“I’m always doing your leftovers”: Clint Eastwood’s habit of feeding off Steven Spielberg’s scraps
Directors picking up projects that another filmmaker had dropped is nothing out of the ordinary, but it’s happened enough times that Clint Eastwood has developed a regular habit of sniffing around Steven Spielberg’s pile of cast-offs to sound out his next picture.
Obviously, as a four-time Academy Award-winning legend and one of the industry’s longest-tenured icons, Eastwood has never been short of material whenever he starts developing a new feature. However, the fact it’s happened multiple times with Spielberg wasn’t lost on the actor and filmmaker.
It’s only a fairly recent phenomenon, but within the space of a decade, history repeated itself three times. From a logistical standpoint, the most ambitious undertaking of Eastwood’s directorial career was the double whammy of Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, two World War II dramas shot back-to-back that told the same story from different perspectives and were released months apart.
Spielberg was credited as a producer on both, and he was the one who initially purchased the rights to James Bradley and Ron Powers’ book with an eye on taking the reins himself. He didn’t, and when Eastwood stepped in, he steered both movies to critical acclaim and awards season recognition.
Things didn’t go quite as well the second time around, though, after Hereafter quickly gained the unwanted distinction of being one of Eastwood’s worst efforts from behind the camera. Supernatural spiritualism never felt like it was a good fit for his signature style, and that was proven correct when the lacklustre exploration of what it means to be alive landed with a whimper.
Once again, the project originated with Spielberg and DreamWorks, and once again, the highest-grossing director of all time turned Eastwood on to the script. The latter still wasn’t done rummaging through the former’s rubbish, but it would be fair to say the third time definitely marked the charm.
In May 2013, it was announced that Spielberg would be helming an adaptation of Chris Kyle’s memoir, American Sniper. Of course, when the finished article arrived on the big screen in December 2014, Eastwood sat back and revelled in the biggest hit of his entire career after the war story hoovered up almost half a billion dollars.
When Spielberg dropped out and Eastwood swooped in, the veteran felt compelled to ask a very pertinent question. “I called Spielberg and said, ‘Steven, I’m always doing your leftovers,'” he told Variety. “Why’d you bail out of this thing?” Not that he had any problems picking up the slack when he’d done it twice already by that point, but it was definitely the Unforgiven and Dirty Harry frontman who got the best end of the deal.
They may have never worked together as an actor or director, but Spielberg was nonetheless responsible for three Eastwood films after he decided he didn’t want to make them himself, and he even mediated the feud between the grizzled star and Spike Lee for good measure.
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.