Screen Legend's Daughter Scorches Tarantino in Column

Bruce Lee's daughter is sick of white men telling her father's story
By Josh Gardner,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 4, 2021 7:00 AM CDT
Updated Jul 4, 2021 7:45 AM CDT
Bruce Lee's Daughter Hits Back at Tarantino Comments
Quentin Tarantino arrives at the 31st annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala   (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

The daughter of action film legend Bruce Lee penned a scathing Hollywood Reporter column in which she hit back at Quentin Tarantino and others in Hollywood who've sought to portray her dad in an unflattering light over the years. Shannon Lee leveled her sights at Tarantino after the director recently defended his unflattering portrayal of Lee in 2019's Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood on Joe Rogan's podcast, per NBC News. “While I am grateful that Mr. Tarantino has so generously acknowledged to Joe Rogan that I may have my feelings about his portrayal of my father, I am also grateful for the opportunity to express this: I’m really f------ tired of white men in Hollywood trying to tell me who Bruce Lee was,” Lee wrote.

Tarantino's film showed Lee easily knocked down Brad Pitt's Cliff Booth character. He told Rogan he understood Shannon Lee's opposition to the portrayal but doubled down on his depiction of Lee as unkind to stuntmen like Booth during his time filming TV's The Green Hornet, citing the work of biographer Matthew Polly. The writer has since taken to Twitter to refute Tarantino's characterization of his work. "My biography of Lee DID NOT say that 'Bruce had nothing but disrespect for American stuntmen'" as Tarantino told Rogan. Lee ends her column with a heartfelt entreaty: "I would encourage you 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. Under the sky, under the heavens, we are one family, Mr. Tarantino, and I think it's time for both of us to walk on." (More Bruce Lee stories.)

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