Pairing With Bodybuilding Legend Once Enabled Bruce Lee to Recoup the Cost Overruns of His Iconic Film With Chuck Norris

Bruce Lee found immense success in his acting career with his martial art films in Hong Kong. Before becoming a successful Hollywood personality, he turned into a superstar in his country. However, Lee faced several highs and lows while making films in Hong Kong. Once he had to shoot a cigarette advertisement to make money for his financially struggling film, Way of the Dragon.

Lee?s biography, Bruce Lee: A Life, revealed a phase when the master was facing immense difficulties in completing the shoot of his film with Chuck Norris. To generate funds for the film, he shot a cigarette advertisement with bodybuilder Bolo Yeung.

How did Bruce Lee shoot a cigarette advertisement with bodybuilder Bolo Yeung?

After completing his schedule for Way of the Dragon, Chuck Norris left Hong Kong. At that point, only two third part of the film was over and it still required more additions to make the scenes look refined. The film was already running behind schedule and crossed the original budget. Hence, there was no way, Lee could get a release date in the summer.

As a solution, producer Raymond Chow convinced Lee to shoot a Winston cigarette advertisement ? to recoup some of the cost overruns and promote the movie for its release in the dead zone of winter.? The script of the advertisement required Lee to shoot a three-minute martial art demonstration which would be paired with a three-minute weightlifting demonstration by Bolo Yeung.

For those wondering, in those days (1972), cigarettes were considered healthy for athletes.

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However, Lee never smoked tobacco. So he did not shoot the ad himself. But as a compromise, he allowed the makers to use his edited clips from Way of the Dragon. It was a great promotional strategy. When the much-awaited film was released in winter, it broke the record of Lee?s previous film, Fist of Fury, and made HK$5,307,000 business at the box office.

Nevertheless, the film should also be credited for starting Lee?s friendship with bodybuilder Bolo Yeung.

Bolo Yeung once revealed his observation of Lee during the shoot of Enter The Dragon

After the shoot of the cigarette commercial, Lee and Bolo Yeung’s friendship brewed. After one year of the shoot, Lee approached the bodybuilder for the main lead in his iconic film, Enter The Dragon.

While shooting with Lee, he noticed that the master never challenged stuntmen to fight him off-camera. In fact, they forced him to fight with them. Once an extra desired to test Lee?s skill. However, the fight did not last more than a few seconds. Yeung revealed that Lee kicked the extra on his head and the fight was over!

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Indeed, Yeung was quite impressed with his speed and prowess. It made him respect Lee even more.