Clint Eastwood’s first near-death experience: “I said no to death”
Anyone who first became a fan of Clint Eastwood through Sergio Leone’s masterful Dollars trilogy at a young age probably believed that the ‘Man with No Name’ was truly invincible. Among the most famous gunslingers in cinematic history, Eastwood projected a unique image that inspired countless children around the world to practise their own aim with imaginary weapons.
Even when things got rough in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, audiences knew better than to actually count him out. However, his character’s almost zen-like acceptance of human mortality might just have been partially influenced by his own encounters with a potential early death, which he eventually infused into his preparation for the role.
Interestingly, the production of the movie itself had its own share of near-fatal incidents that could have led to some tragic mishaps. Eli Wallach, who delivered the performance of a lifetime as Tuco, was almost decapitated by the iconic train sequence due to some technical miscalculations. While Eastwood didn’t exactly have the same experience, he channelled something else from a different period of his life.
During a conversation with Time Out, where he reflected on his extensive career and formative memories, the actor-director opened up about a core memory from when he was a child: “Everybody’s had some kind. I remember when I was very young, my dad was taking me into the surf on his shoulders, and I fell off, and I can still remember today, even though I was probably four or five years old, the colour of the water and everything as I was being washed around in the surf before I popped to the surface again. But at that age, you don’t think too much [about whether you were close to death or not].”
In contrast to that seemingly harmless event, he also spoke about being on a plane that was forced to perform an emergency landing. To make matters worse, Eastwood had swim off the coast during winter, and unlike his childhood memory, he actually considered the possibility of dying at the age of 21.
Eastwood added: “Years later, when I was 21, I was in a plane. We landed off the coast of California in the winter, and as I was going into shore, I [couldn’t stop] thinking: should I be thinking about my demise? But, as I saw lights in the far distance, I thought: ‘Somebody’s in there having a drink and sitting next to a fireplace. I just want to be in there.’ So, I had this determination to make it there safe. I said no to death!”
One look at his portrayal of the Man with No Name, and it is abundantly clear that his character understood what it meant to refuse death despite several confrontations with it. The result is a creation that might just rank among the biggest badasses in film history.
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