Spotlight On: Cole Horibe, ‘Kung Fu’

Posted on Mar 4, 2014 | Comments Off on Spotlight On: Cole Horibe, ‘Kung Fu’

Starring in David Henry Hwang’s new Off-Broadway show “Kung Fu,” about the life of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, Horibe was discovered for the role after appearing on the ninth season of “So You Think You Can Dance.”

On his lifelong dream of playing Bruce Lee.
“In high school a friend told me about a teenage Bruce Lee film they were going to make in Hollywood, and he told me to get a video together to send in. At that point I was trying method acting, so maybe for two or three months I was in character as Bruce Lee and I wouldn’t even respond to Cole.”

On rehearsing for the show.
“Physically it wasn’t harder than rehearsing for ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’but my focus was 95 percent on the acting and the script rather than the movements of the show. That took a far back seat to the acting.”

On how he relates to Lee.
“Fundamentally we are very much the same. In martial arts I kind of jumped around and did a lot of different styles just like he did. Then when I started dancing is when I came up with my own unique style, which was like a fusion of contemporary and martial arts. It’s like what Bruce Lee was always saying, ‘Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.’He kind of just mashed it all together and came up with his own style of Jeet Kune Do, and that’s what I do in my life.”

Original Article