Shannon Lee, the daughter of the late martial arts film star Bruce Lee, has spoken out about Tarantino’s representation of her father in his latest film.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is set in the late 1960’s and is about an aging star trying to deal with the fact that the roles he is landing are now changing due to the fact that he is getting on in his years. During the film there is a scene where Bruce Lee is portrayed by Mike Moh, who she speculates was directed to act like a caricature of the late star.
“[Bruce Lee] comes across as an arrogant asshole 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.”
Shannon Lee
Bruce Lee died at the young age of 32 in July of 1973. He overcame a lot in the short time that he was on this Earth and was able to make a name for himself, becoming the martial arts legend we know him as now. It makes sense that his daughter would speak out about portraying him as a cartoony version of himself. But Tarantino historically doesn’t pay a whole lot of attention to history books, and is not afraid to change something to make it more entertaining. For example in Inglorious Basterds when Hitler gets shot.
