Bruce Lee: The Lost Interview | Full Version
Bruce Lee faces a real dilemma he's on the verge of stardom in the United States with a projected TV series on the horizon but he's just super stardom as a film actor here in Hong Kong so what does he choose the east or the west it's a kind of problem most budding movie actors are welcome it's the Pierre birth control the program that comes to you from the major capitals of the world this edition comes to you from Hong Kong and piers guest is the man who taught karate judo and Chinese boxing to James Garner Steve McQueen Lee Marvin and James Coburn the newest Mandarin superstar known in the West for his appearances in Batman The Green Hornet Ironside and long street his name is Bruce Lee and he doesn't even speak Mandarin and hears beer well how can you play in the manner in movies if you don't even speak Mandarin how do you do that well first of all I speak only Cantonese yeah so I mean there is quite a different as far as pronunciation and things like that cool so somebody else's voice is used right definitely definitely you just make the words of it was it does not sound strange when you go to the movies especially in Hong Kong in your own town and you see yourself with somebody else's voice well not really you see because most of the men are in picture done here are dubbed anyway they dubbed earlier anyway I mean disregard I mean they shoot without sound so it doesn't you know make any different lips never quite make the right words to be yellow well that's where the difficulty lies you see I mean in order to because the Cantonese have a different way of saying things you know I mean different from the manual yeah so I have to find like something similar to that I can keep a kind of a feeling going behind it something that matching the Mandarin do I gather in them in the movies many of the dialogue is pretty stilted anyway yeah I agree with you I mean see to me a motion picture is motion yeah I mean you got to keep the long down to the minimum did you go to did you look at many Mandarin movies before you started to play yes yes yes what do you think of them when you saw them quality-wise I mean I have to admit yeah that it's not quite up to the standard however it is growing and it is getting higher and higher and going to toward that standard than what I would term quality they say the secret of your success in that movie the “Big Boss” in such a success here in rocketed you to start him in Asia was that you did your own fighting as an expert in the various martial arts in China what did you think of the fighting that you saw in the movies that you studied before you became a star well I mean definitely in the beginning I had no intention or whatsoever that what I was practicing and what I'm still practicing now would lead to this begin with but martial art has a very very deep meaning as far as my life is concerned because as an actor as a martial artist as a human being all these I have learned from martial maybe for our audience it doesn't know what it means you might explain exactly what you mean by martial art right martial art include all the combative arts like karate judo Chinese going for Chinese boxing whatever you call it all those you see like Aikido call me I can go on and on and on but it's a competitive form of fighting I mean it's not some of them became sport but some of them are still not I mean they use for instance kicking to the groin jacking fingers and the highs and things like that no wonder you successful in any way they needed to go like you could violence man so you didn't have to use a double when you moved into the ocean here you did all yourself can you break five or six pieces of one of your hand or your foot I'll probably break my hand in foot but tell me a little bit you set up a school in Hollywood didn't you for people like James Garner and Steve McQueen and the others yes why would they wanna learn Chinese martial arts because of a movie role not really and most of them you see to me at least the way that went I mean when I teach it all type of knowledge ultimately means self knowledge so therefore they're coming into farming foreign ask me to teach them not so much of how to defend themselves or how to do somebody in rather they want to learn to express themselves through some movement be it anger be it determination or whatsoever so in other word what I'm saying therefore is that he is paying me to show him in combative form the art of expressing the human body which is acting in a census man Wow or it was the useful tool for an act today it's I mean I might it might sound too philosophical but it's acting or acting and acting if you you've lost me how does it differ from saying our kind of boxing well first we use the feet and then we use the elbow and use the thumb to after you see because I mean that is the expression of the human body I mean to everything I mean you know not just a hand and when you're talking about combat well I mean if if it is a sport now now you talk about something else you have regulations you have rules but when you're talking about fighting as with no further well done baby you better train every part of your body and when you do punch now I'm leaning for a little bit hoping not to hurt any camera angle I mean you got to put the whole hip into it and snap it and get all your energy in there and make this into a weapon I don't want to tangle you in any dark you know you came at me pretty fast there what is the difference between Chinese boxing and what we see these young men doing an 8 o'clock every morning on the rooftop parks called shadow box in which they're always well actually you see that is part of Chinese boxing yes they are so many schools did everybody here it seems to be you know going like this all the time well that's good I mean I mean Arthur I'm very glad I'm very glad to see that because at least somebody is caring for their own body right yeah I mean that's a good sign well it's a kind of a slow form of exercise which is called tides each one I'm speaking Mandarin just now yeah Cantonese tycoon okay yes and it's more of an exercise for the elderly not so much for the demonstration so make it do it a little bit of it just Sun each other hand wise it's very slow or is it and you push it out but all the time you are keeping the continuity going bending stretching everything you know suppose you know I mean you just keep it moving it's like a belly dancer there it is I mean to them you see the ideas running water never grow stale so you got to just keep on flowing of all the students famous James Garner Steve McQueen Lee Marvin James Coburn Roman Polanski which was the best nap tadesse to this oriental form of exercise and defense well depending okay no as a fighter Steve Steve McQueen now he is good in that department because that son of a gun got the toughness in him you know I see another screen I mean he would say all right baby Here I am and you know and he'll do it you know now James Coburn is a peace-loving man Marren right I mean he met him I mean he's really really nice I mean super mellow and all you know I mean now he appreciate the philosophical part of it therefore his understanding of it is deeper than Steve so it's really hard to say you see what I'm saying no I see I mean it's I mean it's different Joe so that's I mean depending on what you what you see in it interesting that you we don't in our world and heaven since the days of the Greeks who did combined philosophy and art with sports but quite clearly the oriental attitudes of the three our facets are the same thing man listen you see really to me okay to me ultimately martial art means honestly expressing yourself now it is very difficult to do I mean it is easy for me to put on a show and be cocky and be flooded with a cocky feeling and then feel like pretty cool or and all that I can make all kinds of funny thing you see what I mean blinded by it or I can show you some really fancy movement but to express oneself honestly not lying to oneself and to express myself honestly know that my friend is very hard to do and you have to train you have to keep your reflexes so that when you want it it's there when you want to move you're moving and when you move you're determined to move not taking one inch not anything less than that if I want to punch I'm gonna do it man and I'm gonna do it you see so I mean so that is the type of thing you have to train yourself into it to become one with you think it is very on Western this attitude I want to ask you about your movie and TV career but first we'll take a break and I'll be back with Bruce Lee I've been talking to Bruce Lee mainly about the Chinese martial arts which include things like Chinese boxing karate and judo which is what he taught when he was in Hollywood after you left University of Washington where he studied of all things philosophy if you can believe that he did but that perhaps you understand Hawaii the two go together from the first half of this program and you can perhaps understand how he got into films and you a lot of actors but I'm told the brig break when you played in Long Street I'm gonna tell audience that Bruce Lee had a bit part or a supporting role in in the Long Street series and this had an enormous effect on the audience what was it well you see the title of that app that particular episode long street is called a way of the intercepting fist now I think the successful ingredient in it was because I was being Bruce Lee yourself myself right and did that part just express myself like I say honestly express myself at that time and I because of that I brought you know favorable mentioning in my New York time which sets like the who incidentally came off quite convincingly enough to earn himself a television series and so on and so on and so forth can you remember the lines by Sterling Sullivan to the key lines he's one of my students you know that was he - but you read there were some lions there expressed your philosophy I don't know if you remember them you know I remember that I said this is what it is okay you're talking to longest replayed by James Francisco I said empty your mind be formless shapeless like water now you put water into a cup it becomes the cup you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle you're putting in a teapot it becomes the teapot now water can flow or it can crash be water my friend like that you think you know I see I get the idea I get the power behind it so now two things have happened first there's a pretty good chance that you'll get a TV series the states of the warrior isn't what you use what the martial arts well in a western setting that was the original idea now a paramount you know I did Longstreet for Paramount and Paramount wants me to be in a television series on the other hand Warner brother wants me to be in another one but both of them I think they want me to be in a modernized type of a thing and they think that Western idea is out wherever I want you all do the Western I would because you see I mean how else can you justifies all these punching and kicking and violence except in the period of the West I mean India nowadays I mean you don't go around on the street kicking people or punching people because if you do I mean I don't care how good you are you know but this is true also of the Chinese dramas which are mainly costume dramas and they're all full of blood and gore over here you mean here yeah Wow I mean for unfortunately you see I hope that the picture I am in would either explain why the violence was done whether right or wrong or whatnot but unfortunately pictures most of them you are done mainly just for the sake of violence you know I mean like you know fighting for 30 minutes got to say I'm fascinated by give me your microphone there I'm fascinated that you came back I am a martial art you came back to Hong Kong we're on the verge of success in Hollywood and full of it and suddenly on the strength of one picture you become a superstar and what he knows you have to take you have to change your phone number you get mobbed in the streets now what are you gonna do are you gonna I gonna be able to live in both worlds are you gonna be a superstar here or one of the states or both well let me say this first of all the word superstar really turned me off and I'll tell you why because the word star and it's an illusion is something what the public calls you you should look upon oneself as an actor and I mean you would be very pleased if somebody say hey man you are a super actor it is much better than you know super star yeah well I got to admit that you are a superstar you know if you're gonna give me the truth I am now I'm honestly saying this okay yes I have been very successful yeah okay but I mean I think the word spies I mean I do not look upon myself as a star I really don't I mean believe me man when I say it I mean I'm not saying it because what are you gonna do let's get back to the car okay all right you stay a Hong Kong gonna be famous or going to go to the United States to be famous are you gonna try and imagine cake and have it too high I'm gonna do both because you see I have already made up my mind that in the United States I think something about the Oriental the dumbing the truth oriental should be shown Hollywood sure as heck hasn't you better believe it man I mean it's always that pigtail and bouncing around chop you know with the Iceland and all that and I think that's very very out of is it true that you were the first kick the job you had was being cast as Charlie Chan's number one yeah number one son make it into like a new Chinese James Bond type of it now that you know the old man Chan is dead Charlie is dead and his son more scary one they didn't do that bad man came along you see and then everything was started to be going into that you know that kind of hurt young which you're in but I mean by the way I get a really terrible job in that I have to say really you didn't like you so funny I didn't see one let me ask you however I both the problems that you faced as a Chinese hero in an American series have people come up in the industry and said well we don't know how the audience are gonna take a non-American well such question has been raised in fact it is being discussed and that is why the warrior is probably is not going to be on I say you see because unfortunately such thing does exist in this world you see like I don't know certain part of the country right where like they think that business why it's a risk and I don't blame them and I don't blame them I mean in the same way he's like in Hong Kong if a foreigner come and be and became a star if I were the man with the money I probably would have my own worry of whether or not the acceptance would be there but that's alright because if you were if you honestly express yourself it doesn't matter it's in the car you how about the other side of the coin is it possible that you were me a fairly hip and fairly Americanized are you to Western foreign alliances not you mean like I have been yeah I have been criticized for that you have it definitely well let me say this when I do the Chinese film I'll try my best not to be as American as I you know have been adjust to for the last 12 years in the States and but when I go back to the stage it seems to be the other way around yeah man I mean they trying to get me to do too many things that are really for the sake of being exotic you sure there's it's really I mean it's said you live in both worlds you there's it brings us problems as well its advantages and you've got both time to go to a commercial I'll be back in a moment with Bruce Lee let me ask you whether the change in attitude on the part of the Nixon administration towards China has helped your chances of starring in an American TV series well first of all this happened before that yeah but I do think that things of Chinese will be quite interesting for the next few years I mean not that I'm politically you know inclining taught anything but I mean I mean once the opening loft of China you know I mean that it will bring more understanding more things that are hey like different you know and maybe in the conch vas of comparison some new thing might grow so therefore I mean it's a very rich period to be in I mean like if I were born let's say 40 years ago yeah if I have a thought in my mind I said boy I'm gonna die in a movie or Stein a television series in America well that might be a vague dream but I think right now maybe you still think of your so Chinese or you ever think of yourself as North America you know what I want to think of myself as a human being because I mean I don't want it sounds like you know ask Confucius say but under the sky under the heaven man there is but one family it just so happened man that people want influence okay we gotta go thank you Bruce Lee for coming here thank you for watching thank you
