Friday, March 29, 2024

Bruce Lee’s Widow/Daughter Slam His ‘Chinesey’ Depiction in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’

Bruce Lee In 'Enter The Dragon'
Bruce Lee in a martial arts position in a scene from the film ‘Enter The Dragon’, 1973. (Photo by Warner Brothers/Getty Images)

*Bruce Lee’s widow, Linda Lee Cadwell, and his daughter Shannon Lee, are not pleased with his portrayal in Quentin Tarantino’s latest release, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

Cadwell found the depiction to be “just awful,” reports the Los Angeles Times

“I thought the character was like a caricature of himself and made him look stupid, silly and made to be insultingly ‘Chinesey.’ It strayed so far from the truth of who he was and of any actual encounter he had. … It was terrible to watch,” she said. 

Shannon shared her thoughts in interview with The Wrap, saying, her father (played by Mike Moh) is depicted as an “arrogant a–hole” 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.”

OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Ohio Woman Has Legs and Arms Amputated After Infection from Dog Saliva [VIDEO]

“I feel like [Tarantino] turned his confidence into arrogance and his intelligence into mockery. I feel like [my father] was picked on in the way that he was picked on in life by white Hollywood,” she said during a conversation with the L.A. Times.

“I’ve met Mike and I know that he loves my father,” she said of the actor who plays Bruce. “I really hold no negativity toward him whatsoever. Again, I feel like the portrayal is a caricature—not a character, but a caricature. But I think he was probably directed that way.”

**Minor spoiler alert below**

via Complex:

In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Lee challenges stuntman Cliff Booth (played by Brad Pitt) to spar outside the set of Lee’s TV series The Green Hornet. Lee boasts about his skills as a fighter, saying he could defeat boxing legend Muhammad Ali. Lee and Booth fight in what eventually ends in a draw.

“I can understand all the reasoning behind what is portrayed in the movie,” Shannon said. “I understand that the two characters are antiheroes and this is sort of like a rage fantasy of what would happen…I understand they want to make the Brad Pitt character this super bad-ass who could beat up Bruce Lee.”

As noted by Complex, she believes Tarantino took liberties with her father that are misleading. 

“Here, he’s the one with all the puffery and he’s the one challenging Brad Pitt. Which is not how he was,” Shannon said.

“It was really uncomfortable to sit in the theater and listen to people laugh at my father,” she explained. “What I’m interested in is raising the consciousness of who Bruce Lee was as a human being and how he lived his life. All of that was flushed down the toilet in this portrayal, and made my father into this arrogant punching bag.” 

Meanwhile, Moh told Birth.Movies.Death. that some “people are going to be up in arms about” the fight, but added that Tarantino has great respect for Lee. 

“Number one, it’s a Tarantino film,” Moh said. “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.”

Moh noted that his scene with Pitt was “hugely important” to drive the narrative.

“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,” he said.

“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?”

 

We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!

YOU MAY LIKE

SEARCH

- Advertisement -

TRENDING