are native to the island and require quite a bit of tending. A lot of times the young ones don’t make it; we’re near the volcano so we get a lot of fog which knocks down the young trees.”

But he is vigilant about respecting the land and follows the natural farming methods he learned from the Masanobu Fukuoka, the now deceased microbiologist, soil scientist and author of The One-Straw Revolution, considered by many to be the ultimate bible of natural farming.

“I made a pilgrimage to Japan and spent a summer on his farm getting a grasp on his farming methods,” recalls Jason. “That summer was a real turning point for me.”

COURAGE IN THE FACE OF SKEPTICISM

As much as I applaud Jason Scott Lee’s actions as an environmentalist, what truly struck me as extraordinary about him was his courage in imagining that he could live a life so different from the norm and so contradictory to the lifestyle he had become accustomed to as a Hollywood star. Because this isn’t a part-time adventure for Jason – this is where he has been living year-round for the last 12 years.

“Some people still think that this is just a whim,” says Jason, who was born to a Chinese mother and a Chinese-Hawaiian father. “There’s a lot of skepticism from people who want to see me do films – people like my mother who would rather see me in the spotlight.”

During our interview, I was touched by the somewhat quixotic nature of Jason’s quest and his determination to just keep going, no matter what. He had initially hoped that his mother and three siblings would join him in Volcano. The dream was that when he and his siblings got married and had children, all the kids would be raised together by a community of loving aunts and uncles and grow up living the philosophy of malama aina.

“But my family really didn’t want that kind of life,” says Jason. “Along the way I realized that everyone has their own lifestyle and I’ve come to terms with that.”

Jason has also struggled with his efforts to teach other people on the island how they too can take care of the land and live more sustainably. A few years back, he had approached school administrators with the idea of creating gardens where students would learn to grow fruits and vegetables using organic methods.

“Can you imagine if every school had an orchard of fruits like bananas and coconuts, all raised with organic pesticides and rich soil?” asks Jason. “The idea was to make organic gardening a mandatory school subject while at the same time providing kids with fresh fruit that they could supplement their lunches with. But I got hit with a lot of no’s. The schools just weren’t interested.”

Still, Jason perseveres. He often plays host to school children on field trips, proudly showing them his gardens and chickens and fish ponds and explaining how he takes care of all the living things on his land. He also welcomes adult visitors interested in his gardening methods.

He still works on the occasional movie. His most recent project, Dance of the Dragon, was released in 2008. While shooting the movie in Singapore, Jason fell in love and got married shortly after. His wife, Diana, now lives with him on Volcano.

“I find it incredible because I get to spend every hour with my wife and we have no distractions here. That’s the blessing of this place because I don’t think most couples have that luxury.”

So what does his wife think of the life he has chosen to live?

“Well, she married it,” he answers with a laugh. He pauses, then resumes the conversation in a more serious tone.

“She came from the city life, from Singapore, so this is all brand new to her. But she’s been here for more than two years now.”

Another pause. “And she’s six months pregnant. All our hopes and dreams are coming alive.”

Does he ever miss his old life?

“Not really,” Jason replies. “Although I love acting, the thrill of making a movie doesn’t compare to the sheer happiness of living this close to nature – it’s so raw and so real. I often tell people I get my excitement in the ocean, my comfort in the mountain.”

Although he lives simply, he doesn’t want for anything. Last year, he and his wife spent about $8,000 the entire year. “And the reason we spent that much was because he had to build a couple of new structures on the property last year,” explains Jason. “Most years my expenses are a lot less than that.”

It’s a long way from the fancy hotels and lavish meals of his Hollywood days. But Jason says doing without these luxuries isn’t exactly a hardship. “In Buddhist terms, it’s all about reducing your desire for things,” he says. “Then it’s no longer a sacrifice because all those material things that were once so important don’t matter anymore.”

Tags: Dragon: Bruce Lee Story, environment, green living, Jason Scott Lee, living off the grid, natural farming, organic farming, reforestation, sustainable living