The moment Steve McQueen scared Bruce Lee

(Credits: Far Out / Alamy / Gouden Oogst)

Mon Nov 4, 2024 5:31 PM, UK

As cinema began to embrace its commercial potential, the value of the movie star grew exponentially from the 1960s onwards, with icons such as Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor and Steve McQueen emerging to take the industry by storm. It wasn’t much later that Bruce Lee would also break into the Hollywood mainstream, a martial arts master who gained popularity through his influential action films and his strange relationship with McQueen.

Lee befriended a large selection of the Hollywood set by teaching them his own brand of kung fu. This would not only change the course of cinema on screen, but off as well. On a more personal note, it would also introduce the young actor to Tinseltown’s elite, including McQueen. Become Friends in the mid-1960s as Lee’s series The Green Hornet gained popularity, the martial arts icon became enamored with McQueen’s Porsche 911S Targa and was soon convinced to buy one himself.

As quoted in Bruce Lee: A Life by Matthew Polly Lee visited Bob Smith’s Volkswagen-Porsche dealership in Hollywood to test drive the same car as McQueen. When he was done, he called his friend and told him, “Steve, I’m going to buy a Porsche like yours.”

Concerned that Lee had not considered the risk of purchasing such a hot rod, McQueen, who was about to become a professional race car driver, offered to take the actor for a ride in the Porsche, telling Lee: ‘It’s a hot car. but if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can get into trouble.”

While Lee expected to be encouraged to buy the flashy super-fast car, McQueen had other ideas, intending to deter the actor from purchasing the vehicle. Using his impressive range of driving skills, he gave Lee the fright of his life.

“Okay, Bruce, are you ready?” McQueen told him on the roads from the San Fernando Valley to Mulholland Drive before the Bullitt actor revved the engine and began racing around the winding roads of the Santa Monica mountains. “What do you think of this power, Bruce?” he shouted over the roar of the engine as he continued to perform dangerous tricks in the tight corners of the Los Angeles hills.

The driver looked around to check on his friend and saw Lee crouched in fear in the footwell, shouting, “McQueen, you sonova bitch!…McQueen, I’ll fucking kill you! I’ll kill you, McQueen! I’m going to kill you!”

When I saw the anger on Lee’s face, McQueen returned home. The two were still at each other’s throats, both terrified that they would get hurt as a result. “Steve, slow down,” Lee shouted. “You’re not going to hit me, are you, Bruce?” McQueen pleaded. The two hilariously discussed this until the driver finally stopped and Lee announced, “I’ll never ride with you again, McQueen.” Never!”

Featuring two Hollywood icons in a tense and farcical cinematic situation, it’s a surprise that this genuine moment of real-life movie magic never made its way to the big screen, although one might suggest that Quentin Tarantino provided a rough vision of what could happen. happened in his movie Once upon a time in Hollywood, that depicted Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth will agree with Lee.

Of course, the reality of an actual fist fight between the two men would probably see McQueen with as much black eyes as Lee could muster. The actor was no slouch, however; as Lee noted in an interview, “As a fighter, Steve McQueen is good in that area because that son of a gun gave him that toughness. He’d say, ‘Okay baby, here I am, man.’ And he will do it.”

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