While having very, very famous parents makes it easier to get in the door in Hollywood, doing the work — and doing it well — is what keeps the door open for a person. Brandon Thomas Lee, son of Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson, is one such youngster, but his time on The Hills: New Beginnings seems to be his time to differentiate himself from his famous family.
Yeah, he grew up with paparazzi following him around, and the unrealistic expectation that he behave like a mini-me of his rockstar father, but now, he's made it clear, on the show, that he wants to strike out on his own path. And that includes seeing the name Brandon Thomas Lee in the credits of as many movies as he can get work in. This guy wants to be a star in his own right.
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Now, Brandon’s roles in films haven’t been that big (yet), but there have been a few. So far, Brandon has had parts in a short film called Inherent Greed (he played Lex Dubroff, which just sounds like a villainous name) and the Netflix film Sierra Burgess Is A Loser as Brent. You may also remember Internet boyfriend Noah Centineo in that movie, which is like a millennial Cyrano de Bergerac story. In addition to those two movies, Brandon also played Bobby in the 2018 TV series Tales. That’s all the acting credits Brandon seems to have to his name — his Instagram is full of modeling shots from the other side of his career, which makes sense. He is, after all, an objectively handsome person.
And if you've seen the 23-year-old on The Hills, acting like more of an adult than all his 30-something co-stars, you might have wondered what the hell he gets out of this arrangement. Well, it's a tale as old as time: Being on The Hills: New Beginnings will definitely get Brandon’s face in front of even more casting directors. And he's got pretty good timing.
It's actually no longer quite so taboo to do reality TV in order to get bigger acting gigs (but also never forget that even Beyoncé got her start on Star Search, okay?). Brandon told Town & Country it was Brody Jenner who suggested Brandon join the cast, and he bit right away. “Since I'm trying to be an actor, I thought it would be a great opportunity for people to get to know me,” Brandon said. “I hope people realize that I'm just a normal kid working really hard, trying to make a name for himself in Hollywood. And it's not as easy as it looks, no matter who your parents are.”
It seems that Brandon really just wants people to figure out who he has and how he’s different than his famous family (fair). Brandon has also been sober for three years, which, as he told Entertainment Tonight, is the way that he stayed grounded throughout all the drama in his life and on The Hills: New Beginnings. "At the end of the day, it's just all about what my priorities are. I love my work. I like being healthy. I like being happy. I like not ruining relationships in my life," he said. "I just want to be an example, maybe for young people, that drugs and alcohol used in the wrong way can really f**k your life up." True!
Even though he doesn’t have a lot of credits to his name, Brandon has the right attitude — get in, work hard, and show them what you got.
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