Clint Eastwood Interview 1974 Brian Linehan's City Lights

Clint Eastwood is in such a secure position now and knows exactly who he is and he can joke about the early disastrous days in the beginning of his film career when he was a contract D with Universal Studios he made a lot of bad films films like revenge of the creature and tarantula but one of the high points in making what he now calls the dogs and disasters was one called ambush at Cimarron pass and Clint Eastwood in New Orleans talks about that early film well in those days it was in those days I was a you know contract player and there wasn't a question of magazines I wasn't even put in pictures to much Universal I just did a lot of bits and then ambushed Cimarron past came much later and that was prior to rod that was almost that the picture that made me decide to quit at that time I was thinking it maybe I should give up the business and go into something else and my wife I'll have to give her a lot of credit she kind of talked me into hanging in there at about six months after that I got rawhide which kept me fully employed for the next seven and a half years eight years on the air ran and so I I kind of I was kind of a grateful her there but I was what I meant by never being at dolly the president never the buildup having it the old fashion studio build-up and the old days is as you know they used to have they used to have big press departments and when I did a picture they'd give you the Big Valley hose and send you out on tours and do all kinds of things my first films outside of rod way when rod came on it was there was about thirty some-odd westerns on the air and so you know and another western one critic came and said just what we needs another Western you know and he was right you know there was an awful lot of him then when I got into I left that and I went into films and start making films I made the first three in Europe and they wanted the first one a fistful of dollars wasn't intended to be much of a picture it was intended to be sold maybe on the Italian market if they could sell it to Japan and a few other markets fine if they sold it to Canada to the United States something that was sensational but what happened is it took off to a much larger degree than they thought and so they distributed around the world and they ensuing two Italian made films also they distributed around the world but then there was never any campaign as far as I was concerned in fact I had to do those three films before I even started getting any offers from American producers because I was still considered a television actor oh you know kind of class-conscious group do you say something like there wasn't much expected out of a fistful of dollars and there's this whole pattern of of self-deprecation by Clint Eastwood on Clint Eastwood I'm one never hears you talking about the fact that that when when you read that script and when you gave it to your wife Maggie you were the one who did the comparative study on Kurosawa and Yojimbo and the Seven Samurai you're the guy who plays ball you're the guy who in the middle of defining somebody else's work and comparing your own can say you can't have a cartoon in the middle of a Renoir and yet at the same time but this never comes out are youare you hesitant to push forward the Clint Eastwood that bad reads and intellectual eise's and plays Boff um I'm hesitant only in the sense as I hate to you know because it's not really acting per se and how are you getting into a lot of other things and you're talking about films in general but filmmaking general but acting is really not an intellectual art it's an emotional art and people who intellectualize it usually talk their way out of a lot of very good things that might come out of their instincts and I work from an inside level on the script reading the script as you say and and deciding whether do it and whether Fistful of Dollars might become something that was that was unique that's that may be a combination of many things maybe a combination of luck skill hour or some sort of psychic thing that might catch and capture the imagination of the public I don't really know I just know that it appealed to me at the moment and I thought it might have a chance to appeal the public however it was made for a limited budget $220,000 which is considered low and it the Italian producers of the show not the director Sergio Leone but the producers would have been very satisfied at the picture to made $300,000 but when you when you when you their sights weren't high in other words they weren't they weren't anticipating sensational kind of international growth sort of thing they just kind of thought well make a pretty good little film and this guy's has been exposed on television in the United States the Western Hemisphere and and maybe that'll help us get a few more bucks but for the most part you know it if we can do a little better than break even we'll be happy you simplify your your philosophy and approach to acting and directing and yes you say it's emotional and it's instinctive it's intuitive and that you don't stay awake nights pondering the intellectuality of what you're doing but then when you come up against people that you've worked with like Julie Harris Geraldine page Elizabeth Hartman Jessica Walters people who really are either new york studio oriented or tremendously internal performing artists are you are you working on the same wavelength with the Geraldine page or a Julie Harris sure because they're all working the same way they're all working on a very instinctive level they're highly trained actresses all of them extremely extremely good I was that was one fortunate thing about working on ride was that I got to work with you like the Julie Harris is that we they could afford to bring in those kind of guest stars and made a great training ground they did 250 hours of that show with very fine people coming in and being your support every week but I don't I I think all acting is on the same wavelength there's just many many ways of teaching oneself to act and there are many actors that approach things differently some actors will push things by thinking out every little process and others will just let it come out of a gut level but I think you know when you were refused that that $25 raise back in the good old days at Universal we made those 13 or 14 great films beginning with revenge of the creature they were great and that you listen they're probably classics now but it probably will they'll come in was Lew Wasserman the president of MCA then no it was Universal was called Universal international and it was a I think a guy I think Edward mall was the president and I don't MCA after I was thrown out of there some year-and-a-half have a year and a half after I started there I guess about a year after that I guess the MCA bought the company and they bought the lot in the whole day all night it's been a totally different organization since then what did it mean to you to go back eleven years later and work out a 1 million dollar deal with Universal on coogans bluff.the isn't trades and they all sound very good I've I've met work mostly at a percentage arrangement all along and I've had pretty good luck with it did you get a million for Kelly's here no you didn't know and but I've worked on a percentage of the films and the percentage can can be good depending the film does good and if the film does good then you've taken your chances like everybody else is like kind of like playing in Reno or Las Vegas or something but the these kind of the deals only the percentage of what the the deals only as good as that's what the film does I'd rather have a small percent of it good success than a large percent of flop tell me what happened that day you you pulled up to the Paramount lot to begin work on paint your wagon and a guard wouldn't let you in said you look suspicious yeah well I went home and said what the hell I'm getting paid anyway well I went to I was at an office over Universal where I still do today but I went to start paint your wagon I have I Drive a pickup truck which is I guess the guard was from the old school I thought I should come in in some sort of limousine or something and I was dressed kind like a bum you know I was just going where it was just a rehearsal or going in we're just going into a stage much like come over on now and everybody was going to sit around and talk out the parts so I came in the pickup and the guy said well there we don't have your name here and I said well uh you know what I'm supposed to be on stage 21 in five minutes now they're expecting me I know he said well we don't have your name that's my said well okay you don't have my name you're fine so I turned around the truck and I went back to my office and I sat there and pretty soon about half hour later the phone was ringing they weren't calling up an allergy liner was calling where are you where are you I said you know I didn't know by I'm out here at Universal I let me on the lot but down there paramount they won't let me on what the problem is so he said oh it's been a great mistake as it well don't sweat it I'll be in well they didn't talk you for the date of it no no tell me something about about not regard might not be there anymore you you and Rosalind Russell accepted from President Nixon the the appointments of being on the the board of a council which would represent the motion picture industry in the National Council for the Arts and since you and miss Russell accepted this six year position I'm just wondering what's what's the definition of what Clint Eastwood and Rosalind Russell are supposed to do for the National Council of the Arts through the motion picture industry well the National Council is a council that sits on you know there's some 80 million dollars 80 some odd million dollars that has granted out over the years to various art functions across the United States and people apply for these grants and then they have to match these grants by locally raised funds and the National Endowment has various committees that investigate these these people who are applying for grants and what would it ask what the you know whether they're they're worthy or whether they're just trying to scam some loot you know somewhere along the line so how often do I mean what do you do once a month you all have a know once it four times a year then they they find out if these people are qualified do the matching grants and all that then these committees will meet with the council which is about council can range depending on how many people are able to attend may be range from twenty to forty people and you and Rosalind Russell make the decision well no there's a Rosalind Russell Robert Wise Gregory Peck I guess is on there's a group from every art I mean there's their dancers they're singers they're actors they're musicians jazz musicians classical yeah there's every every type of person on this council and then the committee brings these these recommendations up and then you talk about them and and vote on them thunderbolt and Lightfoot is Clint Eastwood's twenty-six feature film and your 27th will be the Eiger sanction which you're going to direct in Switzerland but in in talking about a man with twenty six feature films behind him in his 27th ready to go as a director I'm interested in in one of your assessments and and press assessments of Clint Eastwood as you pointed out once and can certainly be verified as recently as Time magazine and Jacox writing on thunderbolt and Lightfoot and he felt that Eastwood had had loosened up and had a displayed a sense of comedy that hadn't been there before and well J Cox and Andrew Sarris and and Vincent Canby and Bosley Crowther can be very receptive to what you're doing and the impact of what you represent on a modern contemporary screen the women are almost vitriolic Pauline Kael dislikes you intensely Judith Crist I don't think has ever given you a favorable review and Penelope gilead occasion like talking about Clint Eastwood says while he makes movies and I review the cinema and there's this thing that perhaps a lot of the women in press are reacting the way a lot of women are toward modern cinema where it's all male its male oriented controlled by starred by created by and there's no place for the woman if you ever thought that female critics are reacting on that level they might be I mean they they might be though I doubted in the case of Judith Crist or something like that I think there in her case I don't I would seriously question what kind of knowledge she has on filmmaking I don't I don't know what what is she's delved into her her craft as a as a critic as you have on this on this history on the interview this interview right at the moment you know I mean I don't think she's is up on on film that's just my opinion and she has hurt me I had the woman might know I have mine about her but it said that kind of it's that kind of relationship we'd never met and we don't exchange admirations but I know I've had very good luck with female critics across the country it's it's just the those couple you you that you mentioned or do you think only pretty becomes a star but like everything your digs writing for each other well that's a--that's a big problem in New York especially that there are there is a a group that has to write about what's so and so gonna think about my review or they might want to be put down so and so for his good review they have to say well that was not a good film because um Kael said it was good and if somebody else said well I've got to counteract that because I don't agree with her our philosophies aren't the same or something so they have their little inner workings going like that I don't but I don't I think just only in those a few instants you're talking about we've had there are those women or may not be fans if you want to use the word but just you know those are the kind of films I've done but as far as the male oriented cinema I don't think that's true in a way I mean I think that um no more than any other industry and actually there's a larger population of men in the business than there are women there have been periods in history uh in the motion picture history would have been the vast amounts of women women's roles but they seem to be going through a period right now or they're not they're not not very not very prevalent Clint Eastwood may be a sex symbol and indeed he's certainly proven to be to millions of women his comments on women and women in film are very interesting she'll find out you you have never even but even when I when I've made films that had put women roles like for instance play misty for me was the best role the picture was the woman's right of all the beguiled the beguile which received very favorable reviews had seven major parts for women Judith Chris what was thought was disgusting you know so I mean you can't win for losing in there so I don't I don't think that the theory you're presenting that that they're rebelling against the fact that there's not enough women's roles which I happen to agree with by the way that there's not enough you know major functions of women in in in films a day is because they're they're put is because they're of these the type of films I do because even when I have done them that have had these good women's parts they're not they never go my way if you want to use that kind of man I think that the the thing with women in in films is just kind of a fad thing I think eventually somebody will come along maybe the way we were might help may be love story help somebody will come along with some major parts for women and and they'll kill then it'll equalized out right now the fact that men male relationship pictures are nothing new it's not new was Redford Newman it's not new with myself bridges or whatever film you're talking about I mean back to Gunga Din and way on back there they were always they were always popular and I think they're popular because women like them too I know women are very good audiences for being objective they like a good entertainment they like a good relationship whether it's the relationship between two men or the relationship between man woman or whatever okay you're talking about about fine actresses no one would contest that Geraldine page Julie Harris from from rawhide or Jessica Walter are fine actresses but you have never since a fistful of dollars appeared with a female excluding Shirley MacLaine who is of the same magnitude as your stature within the politics of the distri mm-hmm you know you up I see what you mean you know I mean you what why didn't why doesn't Clint Eastwood have Barbra Streisand or Elizabeth Taylor why weren't one of those people in the beguiled Oh misty well in in play misty none of those people fit the role also do you feel you don't need them is it going to have that much of an effect on the Groves if they are in it mm maybe not but to me I choose a person to be in a film that that my company produces by how they fit the film I would rather have a film where everybody fits their character rather than have a name for the sake of the namesake and if ilysm if I have a part for Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor was originally supposed to do two mules for sister Sara she brought the project to me um you know that was that would be great if I had a part of Barbra Streisand I have talked about doing film together but you know it's that big thing of finding material how can you how can you find really good stories that story is everything and without that story there's no use putting all these four field components together without the the center you know you talk about the ladies the ones you've worked with the ones you might work with and a lot of names of kenapa one name that that you have spoken of with affection in the past as Inger Stevens and I wonder what in your opinion having worked with her separates the strength of a Geraldine page from the weakness of an Inger Stevens where a woman gets up one day and kills herself well I don't know I hadn't I only worked with Inger and unhand him hi she was a tremendous lady and she had tremendous quality on the screen uh what I knew of her in person I thought she'd turn his quality - but she was evidently very vulnerable in a certain area I mean everybody is she just definitely succumbed to some degree I don't know Jerell Geraldine's different type person where everybody's different - do you think there's any Midnight Cowboy and thunderbolt and Lightfoot well people have a lot of people have said they thought the ending felt a little bit like Midnight Cowboy but I tell you - that didn't I didn't think of it till somebody presented it recently who's gonna be in the Eiger sanction with you directing I don't know yet we're just getting into that now we're just starting the casting so yeah I'll try to get the best possible people for their role all right maybe you can bring Elizabeth Taylor Barbra Streisand all women and everyone together into a big film with everybody that's been since I'm done before and I think it's terrific well we don't do a film just because it isn't a question of needing anybody I mean you need everybody and you need every brave the rules right

Channel: Brian Linehan's City Lights

Views: 136,494

Keywords: City Lights (TV Program), Brian Linehan (TV Personality), Talk Show (TV Genre), Dirty Harry, Clint Eastwood (Film Director)

Id: SNe17nwn0G4

Length: 22min 21sec (1341 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 16 2015