"Bruce Lee was kind of an arrogant guy."
While the movie is only set to open in Ireland and the UK this week, there's been a lot of discussion in the US concerning the portrayal of Bruce Lee in 'Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood'.
Basically, the scene with Bruce Lee - played by Mike Moh - sees him and Brad Pitt fighting one another after a bit of smack-talk. Lee, in the movie, claims he could defeat Muhammad Ali and, by all accounts, comes across as a pretty cocky individual. What's more, Brad Pitt's character and Bruce Lee battle it out in a best-of-three fight, with the fight ending before either party comes out on top.
For Tarantino, however, he believes his scripting on Lee is not only accurate, but that he actually took one of his lines verbatim. At the Moscow press conference for the movie, Tarantino explained his reasoning. "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 Mohammad Ali,’ well yeah, he did. Alright? Not only did he say that but his wife, Linda Lee, said that in her first biography I ever read. She absolutely said that."
While Brad Pitt's character was fictional, the idea that he could hold his own against Bruce Lee was intentional. "He's a fictional character, it's the same as asking if Bruce Lee would win in a fight with Dracula. He's a fictional character," Tarantino explained.
'Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood' arrives in Irish cinemas tomorrow, August 14th.