Quentin Tarantino has received criticism for his depiction of Bruce Lee in his new movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Now, the Oscar awarding-winning director has defended his characterization of Bruce Lee, CNN reports.
Moviegoers criticized Tarantino for portraying Bruce Lee as arrogant and overemphasizing his Chinese identity.
Shannon Lee, Bruce Lee’s daughter, told The Los Angeles Times she was disheartened by the film’s attempt to paint her father as an egotistical actor.
“I understand this is a Tarantino film, that the movie characters are ‘antiheroes’ and this has his characteristic style and is another of his rage fantasies,” Lee told The Los Angeles Times. “While I understand that the mechanism in the story is to make Brad Pitt’s character out to be such a badass that he can beat up Bruce Lee, the script treatment of my father as this arrogant, egotistical punching bag was really disheartening — and, I feel, unnecessary.”
Tarantino defended his decision to make Lee seem arrogant at a press conference in Russia, according to CNN.
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“Bruce Lee was kind of an arrogant guy,” Tarantino said. “I didn’t just make a lot of that up. I heard him say things like that, to that effect. People are saying, ‘Well, he never said he could beat up Muhammad Ali.’ Uh, yeah, he did. Not only did he say that, his wife, Linda Lee, said that. In the first biography I ever read was Linda Lee’s ‘Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew,’ and she absolutely said it.”
According to Deadline, Taratino also responded to criticisms of the scene in which Brad Pitt’s character, stuntman Cliff Booth, beats Lee in a fight.
“Could Cliff beat up Bruce Lee? Brad would not be able to beat up Bruce Lee, but Cliff maybe could,” Tarantino said. “If you ask me the question, ‘Well, who would win in a fight: Bruce Lee or Dracula?’ It’s the same question. It’s a fictional character. If I say Cliff could beat Bruce Lee up, he’s a fictional character, then he could beat Bruce Lee up.”
Although Tarantino remains convinced of Bruce Lee’s arrogance, CNN noted that those who worked with Bruce Lee have come out to defend his character.
“He was never, in my opinion, cocky,” Lee’s former training partner, Dan Inosanto, said in an interview with Variety. “Maybe he was cocky in as far as martial arts because he was very sure of himself. He was worlds ahead of everyone else. But on a set, he’s not gonna show off.”
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