Back when “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” debuted at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, there was a lot of controversy about violence in the film towards women and the limited role that Margot Robbie, as Sharon Tate, played in the film. At the time, many wondered if this controversy would carry over when the film finally hit theaters. And it honestly didn’t. Instead, it would appear that the biggest controversy surrounding Quentin Tarantino’s latest film was his use of Bruce Lee in the film.
For those that haven’t been following this story, Bruce Lee’s daughter recently spoke out about her sadness that she felt seeing her father’s legacy tarnished by Tarantino’s film. Everything she has issues with revolved around once scene in particular, featuring actor Mike Moh, as Lee, and Brad Pitt, as Cliff Booth. However, according to the actor playing Lee, this controversy is a bit of a misunderstanding.
**Spoilers ahead for a specific scene early in ‘Once Upon a Time’**
In the scene, Lee and Booth are involved in a “friendly” fight, where the first person to knock the other down two separate times wins. The first “round” is won quickly by Lee. The second features Booth catching a kick from Lee and hurling him into a car door. The fight is broken up before the third round.
However, Moh explained to Birth.Movies.Death that the scene gave him a bit of a pause when he first read it, but he feels that Tarantino ultimately portrays Lee is an accurate and perfectly fine way.
“I’m not going to tell you what the original script had exactly, but when I read it, I was so conflicted because he’s my hero – Bruce in my mind was literally a God,” said Moh. “He wasn’t a person to me, he was a superhero. And I think that’s how most people view Bruce. And the thing about it is, Number One, it’s a Tarantino film. He’s not going to do the thing that everybody expects anybody else to do. You’ve got to expect the unexpected. And Number Two, I knew from the jump, Tarantino loves Bruce Lee; he reveres him.”
He continued, “So let me be clear; in the film it was a challenge – ‘best two out of three.’ I got the first point – I knocked him on his ass first. And Bruce at that time was so cocky and maybe got a little excited and he didn’t know Cliff Booth has killed dozens of people with his bare hands – and that’s what people may not realize up until that moment in the film. It’s a hugely important scene – what better way to show how dangerous Cliff is than for him to show up and even match him for a little bit with Bruce? And the only reason why I got thrown into that car is because I was so cocky, like, oh I’m going to do this again.”
If you’ve seen the film, it’s clear that Tarantino needed to include the scene of Booth and Lee for one main reason — to show how dangerous Pitt’s character actually is. This is, of course, paid off multiple times after, including the climax. But in doing so, Lee’s daughter (and some fans) feel that the filmmaker tarnished the legacy of one of the great action stars in Hollywood history to put over Booth. Moh doesn’t really agree with that assessment.
“I can see how people might think Bruce got beat because of the impact with the car, but you give me five more seconds and Bruce would have won,” said the actor. “So I know people are going to be up in arms about it, but when I went into my deep dive of studying Bruce, he more than anybody wanted people to know he’s human. And I think I respect him more knowing that he had these challenges, these obstacles, just like everybody. I don’t know any actor out there that doesn’t have some sense of wanting to be more – and I think that’s the sign of somebody that wants greatness, and will achieve greatness, always wanting more. “
Ultimately, it’s a case of really having to see the movie for yourself and coming to your own conclusions. Obviously, Tarantino cares about Lee, as an icon, and Moh does, as well. Your mileage may vary on whether or not the filmmaker honors the late actor or uses him as a gag.
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is in theaters now.