Ah, misappropriated nostalgia. It’s a fanboy’s Kryptonite, the one thing that can make him confused enough to think that somebody else’s childhood idols are his own. Farbeit from me to accuse the upcoming Michel Gondry-directed film revival of The Green Hornet](The Green Hornet (2011) - Movie | Moviefone) of such a thing but let’s face it, what’s the one thing most people know about The Green Hornet? Bruce Lee, of course. Lee was that rare sidekick that outdistanced and outshone his co-star and leading man Van Williams by a long-shot. In fact, according to studio executives at the time, one of the reasons why the movie that followed the short-lived 1966 TV show of The Green Hornet was a flop was because Lee’s Kato, the loyal man-servant to socialite Britt Reid and his alter-ego the Green Hornet, was more popular than Williams’s Green Hornet.
When I saw this screen test of Lee auditioning for The Green Hornet, I was floored, not just at the footage but at my reaction to it. it’s hard not to look at a young 24 year-old Lee talk about being a young father and studying philosophy at college and not think of how young he died or imagine that there was a time when someone as legendary as Bruce Lee would have had to audition for a part.
Continue reading Watch This: Bruce Lee’s ‘Green Hornet’ Screen Test