Shannon Lee calls Quentin Tarantino's version of Bruce Lee in 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' an 'arrogant a**hole'
Bruce Lee's daughter Shannon Lee has lashed out at Quentin Tarantino's portrayal of her father in 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' claiming that he comes across as an "arrogant a**hole". The new film by Tarantino sees Brad Pitt's sturdy stuntman character Cliff Booth get the better of Bruce Lee's character played by Mike Moh in a best of three rounds fight sequence on the set of a television show 'The Green Hornet'. The first round has Lee knocking Booth out, but Booth slams Lee into a car door in the round that follows. The fight sequence featured in the film is interrupted before the commencement of the third round though by the end of this scene it is implied that Booth got the better of a stunned Lee.
" I understand they want to make Brad Pitt's character this super bad a** 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. Shannon who was not consulted by Tarantino for the film told the entertainment news website The Wrap.
Shannon said Tarantino may be trying to highlight how Lee used to be stereotyped, “but it doesn’t come across that way.”
“He comes across as an arrogant asshole who was full of hot air,” she said. “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.” On watching the film she said she felt 'uncomfortable' to sit and "listen to people laugh at my father". Debunking the myth that her father was always looking for a fight she insisted that the legendary martial artist was one to avoid getting into fights unlike what is shown in the film. “Here, he’s the one with all the puffery and he’s the one challenging Brad Pitt. Which is not how he was,” she said.
It is said that Lee pitched the idea of a television show based on Asian martial artists in the Old West in 1971. Skittish Hollywood executives passed on the suggestion and instead made Kung Fu, which featured a white actor David Carradine who played the role of the Shaolin monk and martial arts expert who flees to China after his master has been killed to defend the helpless Old West. 'The Green Hornet', ABC's show on which a masked Lee played the role of a sidekick Kato gave him a jump into being known as a martial arts superstar. It came in the late 1960s when Lee was looking to get a big break in Hollywood while he was fighting against stereotypes as an Asian actor who was looking for roles in an industry that predominantly constituted muscle-bound white men.
Lee's daughter Shannon is the head of the Bruce Lee Foundation and estate and also is the executive producer on HBO series 'Warrior', which is based on her father's writings. Her opinion is that the portrayal of her father on this Tarantino expedition is not rightfully him in reality and does not subtly evaluate the character of the well-known Bruce Lee.