Bruce Lee's Daughter Slams Portrayal of Action Star in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Director Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood calls back to action star Bruce Lee in one of the scenes where Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) easily defeats him in a fight on a movie set. Earlier, Bruce’s daughter Shannon Lee had objected to the scene in the film and now she has openly criticised Quentin for ‘perpetuating Hollywood’s portrayal of him as a dispensable stereotype’.

Quentin was recently asked about the criticism regarding his depiction of Bruce getting easily knocked down by Brad Pitt’s character Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Replying to this, the director had said, “I can understand his daughter having a problem with it–it’s her f—ing father, I get that. Everybody else: go suck a d—.”

Replying to Quentin, Shannon said, “If only he’d take the name Bruce Lee off his lips now.” About Quentin’s comment, she further stated, “And while I am grateful that Mr Tarantino has so generously acknowledged to Joe Rogan that I may have my feelings about his portrayal of my father, I am also grateful for the opportunity to express this: I’m really f—ing tired of white men in Hollywood trying to tell me who Bruce Lee was.”

“I’m tired of hearing from white men in Hollywood that he was arrogant and an a-hole when they have no idea and cannot fathom what it might have taken to get work in the 1960s and ’70s Hollywood as a Chinese man with (God forbid) an accent, to try to express an opinion on a set as a perceived foreigner and person of colour.”

Speaking about Bruce’s portrayal in the film, she wrote, “Look, I understand what Mr Tarantino was trying to do. I really do. Cliff Booth is such a bada– and a killer that he can beat the crap out of Bruce Lee. Character development. I get it. I just think he could have done it so much better.”

“But instead, the scene he created was just an uninteresting tear-down of Bruce Lee when it didn’t need to be. It was white Hollywood treating Bruce Lee as, well, white Hollywood treated him — as a dispensable stereotype,” she added.

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