Justin C
Humanities 10
In the final part of my assessment for the Eminent Project this year, I was asked to interview someone with knowledge and/expertise in the field that our eminent person was. If you couldn’t find someone in their said field you could interview someone who was directly affected by their eminence. In the long run, after many attempts, I was sadly still not able to get an interview from anyone that I sent an email. Over the duration of this blog post, I will reflect on the steps that I personally took to get an interview, why I was not able to get an interview, and what I could’ve done differently to be successful in getting an interview.
As I have mentioned I wanted to highlight Bruce Lee’s eminence as an Asian Actor rather than as a martial artist. The first choice and most obvious one that came to my mind were foundations and organizations based on Bruce Lee’s work. The first foundation that I found was the Bruce Lee Foundation. After working up a draft email and reading it over to make sure that I was sending a clear message and had no grammar and spelling errors I sent them an email. After a few days of waiting patiently, they replied to my email. As I anticipated their response was through a bot. They thanked me for emailing them and said that they receive a lot of inquiries and do their best to respond. They then gave me many links for situational questions and other opportunities. A link for Jeet Kune Do, Donations, Licensing the use of Bruce Lee’s name and other inquiries. Finishing off their email it said to email back if I had more inquiries not included in the list they gave me. I sent them another email asking if there was a specific person at the foundation that I could “ask a few questions over email, a call, or a zoom call.” Evidently, I did not get a response. My second attempt was with the Vancouver actor Darren E. Scott, a native of Richmond, BC Canada who began studying Karate at the age of 8 and received his black belt at the age of 11. He pursued his training throughout his high school and college/post-college years and became a Canadian National Champion in both forms and point sparring. I thought that he would be a good candidate as he studied martial arts and is an Asian Actor. After waiting for what seemed to be forever with no responses and 2 days before the interview was due I decided to give up in my attempts to conduct an interview.
Now looking back after reflecting on what I had done, what could I have done differently to up my chances of securing an interview? For starters, I could’ve perhaps chosen people that were more likely to have time to participate in an interview, instead of someone like an actor that is most likely already very busy with their job or not seeking opportunities to talk to students. Another way that I could’ve secured an interview is by letting go of what I believe was Bruce Lee’s larger impact and choosing someone who was more specifically in the field of martial arts.
Overall this was an insightful experience and I learned about the struggle of finding an interview. I now know what to do differently in the future.