An Interview with Matthew Polly, Author of Bruce Lee's Biography

Bruce Lee is an icon that needs little introduction to many. He broke into the Hollywood scene in a time when Asian characters were only played by white men or shown briefly as minor villains or goodie-two-shoes.

Against blatant racism, he introduced a philosophy and a new sense of masculine athleticism to the Hollywood genre, impacting people of all races to this day. Heck, there are even recent celebrities like Robert Downey Jr. and Kobe Bryant coming forward acknowledging his impact.

Despite these accomplishments, no one has sent forth to write a thorough biography about Bruce until now. In the year 2018, Matthew Polly has written an epic biography detailing the story about the man. I read the book, and was blown away by all the assumptions I had about the man that were wrong. I heard about him briefly from classmates but truly discovered him through social media. I assumed he was a man who always succeeded in life with utmost confidence based on his screen appearances, but he failed through most of his life and hid a lot of insecurities before finally reaching his dreams.

I sat down with the Matthew and had a fascinating conversation that dove into many aspects of Bruce’s life. We talked about many topics, including but not limited to:

How Matthew did his research and got his interviews
How Matthew stuck to accuracy even when it meant saying things uncomfortable or negative to Bruce’s image
On racism- how Bruce handled racism so well and so differently than everyone else
How to apply Bruce’s success principles in the modern era
Why discovering yourself takes a long time
What made Bruce so sexy and attractive to women of all cultures, on-screen and in his dating life
Why modern Asian American still lack these traits and what they can do to improve them
What made Bruce so impactful to people of all cultures?
What allowed secret principles allowed Bruce to finally succeed financially, in Hollywood, and in the martial arts industry
How did Bruce have so much charisma on command and how can we learn from him if we don’t have his cocky, rebellious personality?
What made Bruce so different from the stereotypical Asian American
Bruce’s work ethic as a child versus adult (and the point of change)
Interesting, lesser-known facts about Bruce not mentioned in the book
Bruce’s workout routine and nutrition
Elements of his life that showed he wasn’t perfect and was a human with weaknesses