Shannon Lee, the daughter of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, responds to criticism of her father by director Quentin Tarantino.
In a column published in The Hollywood Reporter, Lee goes after Tarantino for his portrayal of her father in his film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which will have its story retold in novel form. This was after the director's appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, where Tarantino said that anyone criticizing the portrayal can "go suck a dick," and that the only criticism he can warrant seeing is from Lee, since it involves her father. Lee wants to make it clear that she is "really fucking tired of white men in Hollywood trying to tell" her who her father was.
Lee discusses how she has become accustomed to her father being painted into a caricature of what he was. What she cannot stand for though is the "inaccurate and unnecessary" portrayal of her father in Tarantino's film and that the director's comments depicting the star as arrogant when the two have never met. For Lee, this has become a recurring trope that has grown old for her.
"I’m tired of hearing from white men in Hollywood that he was arrogant and an asshole when they have no idea and cannot fathom what it might have taken to get work in 1960s and ’70s Hollywood as a Chinese man with (God forbid) an accent, or to try to express an opinion on a set as a perceived foreigner and person of color," she writes. "I’m tired of white men in Hollywood mistaking his confidence, passion and skill for hubris and therefore finding it necessary to marginalize him and his contributions."
Citing herself as one of the few people who knew him personally, despite being only 4 when he passed, and studying his life, work and legacy more than anyone else, Lee believes that no one has more of the right to say who her father truly was. She notes "the proliferation of and interest in martial arts he sparked globally" and "the number of people and communities he continues to inspire and touch with his performances, philosophies, teachings and practices," which she claims white men in Hollywood constantly downplay. She deems her father "a source of pride for Asian Americans," not the arrogant "asshole" that Tarantino claims he was.
When it comes to the portrayal, Lee even says she understands what the director "was trying to do" by making Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) be able to take on her father, but states that it was just another example of Hollywood treating him as "a dispensable stereotype". She also does not attribute the offense to the actor who played her father either. "Please let's not blame actor Mike Moh. He did what he could with what he was given."
She concludes by saying that Tarantino's comments about a prominent member of the Asian American community are not welcome, especially in the time when the group has faced heightened discrimination. "In the interest of respecting other cultures and experiences you may not understand, I would encourage you [Tarantino] to take a pass on commenting further about Bruce Lee and reconsider the impact of your words in a world that doesn’t need more conflict and fewer cultural heroes."
Source: The Hollywood Reporter