The scene Bruce Lee refused to shoot: “I’m not going to do that”
In the 1960s, Bruce Lee introduced American audiences to martial arts when he starred as Kato, the masked sidekick in The Green Hornet. People who watched the show couldn’t help being drawn to Kato instead of the title character, played by Van Williams. His incredible kung-fu prowess was unlike anything anyone had seen in the US, and that becomes even more astounding when you consider his fight scenes were shot in slow motion. You see, at normal speed, his limbs were simply a blur of awesome motion. Fascinatingly, Lee became so impressive so quickly that when he refused to shoot one particular fight scene on the show, producers altered it to stop him from walking off the production.
Lee’s Hollywood story began on August 2nd, 1964, when he gave a show-stopping demonstration of his patented one-inch punch technique at the Long Beach International Karate Championships. The star, born in the US but raised in Hong Kong, also regaled the audience with a lecture about his martial arts philosophy. He was so captivating that an attendee told the Long Beach Press-Telegram, “He just blew everyone away. When he spoke, that whole auditorium was quiet. You could hear a pin drop.”
Jay Sebring, the hairstylist to the stars, was at the event, and he began telling everyone in Hollywood who would listen that he’d just witnessed someone special. William Dozier, producer of the massively popular Batman TV show, soon saw footage of Lee and invited him to screentest for his upcoming show Number One Son. This show was scrapped, but it didn’t matter because Dozier had thought of a better idea for Lee. The success of Batman enabled him to get a green light on The Green Hornet – no pun intended – and he wanted Lee to play valet and kung-fu crimefighter Kato.
The Green Hornet debuted in 1966, and kids all over America soon became obsessed with Kato. Amazingly, despite being such a newcomer to the industry, Lee convinced the producers to change how his fight scenes were depicted in the show. In Bruce Lee: Fighting Spirit, author Bruce Thomas wrote, “At first, the fights were planned to be like the slugging matches seen in westerns…Bruce refused to take this approach, saying that the essence of his kung-fu was efficiency.” Ultimately, Lee agreed to do a few over-the-top flying kicks in each fight that would excite the audience, as long as he was allowed to make the rest of his fights more realistic.
Seizing on the popularity of Kato, Dozier did what all good TV producers with two hit shows are compelled to do. A two-part crossover episode of Batman was written, and it included a fight scene between the two sidekicks, Kato and Robin. The Boy Wonder was scripted to come out on top against Kato, but when Lee read this, he baulked.
Williams revealed in a documentary about the show, “That didn’t go over too good with Bruce. He walked off the show. He said, ‘I’m not going to do that.'” To Lee, the sheer notion of Robin beating a kung-fu master like Kato in a fight was preposterous, and he wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Critic Rich Meyers scoffed, “Even before I knew about kung-fu and Bruce Lee, I was laughing when it was Robin versus Kato. It was so obvious that Robin would have been a smudge on the carpet within five seconds.” The episode was soon rewritten to have the scrap end in a draw.
Behind the scenes, Lee and Burt Ward, who played Robin, were pals, as they lived in the same neighbourhood. In 2017, Ward told Fox News that he became close with Lee, his wife Linda, and their baby son Brandon, who was only six months old at the time. He revealed, “We would go down to Chinatown for dinners. Of course Bruce, who lived in Hong Kong for 10 years, knew all the special stuff to order. We had a great time.”
According to Ward, though, when it came time to shoot the fight, Lee didn’t take it easy on him just because they were friends. In his memoir Boy Wonder: My Life in Tights, he claimed that Lee barely said a word to him all day, instead simply staring at him in fury whenever they crossed paths. When the director called action, he silently advanced on Ward in such an intimidating fashion that Ward backed away in fear, pleading with Lee that they were just filming a TV show. Williams confirmed, “Burt Ward was absolutely petrified when he was going to work with him.”
As Lee approached Ward, it seemed like the young superhero was about to receive a pasting from a kung-fu master. Suddenly, though, a crew member began squawking like a chicken, and Lee burst out laughing.
Ward quickly realised Lee had just been messing with him, and a wave of relief washed over him when Lee grinned, “Lucky it is a TV show.”
