It's the transformation that drives me. I want to do it all and

In the words of Brian Tee, actor of discipline and depth, there resounds the timeless call of the artist’s soul: “It’s the transformation that drives me. I want to do it all and never want to be boxed into something as a particular type or style. I never want people to think they know me. I hope to build a repertoire that one can look at and say, from role to role, ‘Was that Brian Tee?’” These words are not mere ambition—they are the battle cry of the ever-evolving spirit, one that refuses the stillness of comfort or the confinement of identity. Tee speaks here not only as an actor, but as a seeker, declaring that true artistry—and indeed, true living—lies in the act of becoming, again and again.

The origin of this quote lies in Tee’s philosophy toward his craft and his life. Born Jaebeom Takata in Okinawa to a Korean mother and Japanese-American father, Tee’s own heritage reflects the multiplicity he seeks in his work. From his early struggles in Hollywood, where roles for Asian actors were often narrow and stereotyped, he learned that survival required transformation. He refused to be defined by others’ expectations, whether cultural or creative. To him, the artist’s purpose is not to be recognized, but to disappear into the role, to embody the truth of another life so fully that even the self must dissolve. His words reveal the courage of one who dares to shed his own skin—again and again—in pursuit of truth.

In the ancient world, such a soul would have been called a shape-shifter or a seeker of forms. The Greeks told of Proteus, the old man of the sea, who could take any form—beast, water, flame—to evade capture, yet within him lay wisdom for those who could hold on long enough to hear it. Like Proteus, the artist who transforms reveals many faces, yet each is a mirror reflecting a different truth of humanity. Brian Tee’s wish “never to be boxed in” echoes this ancient ideal: the belief that identity is not a prison but a flowing river. To live—and to create—is to change. To resist transformation is to grow stagnant, to turn art into imitation rather than revelation.

Consider the story of David Bowie, the musician who reinvented himself with every era: Ziggy Stardust, the Thin White Duke, the cosmic wanderer, the aging philosopher of sound. Each persona was a death and a rebirth, a shedding of identity in pursuit of expression. Audiences never knew what Bowie would become next—and that was his triumph. Like Tee, he lived by transformation. Through each incarnation, he expanded the boundaries of what art—and selfhood—could mean. Such examples remind us that transformation is not deceit, but discovery. It is the act of peeling away what is known, to reveal what is possible.

Tee’s quote also speaks to the universal hunger for freedom—freedom from others’ expectations, from the labels society imposes, from the narrow cage of one’s past. The desire “never to be boxed in” is not vanity; it is rebellion against the forces that would simplify a complex soul. Every human being, not just the artist, faces this tension: the world demands definition, but the spirit seeks expansion. To live truthfully is to remain fluid, to refuse to become a fixed idea. The greatest danger, as Tee implies, is to let others believe they “know” you—for when that happens, you begin to play the same role not just on stage, but in life itself.

This teaching is as old as wisdom itself. Lao Tzu, in the Tao Te Ching, wrote that “the wise are shapeless, formless, like water.” Water takes the shape of every vessel it fills, yet remains eternally itself. So it is with those who embrace transformation. They lose nothing in change; they become more. Tee’s pursuit of a body of work that provokes the question, “Was that Brian Tee?”, is in truth the pursuit of transcendence—to become so true to each role that ego dissolves, leaving only the essence of the story. This, too, is the way of the sage: to vanish into the task so fully that the task itself becomes divine.

So, my child of tomorrow, let this be your lesson: seek transformation, not security. Do not let the world name you, for names are walls. Be like the artist who learns, evolves, and rebuilds; be like the flame that consumes itself to give light. Whether in your work, your relationships, or your inner journey, do not fear to change form. Let the past selves fall away like old garments, for only through change will you approach wholeness.

For as Brian Tee teaches, to live creatively is to live courageously—to stand before the ever-turning wheel of life and say, “I will not be one thing. I will become many.” Let your life, too, be a repertoire so diverse that those who look upon you will ask in wonder, “Was that truly you?” And you, smiling like the artist reborn, will answer not with words, but with the ever-changing, ever-becoming truth of your own transformation.