Arnold Schwarzenegger’s favourite Clint Eastwood movie: “I always idolised him”
In terms of action stars, they don’t come bigger, badder, and more iconic than Arnold Schwarzenegger. The man mountain epitomises everything about that particular style of cinema: big muscles, chiselled features, iconic catchphrases through the roof, and a limited range of facial movements. Arnie defined an era of Hollywood and inspired legions of successors in the years that followed.
In terms of Schwarzenegger’s own idols, he has drawn on a number of different sources from across his career. Along with the bodybuilders and professional wrestlers he mingled with during his early days, he also cites a number of his fellow tough-guy actors as guiding lights. One of them is Clint Eastwood, who the Mr Universe winner would have grown up watching in the 1950s and 1960s.
“Clint is an idol of mine,” he told Rotten Tomatoes. “I always idolised him since before I came over to America. I loved his western movies and followed his career very closely, then became friends with him and really admired him. Tremendously skilled as a producer, as a director, the music he does for his movies, the acting, the directing – I mean everything. So he’s really a very solid guy. He developed into a kind of real genius.”
The film aggregation site asked their guest to name his five favourite films of all time. He ended up giving six—but really, who’s going to tell Arnie no? Instead of choosing one of the classic westerns like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly or a ’60s staple like Where Eagles Dare, the Total Recall star went with something more recent: the 1992 neo-western Unforgiven, which Clint Eastwood also directed.
The idea for the movie had been bandied around for years before the Man with No Name picked it up. John Malkovich was originally in the running to play Will Munny, the retired gunslinger brought back for one last ride, which is an utterly bizarre idea in hindsight. Schwarzenegger isn’t the only person to have fallen in love with this gritty bloodbath. Unforgiven was a critical and commercial smash, reminding a lot of people just how good Eastwood could be in a role like this. It ended up claiming ‘Best Picture’ at the Oscars the following year and bagged the ‘Best Director’ prize for the genius behind the camera.
Schwarzenegger, who once said that Eastwood’s movie In the Line of Fire inspired his big screen comeback following his political career, once tried to further emulate his hero. In early 2010, rumour began to swirl that Arnie was in talks to step back into the shoes of Conan the Barbarian, a character that had made him a star in his early days. For various reasons, this idea never got off the ground, but reports have surfaced since that this sequel was supposed to feature an older Conan coming out of retirement. Scriptwriter Chris Morgan directly referenced Unforgiven whilst talking about the project.
He might never have gotten the chance to make his own version of Unforgiven, but it’s clear that Schwarzenegger isn’t kidding when he talks about how much he loves Eastwood’s work. The two have somehow never shared the screen together; fingers crossed, there’s still time for that wrong to be righted.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Clint Eastwood Newsletter
All the latest stories about Clint Eastwood from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.