While there are always a lot of news that comes up regarding Quentin Tarantino films, particularly when it comes to his dialogue and use of gore and violence, after the debut of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” there was a bit of a surprising controversy surrounding the filmmaker’s depiction of Bruce Lee. In a film that seems to celebrate filmmaking and actors of decades gone by, many people noticed Tarantino didn’t necessarily showcase Bruce Lee in the best light, as he came off as an arrogant asshole (Lee’s widow, Linda Lee, criticized the film and Tarantino, at the time).
In a recent podcast conversation with Joe Rogan, Tarantino said he doesn’t really care what anyone thinks about it other than the family. Tarantino was unapologetic.
“I can understand his daughter having a problem with it; it’s her fucking father, I get that,” the filmmaker said. “But anybody else [can] go suck a dick. If you look at it, it’s obvious Cliff tricked him; that’s how he was able to [beat him,] it’s explained a bit more in the book.”
LISTEN: Bruce Lee At 80: The Dragon’s Unmatched Films, Influence & Afterlives [Be Reel Podcast]
Tarantino cited Matthew Polly’s book “Bruce Lee: A Life” as one of the reasons he fictionalized the fight between Lee and Cliff Booth because similar incidents happened on the set of “The Green Hornet.” “The stuntmen hated Bruce on ‘The Green Hornet’; it’s in Matthew Polly’s book,” he explained. “Bruce had nothing but disrespect for American stuntmen and was always hitting them. He was always tagging them with his feet and his fists, and it got to the point where they refused to work with them.”
Why was Lee like this? Rogan asked. Tarantino suggested it was Lee’s disdain for Americans and the way he wasn’t exactly as warmly welcomed into Hollywood as he hoped.
“Ah, ‘They’re just not good enough. They’re pussies. I want to make it look real.’ But [stuntmen] don’t like that, that’s not professional …” he said. Not really sure why he thought to make a point of this, but Tarantino also said that Cliff Booth [Brad Pitt‘s character] would have murdered Bruce Lee in a real street fight because, as is revealed in the “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” novelization, Booth’s backstory is that he fought in WWII and killed many people.
“Cliff is a combat killer. He fought in World War II … if Cliff fought Bruce Lee in a Madison Square Garden martial arts competition, Cliff wouldn’t stand a chance. But as a killer who killed men in a jungle, he’d kill him,” said Tarantino.
Unapologeticness was kind of the theme of the podcast, though maybe he was goaded on by Rogan, who mostly believes white men should never have anything to apologize for and are being marginalized in America (pretty much another theme of the podcast).
On the accusations that the violence against Jennifer Jason Leigh‘s character in “The Hateful Eight” was misogynistic, he was dismissive. “There’s nothing that happens to her that couldn’t have happened to a man in that same situation,” he said. “If instead of Daisy Domergue, it’s [David Carradine’s Boxcar Bertha train robber] Big Bill Shelly, a man who’s 250 pounds and a big Grizzly Adams beard, you wouldn’t think shit about Kurt Russell smacking him all the time. Well, I’m having it happen to a girl who’s just as bad as Big Bill Shelly because I’m not playing fucking favorites”.
On the topic of Margot Robbie‘s character in ‘OUATIH’ not having much dialogue, he shot back too. “She spends the entire movie by her fucking self!” he exclaimed. “If you’re just counting lines, I coulda put Mr. Sapperstein, her dog in the car and she could’ve had a running commentary with her dog… that would’ve taken care of the line count, but it woulda been bullshit.” On Cliff Booth’s violence explosion at the end of ‘OUATIH,’ his attitude was the same. “We are talking about three of the bloodiest, most violent killers of the 20th century. Their own madness grandfathers their face being bashed in.”
That said, Tarantino dismisses the speculation he’s swung right politically because of the right-wing viewpoint of Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth. He just says he’s channeling the perspective of his characters, who are witnessing a sea change in Hollywood that’s making them feel outmoded, and well, fair enough, that’s exactly what “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” is about.
You can hear the full conversation below:
