Bruce Lee 'Lost' Interview

an unedited 25 minute interview with Bruce Lee (1940-1973) on the Pierre Berton Show. Recorded on 9th December 1971 in Hong Kong, Bruce Lee ... all » is seen being himself, speaking candidly and informally about his life, his martial art beliefs and philosophy. Through the programme Bruce's supreme confidence, charisma and focus provide a tremendous insight into the young Bruce Lee - the man behind the legend.

Bruce Lee faces a real dilemma. He is on the verge of a stardom in the United States, with a projected TV series on horizon, but he has just achieved 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 , so welcome.

It’s the Pierre Berton Show, the program that comes to you from the major capitals of the world. This edition comes to you from Hong Kong and Pierre's guest is the man who taught karate, judo and Chinese boxing to James Garner, Steve McQueen, Lee Marvin and James Coburn. The newest mandarin super star, 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 here is Pierre.

Well how can you play in mandarin 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 difference as far as pronunciation and things like that kind.

So somebody else's voice is used, right?

Definitely, definitely.

You just make the words, sort of. Bruce, doesn’t that sound strange when you go to the movies especially in Hong Kong, in your hometown and you see yourself with somebody else’s voice?

Well not really, you see, because most of the mandarin pictures done here are dubbed anyway.

They are dubbed anyway?

Anyway, I mean disregard. I mean they shoot without sound. So it doesn’t, you know, make any difference.

Their lips never quite make the right words, do they?

Oh, yeah, 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 mandarin.(yeah.) so I have to find like something similar to that, and keep a kind of a feeling going behind them, something that matching the mandarin deal. Does it sound complicated?

Like the silent days, like old silent days. But I gather in the movies made here, the dialogue is pretty stilted anyway.

Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, see, to me, a motion picture is motion, I mean, I mean, you gotta keep the dialogue down to the minimum.

Did you go to… did you look at many Mandarin movies before you started to play in your first one?

yes, yes.

What do you think of them when you saw them?

Quality-wise, I mean, I have to admit that it’s not quite up to the standard, however, it is growing and it’s getting higher and higher and going to, toward that standard, that what I would term quality.

They say the secret of your success in that movie, the Big Boss--such a success here and (it) rocketed you to stardom 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?