Cole Horibe on Staying Single, Dancing In Rhinestone Underwear & Paying Tribute to Bruce Lee in Kung Fu

Age: 28

Hometown: Honolulu, HI

Current Role: A karate-kicking off-Broadway debut as a young, ambitious Bruce Lee in the world premiere of Kung Fu, a tribute to the martial arts legend.

Stage and Screen Cred: Season nine of TV’s So You Think You Can Dance, known for his unique “martial arts fusion” style.

“I haven’t dated anyone in nine years. I’m very selective. I haven’t met anyone since [my last girlfriend] that I’ve been interested in. She was perfect. After her, I could only go down or up. Why go down?”

“The craziest job I ever took was a Valentine's Day dance show in Hawaii, choreographed by a friend. It was a dominatrix piece—my costume was a top hat, a cane and underwear with rhinestones all over it.”

“Honing my Chinese accent was hard—Bruce Lee’s voice is so specific, no one really sounds like him in Hong Kong. The movies I watched were dubbed, so I listened to his interviews and imitated him over and over. My friends were so annoyed!”

“Once, my pants ripped while I was dancing. I kept performing and didn’t know how bad it was until I got offstage—it was ripped all the way down my butt and half my leg! It was so embarrassing.”

“There are a lot of parallels between Bruce and me. His goal was to change the way Oriental men were perceived in Hollywood—my goal is to become an actor who can play anything, who isn’t stereotyped into exclusively Asian roles.”