Director and writer Quentin Tarantino fired back at criticism lobbied at a scene from his film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood featuring an encounter between star Brad Pitt's character, Cliff Booth, and a fictionalized version of martial arts legend Bruce Lee.

Tarantino responded to critics of the controversial scene on a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience. Host Joe Rogan brought up the topic, saying that many people felt as though Tarantino had "made Bruce Lee into an asshole." "Where I'm coming from is... I can understand his daughter having a problem with it, it's her fucking father! I get that," Tarantino explained. "But anybody else? Go suck a dick. And the thing about it, though, is even if you just look at it, it's obvious Cliff tricked him. That's how he was able to do it, he tricked him."

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When asked by Rogan about researching the history for the scene, the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood director went on to cite martial arts biographer Matthew Polly who claimed that Lee "had nothing but disrespect for American stuntmen" and that "he was always tagging [making real contact] them with his feet." Tarantino then said that, although Lee would beat Cliff Booth in a structured martial arts tournament, Cliff would kill Lee in an unrestrained hand-to-hand combat setting. "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," Tarantino explained. "If he's facing a guy who could actually kill him? It's a different story."

The scene in question featured a flashback of Cliff Booth visiting the set of 1960s action TV series The Green Hornet. Booth came across The Green Hornet star Bruce Lee, portrayed in the film by Mike Moh, as he gave a boastful speech about crippling legendary boxer Muhammad Ali. Booth calls out Moh's Lee and the two have a three-round sparring match. Booth was kicked to the ground in the first round and then won the second round by catching Lee's leg and hurling him into a car. The fight was interrupted and Booth was fired before the tie could be broken in a third round.

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Many criticized the scene when the film first released in 2019 for its portrayal of Lee as arrogant and disrespectful. One of the critics was, as Tarantino mentioned, Bruce Lee's daughter Shannon Lee, who was not consulted about her father's portrayal for the film. "It was really uncomfortable to sit in the theater and listen to people laugh at my father," she shared. Biographer Polly, whom Tarantino cited, criticized the line about Muhammad Ali sharing that Lee "revered" the boxer. Basketball legend and Lee's Game of Death co-star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also criticized his friend's portrayal as "sloppy and somewhat racist."

Source: Esquire