The Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Margot Robbie starter Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood (2019) grossed $377 million on a $90 million budget. It received rave reviews and over the years it has begun embedding itself as a classic that needs to be watched. But with praise has come criticism as well. However, this time not from critics.
Quentin Tarantino’s film had a small scene where Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth defeated Mike Moh’s Bruce Lee. This scene didn’t go over well with many. Sharon Lee, Donnie Yen, and more raised their voices against the disrespectful scene. But not only did Tarantino plan for the scene to stretch longer, but he also stood by it and declared Lee to be arrogant in real life.
Bruce Lee’s Daughter Criticized Quentin Tarantino’s Portrayal Of Her Father
In Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, there’s a scene where Bruce Lee (Mike Moh) challenges stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). In the first round, Booth loses, but in the next one, he wins and the fight ends in a stalemate. How the scene is depicted drew the ire of many as it showed Lee in a negative light as a bully.
In a 2019 interview with The Wrap, Bruce Lee’s daughter, Sharon Lee, said, “I understand that the two characters are antiheroes and this is sort of like a rage fantasy of what would happen… and they’re portraying a period of time that clearly had a lot of racism and exclusion. I understand they want to make the Brad Pitt character this super badass who could beat up Bruce Lee. But they didn’t need to treat him in the way that white Hollywood did when he was alive.”
She further said, “He comes across as an arrogant a**hole who was full of hot air and not someone who had to fight triple as hard as any of those people did to accomplish what was naturally given to so many others. It was really uncomfortable to sit in the theater and listen to people laugh at my father.”
Apart from Sharon Lee, Donnie Yen, another Hollywood martial arts legend, also criticized the portrayal of Bruce Lee in the film. Yen told Variety, “Everybody is entitled to their opinions. Quentin Tarantino is a very renowned filmmaker, and he’s entitled to his status – and I’m entitled to state my own view. Obviously, he was making fun of Bruce. It was cartoonish.” However, the short scene was supposed to go on longer and likely would have if Brad Pitt hadn’t stepped in.
Brad Pitt Refused To Film Scene Mocking Bruce Lee
During an interview with The Huffington Post, Robert Alonzo, co-stunt coordinator on Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, revealed that the Bruce Lee vs Cliff Booth fight was supposed to stretch longer. In the end, Lee was going to lose to Booth after getting hit with a cheap shot. But Alonzo and Brad Pitt weren’t on board with it. Alonzo said:
“I know that Brad had expressed his concerns, and we all had concerns about Bruce losing. Especially for me, as someone who has looked up to Bruce Lee as an icon, not only in the martial arts realm but in the way he approached philosophy and life, to see your idol be beaten is very disheartening.”
Alonzo even stated that he had a tough time choreographing that scene. He said, “It really pulled at certain emotional strings that can incite a little anger and frustration as to how he’s portrayed. I had a difficult time choreographing a fight where he lost. Everyone involved was like, ‘How is this going to go over?’ Brad was very much against it. He was like, ‘It’s Bruce Lee, man!'”
But what did Quentin Tarantino say about the criticism? He defended his portrayal of the martial arts legend.
Quentin Tarantino Defended Bruce Lee’s Portrayal In His Film
On the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Quentin Tarantino addressed the accusations leveled against him for the portrayal of Bruce Lee in Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood. The acclaimed director backed up his vision and stated that Bruce Lee was arrogant in real life and didn’t have a good reputation with stuntmen. He said:
“The stuntmen hated Bruce on ‘Green Hornet. It’s in Matthew Polly’s book [‘Bruce Lee: A Life’] and it’s always been known. That’s why Gene Labelle was brought in, to teach Bruce respect for American stuntmen. He was always hitting them with his feet. It’s called tagging when you hit a stuntman for real.”
Quentin Tarantino further explained, “He (Bruce Lee) was always tagging them with his feet and his fist and it got to the point where they would refuse to work with Bruce. He had nothing but disrespect for American stuntmen. It was probably just like, ‘Oh they’re just not good enough. They are p**sies. I want to make it look real!’ But stuntmen don’t like that. That’s unprofessional.”
Regarding Sharon Lee’s statements, Tarantino said, “Where I am coming from is I can understand his daughter having a problem with it. It’s her f**king father. I get that. But anybody else, oh suck a d*ck!” But Bruce Lee’s daughter wasn’t happy with the words Tarantino used.
In an interview with SCMP Martial Arts for promoting her book Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee, Sharon Lee said, “I was very disappointed. I always like to try to give the benefit of the doubt. I spoke out on why I thought the portrayal wasn’t helpful to anyone… I was very disappointed to see Quentin Tarantino’s response, which was to continue to say, ‘Oh, Bruce Lee was arrogant, he was an a***ole.'”
However, The Hateful Eight director didn’t comment any further, and neither did he remove the scene from the film later on. Currently, he is gearing up for The Movie Critic.
Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood is streaming on Netflix.
Source: Huffington Post and Joe Rogan
