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Two years and some worldwide backlash later, Quentin Tarantino wholeheartedly stands by his depiction of Bruce Lee (by actor Mike Moh) in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. In an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience”, the Pulp Fiction director promoted the new novel adaptation of Hollywood and slammed any critics of his portrayal of the martial arts icon—except Shannon Lee, Bruce’s daughter.
You might think that after Shannon Lee condemned Tarantino for his “irresponsible” depiction and China refused to even release the film in theaters that he might rethink defending the scenes. Instead, Tarantino doubled down on his stance that Bruce Lee was not pleasant to have on set.
“I can understand his daughter having a problem with it,” Tarantino said. “But anybody else? Go suck a dick.”
The scene in question was a fight scene on the set of The Green Hornet between Lee and Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt. Lee is depicted with a cocky attitude, showing no respect to the stuntmen on the set, and even claiming that he could best Muhammad Ali in a fight. When Lee eggs Booth on for a multiple-round fight, he gets tricked by the fictional stuntman and thrown into a car. Tarantino’s defense for having Lee lose to Booth in the scene was the hand-to-hand style of the fight.
“If Cliff fought Bruce Lee at a Madison Square Garden martial arts tournament, he would not stand a chance,” Tarantino said. “But as a killer who has killed men before in a jungle, he would kill Bruce Lee.”
The director claimed Lee’s attitude in the film mirrored the real Bruce Lee on sets. Matthew Polly’s 2018 book Bruce Lee: A Life details how stuntmen on the set of The Green Hornet hated working with Lee, according to Tarantino.
“Bruce had nothing but disrespect for American stuntmen,” Tarantino said. “And he was always hitting them. It’s called tagging when you hit the stuntmen for real. It was to the point where they refused to work with him.”
Bruce Lee’s fans and family have continuously pushed back against the lasting negative views of the martial arts master, but Tarantino just will not budge. If you’re interested, you can read a more fleshed out version of the Bruce Lee and Cliff Booth sequence in the novel based on his Academy Award winning film, which released earlier this week.
Calen Razor is an Editorial Intern at Men's Health. He is a rising senior at New York University and has previously contributed to the university's Student Publications covering fashion and culture.
