Quentin Tarantino To Bruce Lee Scene Critics: “Suck A D***”

In a recent interview, director Quentin Tarantino has made it abundantly clear that he’s standing by his 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’s depiction of martial artist and actor Bruce Lee. Discussion of the portrayal–which at the time was criticized as being inaccurate and disheartening–resurfaced again when Tarantino appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast to promote the recently released novelization of the film.

The previous controversy stems from a scene in the movie where Brad Pitt’s character, stuntman Cliff Booth, gets into an argument with Lee on the set of the Green Hornet TV show. After things escalate quickly, the pair fight, and Booth throws Lee into a car. Many fans and, prominently, Shannon Lee–Bruce’s daughter–publicly took issue the scene. When asked about it by Rogan, Tarantino said he would issue exactly and only one apology.

“Where I am coming from is I can understand his daughter having a problem with it,” said Tarantino (transcribed by Entertainment Weekly). “It’s her f***ing father. Everybody else: Go suck a d***.”

However, Tarantino added in the interview that in the new novelization of his film, further context was added to the scene–including details about Booth’s military training that allowed him to manipulate and outmatch Lee’s instincts. Lee biographer Matthew Polly previously told Esquire that “Bruce was very famous for being very considerate of the people below him on film sets, particularly the stuntmen,” and Tarantino’s depiction, “just [is] not who Bruce Lee was as a person.”

Tarantino still plans to retire from directing movies in the near future, possibly after directing one more film. Unfortunately, his directing a Star Trek movie is no longer on the table.