In the recent interview of Donnie Yen with Variety, the actor expressed his dismay at one of Quentin Tarantino’s films. When it comes to his heritage, Yen isn’t afraid of expressing his honest thoughts, especially when it comes to Bruce Lee. Quentin Tarantino’s depiction of martial arts legend Bruce Lee in the 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood made quite an impression on Yen.
The film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt didn’t sit well with Yen. Bruce Lee, portrayed by Mike Moh, was seen as an overbearing actor on set who was later on beaten up by Brad Pitt’s character Cliff Booth. Although Yen acknowledges that Tarantino had already made a name in the industry, he’s not impressed with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Pertaining to the film, the actor told Variety,
“Everybody is entitled to their opinions, Quentin Tarantino is a very renowned filmmaker, and he’s entitled to his status. And I’m entitled to state my own view. Obviously, he was making fun of Bruce. It was cartoonish.”
Yen isn’t the first person to speak up against Tarantino’s comedy-drama film. Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, also made some remarks about the film as well.
Shannon Lee Wasn’t Pleased With The Film’s Depiction of Bruce Lee
Just like Yen, Shannon wasn’t pleased after watching the film. The film depicted Lee as arrogant which irked Shannon. As quoted by IndieWire, Shannon said,
“I tried to approach it from a cool, collected, and more calm, direct point of view, and I was very disappointed to see Quentin Tarantino’s response, which was to continue to say, ‘Oh, Bruce Lee was arrogant, he was an asshole,'” Shannon said, “and to incorrectly cite my mother’s book as a defense of him. I really thought it was irresponsible of him to do what he did and have that portrayal.”
Shannon believes that there are different ways to creatively make Brad Pitt’s character on the film look cool, and it’s insulting that they made her father look bad in the process. She added,
“There were so many other creative ways he could have made the Cliff Booth character look cool in that film. So many other ways he could’ve treated the Bruce Lee character that would’ve got the same plot point across without having to essentially treat Bruce Lee the way white Hollywood treated my father when he was alive.”
Donnie Yen stars in John Wick: Chapter 4 which is now in movie theaters.