Quentin Tarantino addressed the controversy surrounding his 2019 film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, during an appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast.
Many viewers took issue with the way Bruce Lee was portrayed in the film. In the scene, the Bruce Lee character fights a stuntman, played by Brad Pitt, and fails to come out victorious as most would expect.
Aside from the fighting, the late martial artist's fans and family criticized the film for the way they portrayed Lee's personality. Bruce Lee's daughter, Shannon Lee, said Tarantino characterized her father "as an arrogant a**hole who was full of hot air," while Lee's widow said the film made her husband "look stupid, and silly and made to be insulting 'Chinesey.'"
The legendary film director responded to the criticism by acknowledging the bias Lee's family will have concerning anything related to the late martial artist's legacy. However, Tarantino was far more dismissive of anyone else's criticism.
"Where I'm coming from is...I can understand his daughter having a problem with it, it's her f****** father! I get that," Tarantino responded. "But anybody else? Go suck a d***. And the thing about it, though, is even if you just look at it, it's obvious [Brad Pitt's character] Cliff tricked him. That's how he was able to do it, he tricked him."
When speaking about the way Bruce Lee's personality was depicted, Tarantino echoed Mike Moh's (the actor who played Bruce Lee in the film) sentiments that Lee had a reputation in Hollywood as an arrogant person. He also suggested that the scene was inspired by stuntman Gene LeBell's long-rumored fight with Bruce Lee on the set of The Green Hornet.
"The stuntmen hated Bruce on The Green Hornet," Tarantino added. "It's in [martial artist biographer] Matthew Polly's book, and before that, it's always been known. That's why Gene LeBell was brought on, to teach Bruce respect for American stuntmen. Bruce had nothing but disrespect for stuntmen, and he was always hitting them...It got to the point where [people] refused to work with him."
After speaking more about the way stuntmen felt about Bruce Lee, Tarantino explained why Brad Pitt's character would stand a chance against Bruce Lee in a real fight.
"If Cliff fought Bruce Lee at one of [martial artist] Aaron Banks' Madison Square Garden tournaments, Cliff wouldn't stand a chance against [him]. But as a killer, who has killed men before in a jungle, he'd kill Bruce Lee. He'd f****** kill him," Tarantino claimed. "Bruce Lee is not a killer. Bruce Lee's never really let loose on anybody, he's always had to keep it together in a martial artists tournament kind of way. If he's facing a guy who could actually kill him? It's a different story."
