Bruce Lee's portrayal in Quentin Tarantino's new film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has some believing he disrespected the great martial artist's legacy. Tarantino decided to address the backlash while doing press for the movie in Moscow.
In the movie, Brad Pitt's character Cliff Booth gets into a fight with Bruce Lee (Mike Moh) after Lee claims he could beat up Muhammad Ali. The nature of the dialogue leading up to the fight sparked outrage from those close to the late martial art expert.
Lee's daughter, Sharron, said Tarantino made a "mockery" of her father by depicting him as "an arrogant asshole who was full of hot air." Also, Lee's protégé Dan Inosanto claimed that Bruce "would have never said anything derogatory about Muhammad Ali because he worshiped the ground Muhammad Ali walked on."
Still, Tarantino insists that he didn't stray too far away from Lee's actual personality.
"Bruce Lee was kind of an arrogant guy," Tarantino said. "The way he was talking, I didn’t just make a lot of that up. I heard him say things like that to that effect. If people are saying, ‘Well he never said he could beat up Mohammad Ali,’ well yeah he did. Alright? Not only did he say that but his wife, Linda Lee, said that in her first biography I ever read. She absolutely said that."
In addition to the dialogue, fans were upset over the outcome of the fight, which ended in a draw. "Could Cliff beat up Bruce Lee? Brad would not be able to beat up Bruce Lee, but Cliff maybe could," Tarantino explained while sharing some of Cliff Booth's backstory.
'If you ask me the question, ‘Who would win in a fight: Bruce Lee or Dracula?’ It’s the same question. It’s a fictional character," he said. "If I say Cliff can beat Bruce Lee up, he’s a fictional character so he could beat Bruce Lee up. The reality of the situation is this: Cliff is a Green Beret. He has killed many men in WWII in hand to hand combat. What Bruce Lee is talking about in the whole thing is that he admires warriors. He admires combat, and boxing is a closer approximation of combat as a sport. Cliff is not part of the sport that is like combat, he is a warrior. He is a combat person."
Although Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is still doing numbers at the box office, Tarantino is already looking forward to his next film. While on his Russian press tour, Tarantino gave insight on the possible direction of his tenth film, saying he'd "love to do a horror film."
