Quentin Tarantino’s Bruce Lee depiction is ‘somewhat racist’ says NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
- Los Angeles Lakers legend writes emotional ‘Hollywood Reporter’ column defending former friend and co-star
- The 72-year-old thinks ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ could ‘corrupt’ the memory of Lee
NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has joined the chorus of criticism surrounding Quentin Tarantino’s depiction of Bruce Lee in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, slamming the portrayal of the martial arts icon as “somewhat racist”.
A former icon with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers, who also starred with Lee in Game of Death, Abdul-Jabbar is now a Hollywood Reporter columnist. And he took Tarantino to task over his great friend and teacher Lee in his latest column.
Abdul-Jabbar writes that filmmakers have a responsibility “when playing with people’s perceptions of admired historic people” and that Tarantino’s portrayal of Lee does not live up to this standard of maintaining a “basic truth” of the content of his character. He said he believes it could “corrupt” the memory of Lee in the shared cultural conscience.
“Of course, Tarantino has the artistic right to portray Bruce any way he wants. But to do so in such a sloppy and somewhat racist way is a failure both as an artist and as a human being,” the 72-year-old wrote.
Abdul-Jabbar, who studied martial arts under Lee and after first meeting him at UCLA before they became great friends, said he was “torn” because of his admiration for Tarantino as a “bold” filmmaker who is able to distil the zeitgeist of an era into his work.