Quentin Tarantino Hits Back At Critics Over ‘Racist’ Bruce Lee Scene In Latest Film

In Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood," actor Mike Moh hilariously portrays kung-fu screen legend Bruce Lee as an arrogant braggart who talks a bigger game than the one he plays. Despite the fact that most Bruce Lee biographers agree that Lee did indeed have a haughty side to go along with his sweet side, Tarantino got slapped with accusations of racism for supposedly portraying the film's lone minority character so disparagingly.

After enough criticism mounted, Tarantino eventually defended his portrayal of Bruce Lee during a press tour for the film in Russia and provided a fairly compelling case, citing Lee's own wife as a source.

"The way he was talking, I didn’t just make a lot of that up," Tarantino said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "I heard him say things like that, to that effect. If people are saying, 'Well he never said he could beat up Muhammad Ali,' well yeah, he did. Not only did he say that, but his wife, Linda Lee, said that in her first biography I ever read.... She absolutely said it."

For reasons entirely unknown at this time, the social justice warriors have had the daggers out for Quentin Tarantino lately. TIME, for instance, recently published an article in which two reporters actually watched all of the director's films to count the number of lines women characters spoke, accusing him of subtle misogyny.