There's an Interesting Reason Why Bruce Lee Is in Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

One of the most delightful parts of the trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was Bruce Lee, who is played by Mike Moh. He is perfect in the role of Lee and we even got to see him show off his fighting skills as he sparred with stuntman Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt.

I’ve actually been wondering why Lee is in the film. I know it’s set in 1969 Hollywood when he was around, but what is the part that he plays in the story? Well, there’s an answer and it’s an interesting one that is based on his relationship with Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate.

Lee actually played a small and bizarre role in the story of the Manson family murders. In fact, according to Matthew Polly, author of the book Bruce Lee: A Life, director Polanski actually thought at one point that Lee had committed the Manson murders himself!

Polly talked about the connection in an episode of the “Shoot This Now” podcast, which you can listen to right here. The Wrap explains:

In 1965, Lee met Jay Sebring, who would later provide some of the inspiration for Warren Beatty’s character in “Shampoo.” At the time, Sebring was dating Sharon Tate… Lee soon found himself in frustrating sidekick roles (see: “The Green Hornet”), staging fights for Hollywood films, and trying to break into leading-man parts that were usually denied to non-white actors. He also became what Polly calls a “sifu to the stars” who trained actors like Steve McQueen in the martial arts.

In the summer of 1968, the movie “The Wrecking Crew” paid Lee $11,000 to teach Tate and other actresses how to fight. By that time, Tate had married Polanski. As Polly writes, she invited Lee to dinner, telling Polanski, “The two of you will get along like a house on fire.”

Soon, Polanski was one of Lee’s regular martial-arts clients. They became so close that Polanski invited Lee to his ski chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland, and it was on that trip that Lee bought the yellow suit he wore to fight Kareem Abdul Jabbar in “Game of Death.” Decades later, Uma Thurman’s Beatrix Kiddo would wear an almost identical suit to battle the Crazy 88, Gogo Yubari and O-Ren in Tarantino’s “Kill Bill Vol. 1.”

On Aug. 9, 1969, Tate and Sebring died at the hands of the Manson Family at her and Polanski’s home on Cielo Drive. So did Tate’s unborn baby, aspiring screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski, and Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folgers coffee fortune, and 18-year-old visitor Steven Parent.

In a bizarre turn of events, before the true killings were known, Polanski briefly suspected Lee of the murders. The killer or killers and left a pair of glasses at the home on Cielo Drive, and one morning after the murders, Lee casually mentioned to Polanski, “I’ve lost my glasses.”

Polly went on to explain what happened next as Polanski weighed the possibility that Lee had murdered his wife and their friends:

Polanski’s heart raced.  Bruce was part of the circle of friends, but he was also, as the only Asian, an outsider looking in. He knew how to use a gun and was an expert in bladed weapons. He had the strength and skill to overpower multiple victims. Perhaps Sebring had invited him over and something had gone terribly wrong. Perhaps he was secretly in love with Tate and had snapped.

Obviously Polanski was wrong, but after what had happened to his wife and friends, I imagine his mind was racing with all kinds of scenarios.

I have no idea if this is how things will play out in Tarantino’s film, but I imagine that it must play some part in the story.

Did you know this little fact about Lee’s connection to Polanski and Tate?