Bruce Lee’s daughter has told Quentin Tarantino to “shut up” in a row over the depiction of the martial artist in Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood.
Lee is portrayed as arrogant in the black comedy, to the annoyance of his family.
Tarantino has defended the depiction, saying: “Bruce Lee was kind of an arrogant guy.”
His daughter, Shannon Lee, has called on the acclaimed film-maker to apologise.
She told Variety: “He could shut up about it. That would be really nice. Or he could apologise or he could say ‘I don’t really know what Bruce Lee was like. I just wrote it for my movie. But that shouldn’t be taken as how he really was’.”
In Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood, Asian-American actor Lee, portrayed by Mike Moh, gets into a fight with Brad Pitt’s character, a stunt man.
Lee gets thrown into a car, though the overall winner is not decided.
Tarantino has stood by the portrayal.
He said: “Bruce Lee was kind of an arrogant guy. I didn’t just make a lot of that up. I heard him say things like that, to that effect.
“People are saying ‘Well, he never said he could beat up Muhammad Ali.’ Uh, yeah, he did. Not only did he say that, his wife, Linda Lee, said that.
“In the first biography I ever read was Linda Lee’s Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew, and she absolutely said it.”