Joie Lee, Spike’s Sister, Finds Herself in a ‘Mo’ Better’ Place

Joie Lee grew up in Brooklyn, the only girl in a family of six children. “I considered myself one of the boys,” she says. “My brothers didn’t spoil me at all, not at all. I was very tomboyish. It wasn’t as if I was like a princess or anything like that.”

There’s nothing tomboyish now about the 28-year-old actress who currently is starring in her big brother Spike Lee’s new film, “Mo’ Better Blues.” She plays Indigo Downes, one of two beautiful women in the life of jazz musician Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington).

Lee and her siblings were encouraged from childhood to go into the arts. Her father is a jazz musician who scores the music to Spike’s films; her mother was a schoolteacher. “It was just our way of life,” she says. “When you grown up in that kind of environment, it’s not something you question. When you are a youngster, I think most kids want to do what their parents do. We lived and breathed (the arts). It wasn’t anything that was oppressive.”

Education was also very important in her family. “My mother passed away when I was 14, so there were certain things I missed in terms of upbringing,” says Lee. “Maybe my mother would have said, ‘You have to get a real job.’ I don’t know because I didn’t have that experience. My fortes in school were Spanish, sports, reading and theater. That’s what they encouraged.”

After attending a private school for gifted students for 12 years, Lee dropped out of Sarah Lawrence College during her sophomore year. “I wasn’t ready for school,” admits Lee. “It was more important to me to have a job or have an apartment or have a boyfriend. That’s what I wanted to experience at that time.”

Lee worked at various odd jobs until four years ago when Spike gave her a small part in his first feature film, “She’s Gotta Have It.” “Acting is something I always wanted to do and knew I could do,” says Lee. She’s subsequently worked with her brother on all of his features and is about to begin his new movie, “Jungle Fever.”

Between acting assignments, Lee hopes to find time to complete her education. “I want to have a degree,” says Lee. “ It wasn’t important at 18 when you are flitting about, but it’s important to me now. I want to finish school.”