My mum lives in Boston; she's famous for teaching wushu and t'ai chi. So from when I was young, my mum and aunt were like: 'You're training; you're not playing baseball or football.' Training every day was normal. Later, when I was almost a teenager, Bruce Lee became my idol.

I did a couple comedies to balance myself as an actor and balance how audiences see Donnie Yen as an actor, and I would even say as a celebrity or icon, to some fans. I want to show that I'm not Terminator.

A lot of people don't realize, when you are acting in a martial arts film, you're not just performing martial arts. You're not just performing martial arts. You're actually acting as much as any other actor.

I don't make comparisons between any movies. I compare characters. All my actions, performances, all my films, they are driven by the characteristic. If I'm playing a cop, then I give him a particular style - I may not know that style, but as an actor I have to be responsible to do your homework and do your research and training and stuff like that.

There is also a strong following among the urbanites on the East Coast when it comes to martial arts films.

When audiences look at an action actor like myself, sometimes we are very easily stereotyped or characterized as one type. They forget that we are actors, too.

Bruce is the man. He was definitely ahead of his time.