Bruce Lee ‘Pulled Strings’ To Stage Final Fight Scene At Colosseum With Chuck Norris

To this day, Bruce Lee remains an icon to many in the world of martial arts. He grew to fame in the 70s and the number of famed martial arts practitioners at that time was scarce.

However, Chuck Norris was perhaps one of the few notable names most will recall from the United States. He had the honor of starring in one of Lee’s films, “The Way Of The Dragon” (or “Return of the Dragon” to some).

With such a grand showdown, the best way to stage it was at an iconic place. And during that time, there was perhaps no stage better than the Colosseum. The late martial artist drew inspiration from “Spartacus” and wanted the Roman stage for the ultimate battle of “The Way Of The Dragon.”

However, there was one problem that Lee faced. Laws prohibited filming in the Colosseum. But somehow, Bruce Lee found a way – holding up to his philosophy of “when there is a will, there is a way.”

Lee allegedly went as far as bribing Roman officials so that they could be permitted entry along with his crew. But the problem is that they were unable to bring in their filming equipment. They smuggled in some of them via backpacks and entered the location as tourists.

Lee and Norris went to work quickly, aware that they only had an hour to do the shoot. They had to give out everything due to security threats. That meant sacrificing health and safety, forcing both Lee and Norris to do the quickest martial arts sequence ever filmed. It also helped that the two had their sparring sessions for around two years before that actual scene.

“Bruce Lee learned from everybody. He had a very open mind. He never believed in only one martial arts style or that one was superior. He believed that everything had strengths and weaknesses and that we should find the strengths in each method.” Clearly, one of those methods was to do anything to get the job done and The Way of the Dragon certainly benefits from that,” Norris said.