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behind the legend
Clint Eastwood on Arnie, Mystic River and the art of directing
profile
The day after Clint Eastwood was ‘presented’ to BAFTA members following a British Academy screening of Mystic River, Arnold Schwarzenegger was confirmed as the new Governor of California.
Flanked by cast members Tim Robbins and Laurence Fishburne, and screenwriter Brian Helgeland, Eastwood was invited to offer his immediate thoughts on the acces- sion of Arnie, California’s most famous adopted son, to the top job in his own beloved home state.
Eastwood, who has experi- ence of politics having been Mayor of Carmel for some years, was suitably diplomatic at first, suggesting in his familiar drawl that “it’s gonna be interesting,” before adding, more cryptically, “now he got what he wants... now the nightmare begins.”
To “why do actors want to be politicians?”, he deftly turned the question on its head, replying smartly, “most politicians want to be actors...”
Like his best known characters on screen – from Leone’s Man With No Name, in the Dollars trilo- gy, and Dirty Harry to Unforgiven’s William Munny – Eastwood is a man of few words, and those words are very careful- ly chosen indeed.
Yet his comparative silence speaks volumes certainly to the legions of actors who would form a queue to appear with
him on screen or under his direc- tion. Or both.
Mystic River, a dark brooding thriller about the way the past comes back to haunt the present day South Boston lives of a trio of childhood friends, is just the fourth time – after Breezy, Bird and Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil – that he’s stayed firmly behind the camera.
In fact, it’s been ten years since he last appeared in a film directed by someone else. And that was more by default when he felt that because of exhaus- tion he simply couldn’t follow his double Oscar-winning Unforgiven – Best Picture, Best Director – back to back with In The Line Of Fire and thus passed the helming chores at least to Wolfgang Petersen.
Without a franchise to protect – his .44 Magnum-toting Inspector Harry Callahan in no fewer than five films must now be decently retired – Eastwood says, “Right now, I’m not interested in acting. If a great role comes along which suits someone of my age that’s fine, but I’m not going to go out and do things I’ve done before.
“As I’m maturing I am more interested in directing; in fact, since 1970 [when he embarked on his helming debut Play Misty For Me] I have always been more interested in directing, but I stayed with them both in order to get the films done. Now, I think
I’m gonna leave it [acting] to younger fellas.”
Was it mere coincidence that on Mystic River he happened to be surrounded by actors, notably Robbins and Sean Penn, and a screenwriter, who also had their own considerable directing skills?
Eastwood, known for his no- nonsense approach in adhering to budget and schedule – “I’m always trying for my shot from the very first take” – was clear he considered it an “asset. I’ve always felt that every actor should direct and every director should act. That would make everybody understand what the process is. You often hear about actors being late and all that sort of stuff; you never find that with an actor who’s directed.”
Tim Robbins provided a fasci- nating insight into the workings of Eastwood: “There’s a certain quiet competence on the set that I had never experienced before. There’s not any kind of Hollywood tripping, no attitude, no gossip or games being played. It’s very calm, very pro- fessional, very efficient.
“The great revelation for me was that you can do one take and get the performance; you don’t need to torture yourself with 20 takes. Clint has worked with the same people for many years and you feel like you’re being invited into a family. It’s a very warm environment.”
Now 73, Eastwood has appeared in nearly 60 films – and directed 24 – since first essaying an uncredited walk-on as a lab technician in 1955’s Revenge Of The Creature.
He says he directs the way he’d like to be directed himself. “I don’t like a director who fidgets. As an actor I like to bring in what I want to bring in. I like to let it unravel. So, as director with these fellas [on Mystic River] I don’t sit and talk to them. One we get going we may have the odd word; there might be little tweaks here and there, but I’m not there to give an acting lesson. They are all professionals.”
Or as Robbins put it: “Despite his years of being at the top of his game and the legendary movies he has made, he always made us feel comfortable and valued on the set, treating us as collabora- tors and equals. We never got the feeling that he believed in his legend, or asked us to honour it... although we did.” Quentin Falk
Photos l-r: Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn in Mystic River; Clint Eastwood in London; Eastwood with Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishburne on the set of Mystic River
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