Actor Aarif Rahman on the making of Bruce Lee, My Brother and what it's like playing the martial arts icon
Rahman tells the Post he didn't know much about Bruce Lee before being offered the chance to portray him, and reveals how much fellow film crew members helped
Aarif Rahman is perhaps best known as the actor who played the eldest son of a shoemaking couple in Echoes Of The Rainbow, which won a Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival this year. But the 23-year-old is also a musical talent: he plays several instruments, sings and composes.
Despite being signed to local label Amusic, Rahman earned a physics degree from Imperial College, London, before embarking on a musical career. He produced his debut album himself last year, and has since won several local music awards as best newcomer.
Rahman can now be seen in the biopic Bruce Lee, My Brother, in which he plays the kung fu legend before he became a world-famous figure. Directed by Raymond Yip Wai-man, the film co-stars Tony Leung Ka-fai and Christy Chung as Lee's parents.
What was it like to be offered the role of the kung fu icon?
In the beginning, I was shocked. I felt some pressure because he's a legend. But then the director, Raymond Yip, said something that really made sense. He told me, 'This pressure is shared by the entire team. It's not just on you. As a team, we want to show the spirit of Bruce Lee and we want to tell people about his childhood.' I felt relieved that the entire team was behind me.
They helped me in every way. Every morning, they would say, 'Morning, Bruce'. It's these little things that gave me the confidence to try and bring out what I believe was Bruce Lee.