The Bruce Lee fight in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood almost went another way

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

*Spoilers for ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD*

Much like any Quentin Tarantino movie, ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD has one or two (or three) moments in it that can be made into a beacon for controversy. Ever since the movie’s release, there has been one moment in particular that has been receiving a bit more backlash than others, and that’s the fight scene between Mike Moh’s Bruce Lee and Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth.

The flashback sequence comes at a time when Booth is looking back on his career, perhaps pinpointing the time it all went to hell. This moment finds Booth on the set of the Green Hornet series, listening to star Bruce Lee boast about his martial arts skills. After Booth pushes back on Lee’s claims with a few jokes, the two go at it in a bout of best two out of three falls. Lee easily wins the first round with a high kick, only for Booth to win the second after he throws Lee into a car. Their duel ends in a tie when the Hornet stunt team (led by Zoe Bell) breaks it all up.

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The scene has been decried by both Lee fans, members of the Asian-American community and even Lee’s own daughter for offering an inaccurate version of Lee, one who was overly cocky, willing to challenge naysayers to fights, and even portrayed as a caricature made the butt of the joke. That’s all on top of the subtext of the scene, which finds an aging stuntman of a dying era matching the talent and skill of a man like Lee, who ushered in a new era for Asian representation on the big screen. According to stunt choreographer Robert Alonzo, who speaking with the Huffington Post about the scene, it all almost went a very different way between the two men – and would’ve thus been met with an even worse response.

The Post then detailed how the scene was originally written, all before Alonzo was able to change Tarantino’s mind on the matter:

Round 3 of the fight would have been a much longer battle in which both men kept going at each other, with Cliff eventually making what Alonzo called a “cheap-shot move” that put Bruce on his butt. But the point wasn’t to turn Bruce into the underdog, Alonzo told Tarantino. Rather, it was simply to “explain to the audience the level at which Cliff was [operating].” So Tarantino agreed to have the Green Hornet stunt coordinators break up the brawl before the third round, meaning no proper victor could be declared.

Alonzo explained why it was so important for both him and Pitt to see the result of the fight changed, and how doing so would affect Lee's overall depiction in the movie.

“I know that Brad had expressed his concerns, and we all had concerns about Bruce losing. Especially for me, as someone who has looked up to Bruce Lee as an icon, not only in the martial-arts realm, but in the way he approached philosophy and life, to see your idol be beaten is very disheartening. It really pulled at certain emotional strings that can incite a little anger and frustration as to how he’s portrayed. … There’s a certain mythology and mysticism about who Bruce Lee is, which is understandable. Being an Asian American myself, I definitely related to how Bruce was a symbol of how Asians should be portrayed in movies, instead of the old ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ model that was really prevalent back in the day. … I had a difficult time choreographing a fight where he lost. Everyone involved was like, ‘How is this going to go over?’ Brad was very much against it. He was like, ‘It’s Bruce Lee, man!’”

The scene as it plays now has been met with varying interpretations, whether it be to act as a moment to demonstrate Booth’s fighting prowess against a man of greater skill (validating the uber-violent finale) or, to dig into more subtext, show a fantasized flashback where the fight went better in Booth’s mind than it did in actuality. No matter what, having Booth triumph over Lee would’ve been both unnecessary, more implausible, and more troublesome considering that, despite the best efforts of Moh with his performance, the scene sets up the character to come off as a bit of a joke. It would've been more insult to the legend to have him lose a fight to a man like Booth, so kudos to Alonzo and Pitt for speaking up and getting it changed. 

ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD is in theaters now.