The transcript below is from the video “Bruce Lee’s Lost Interview: “If You Want To Beat Me, Baby You Have To Kill Me”” by Beerdy – Bruce Lee Central.
Beerdy – Bruce Lee Central:
Welcome to Beerdy – Bruce Lee Central.
Hey everybody, it’s Beerdy here. What’s going on, guys? Okay, so this interview here was thought to be lost forever until I found it a few years ago in my archives and I’ve been restoring it ever since. Now the reason it’s taken so long is because the audio was so bad you couldn’t hear anything. So it’s taken us a while and now it’s finally done and this is one of the most important interviews, maybe the most important interview in Bruce Lee’s life ever, because he talks about personal issues, being challenged to fights in Hong Kong, and his famous quote “I have no fear”. So here we go, guys. Enjoy.
Interviewer:
This has a screen-tough guy. You’re going to have to suffer what all Movie heroes suffered, challenges from exhibitionists and nuts asking you to fight, challenging you to fight. It’s already begun to happen, hasn’t it?
Bruce Lee (martial artist, martial arts instructor, actor, filmmaker, and philosopher):
Yes, it has.
Interviewer:
How do you deal with it?
Bruce Lee (martial artist, martial arts instructor, actor, filmmaker, and philosopher):
When I first learned martial arts, I too have challenged many established instructors and of course, some others challenging me also. But what I have learned is that challenging means one thing, is that what is your reaction to it, how does it get you? Now if you are secure within yourself, you treat it very very very lightly because you ask yourself, am I really afraid of that man or is that man, do I have any doubt within me that he’s going to get me. But if I do not have such doubt then if I do not have such fear, I would certainly treat it very lightly just as today the rain is going on strong but tomorrow maybe the sun is going to come out again. I mean, it’s like that type of a thing.
Interviewer:
Because they can’t lose by challenging you. Even if they lose they get the publicity of being a guy who actually…
Bruce Lee (martial artist, martial arts instructor, actor, filmmaker, and philosopher):
Let’s face it, I mean, in Hong Kong, can you have a fight? I mean, a no-hole bar fight? Is it a legal thing? It is innocent and to me you see a lot of things, I mean, we don’t like challenging you know that. It’s I am the last to know. I am always the last to know, man. I mean, I always find out from newspapers, from reporters before I personally realized what the hell is happening.
Interviewer:
How much of your screen personality is really you? I mean you teach martial arts, you’re obviously very good at it. But of course, teachers are not always the best exponents or practitioners. Are you able to take care of yourself? What do you think?
Bruce Lee (martial artist, martial arts instructor, actor, filmmaker, and philosopher):
I will answer this first of all with a joke if you don’t mind. Oftentimes, people come up and say, hey Bruce, are you really that good? I said, well if I tell you I’m good probably, you will say I’m boasting. But if I tell you I’m no good, you will know I’m lying. But all right, going back to being truthful with you, let’s just put it this way, I have no fear of the opponent in front of me. But I am very self-sufficient that they do not bother me. And that should I fight, should I do anything? I have made up my mind and that’s it, baby. You better kill me before.
Interviewer:
In The Big Boss, you play a man who’s very slow to anger, a shy, diffident, you even stay out of fights in the early scenes because of a promise you made to your mother.
Bruce Lee (martial artist, martial arts instructor, actor, filmmaker, and philosopher):
Yes.
Interviewer:
Is that a little bit like you or is this just the screen personality?
Bruce Lee (martial artist, martial arts instructor, actor, filmmaker, and philosopher):
This is definitely a screen personality because as a person, one thing that I have definitely learned in my life, it seems like it’s a life of self-examination and self-peeling of myself bit by bit, day by day. Listen, I do have a bad temper, a violent temper in fact. So that is definitely, I mean, some people that I am portraying, you know, not Bruce Lee as he is.
