Quentin Tarantino has defended his portrayal of Bruce Lee in ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’.
The 56-year-old director had been blasted by Lee’s daughter Shannon, who said she was "uncomfortable" with how her late father had been portrayed in the movie.
Shannon said: "He comes across as an arrogant a*****e who was full of hot air. 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."
However, Tarantino has hit back, claiming Lee, played by Mike Moh, who is shown in the movie calling his hands "lethal weapons" and claiming he could beat Muhammad Ali, in a fight, was arrogant in real life.
Speaking at a recent press junket in Moscow, he said: "Bruce Lee was kind of an arrogant guy.
"The way he was talking, I didn’t just make a lot of that up. I heard him say things like that, to that effect. If people are saying, ‘Well he never said he could beat up Muhammad Ali,’ well yeah, he did. Not only did he say that, but his wife, Linda Lee, said that in her first biography I ever read. She absolutely said that."
Lee’s training partner Dan Inosanto previously spoke about how upset he was with Lee’s portrayal in ‘OUATIH’, claiming that it did not show the real Bruce Lee.
He said: "He was never, in my opinion, cocky. Maybe he was cocky in as far as martial arts because he was very sure of himself. He was worlds ahead of everyone else. But on a set, he’s not gonna show off. Bruce Lee would have never said anything derogatory about Muhammad Ali because he worshiped the ground Muhammad Ali walked on."
And Shannon said: "He was continuously treated like kind of a nuisance of a human being by white Hollywood, which is how he’s treated in the film by Quentin Tarantino."
Quentin Tarantino defends Bruce Lee portrayal
