Movies in His Eyes -- Interview with Clint Eastwood

Richard Schickel: There’s a notion that Clint Eastwood, the great American icon, has somehow disappointed a significant portion of his constituency¹ with Million Dollar Baby.

Clint Eastwood: Well, I got a big laugh out of that. These people are always bitching² about Hollyweird, and then they start bitching about this film. Are they all so mad because The Passion of the Christ is only up for the makeup award and a couple of other minor things? Extremism is so easy. You’ve got your position, and that’s it. It doesn’t take much thought. And when you go far enough to the right you meet the same idiots coming around from the left.

Richard: When I look back on all your films, every one of them, to me, is extraordinarily specific, by which I mean they’re always about people dealing nonideologically with the same issue.

Clint: I don’t think I’ve ever done a project ’cause I said, “Geez, philosophically, I’m right in line with this guy. This is me.” I think I’m more apt to choose a role that isn’t me. If you think back on Dirty Harry, for instance, people saw him as just a rogue³ cop. But he’s a rogue cop who’s just lost his wife. He’s sort of a sad guy, and he’s equally saddened and angered by the bureaucratic nightmare he’s dwelling in while trying to apprehend a sadistic⁴, psychopathic⁵ serial killer. If you showed him as a happy-go-lucky guy with no problems at all, you’d have no emotional excitement in the picture.

Richard: Do you think we’re all in some way driven by inexplicable fate?

Clint: Sometimes, yeah. I think sometimes certain things are just meant to happen for who knows what reason. I mean, I look back at myself at 15. I was a slow learner. Nowadays they have ADD⁶ and all these different syndromes, but when I was a kid we didn’t have any of that. It was just, “Mrs. Eastwood, your son is a little slow.” I’m striking a blow for C students everywhere. It took me a while to get my wheels rolling. I guess that’s why they’re still rolling at 74.

Richard: When I look back on your films, everybody in them is basically a working-class person.

Clint: Yeah, well, I guess I’ve gravitated toward those roles. And if I have any understanding at all, maybe it lies in that area.

Richard: I’ve actually heard people say, “Gee, Clint doesn’t seem to do much directing when he’s directing.”

Clint: Actors can become very self-conscious. They have to walk out in front of a lot of people they don’t know and start performing something that may be kind of silly, out of context⁷. And even the most experienced ones come on with a certain anxiety the first few days on a set. And also, directors can get in the way sometimes by just talking too goddam much. So I just come in being a nice host at the party. You get them very comfortable, set a certain attitude, a certain lack of hecticness⁸, so they can get up and make fools of themselves and not really feel foolish. And I love it.

Richard: Despite  the  troubles  you’ve  had  getting  these  last two pictures financed, you think you can probably go on to the end of your career doing what you want to do?

Clint: Well, I will because if I can’t, then that’ll be the grand hint to get the hell out of here. But I think the next picture I’m going to do (Flags of Our Fathers) has a little bit broader scope. It bounces back and forth between 1945 and 1996, and it’s got to capture several generations. There’s the generation of the men who fought World War Ⅱ and also their families and the impact it had on all of them when they were brought back to the States and were treated as heroes -- that horrible thing about being anointed⁹ as a hero when you don’t feel like you’ve done anything heroic.

Richard: You’re probably one of  the  world’s  oldest  living  celebrities. How have you avoided that pitfall¹⁰?

Clint: I’m not a great self-analyst, but the only secret is just being interested in new things and being interested in moving on. I think I’ve always reached out for expansion. I’ve kept working, I’ve kept learning. Let’s say you keep a piece of clay or something. You just have to keep shaping it, molding it. And hopefully it gets better and better. I like to think I’m a better person now than I was 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. I don’t know, but I certainly had different habits then than I have now.

Richard: There’s  something  enviable  in  the  way  life has come out for you. I’m not talking now about movies –

Clint: I know what you mean. I’ve been lucky. You have to be lucky. I’ve kind of made a life for myself here in Carmel, and I was lucky to run into my wife Dina. She’s enhanced my life so much, bringing my family together. I don’t know if I could have done that on my own. She’s helped me put all the pieces together.

Richard: Finally, how do you handle Oscars? I mean you’ve been there a few times.

Clint: Sometimes you have the goods. With Unforgiven, we were kind of favored and we prevailed, at least as Best Picture, the nicest one to have. And then last year (with Mystic River) we got Hobbitized. Now, here I am back the second year in a row. It’s almost like the kid won’t go away. Maybe they’ll give it to him just to get rid of him.