Clint Eastwood names the only moment of his life worthy of a biopic: “There’s nothing”
You’d think that someone as famous as Clint Eastwood – a prolific actor, director, and four-time Oscar winner – would have a fair few stories up his sleeve fit for a biopic, but he’s not convinced that any of them are worth watching.
Honestly, I’m not convinced that Eastwood really means it, though. There’s a chance he’s just trying to practice some sense of humility, because if there’s anyone in Hollywood with a story to tell, it’s the 95-year-old chap still making movies.
Kicking his career off in the 1950s with a handful of TV roles – most notably an appearance on the western show Rawhide – Eastwood soon graduated to the big leagues when he appeared in Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy.
That trilogy pretty much changed the game and kicked off the whole spaghetti western thing. They were darker, nastier, and nothing like the shiny cowboy flicks that came before. The men were rough, broken, more antihero than hero, and nobody was waiting around for a polite Hollywood ending. At the time, Eastwood nailed it, and before long, he fancied trying it himself behind the camera. By 1971, he was at it with Play Misty For Me.
While Eastwood still considers himself an actor, he has become much more prolific as a director, seemingly never stopping to step back and have a break. He must be knackered. At the age of 95, Eastwood is still going strong, with his most recent film being 2024’s Juror #2. While people think this might be the director’s last film, judging by his age, I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions just yet – he seems pretty invincible.
With a career full of Oscar-winning hits and even a tenure as the nonpartisan mayor of California’s Carmel-by-the-Sea, it seems like Eastwood has a lot of life stories under his belt. Yet, when he was asked which period of his life he thinks would work best for a biopic, he replied honestly: “There’s nothing in my life.”
The biopic is one of Hollywood’s most beloved genres, becoming increasingly common as a surefire way to gain profit and perhaps, more often than not, those much desired Oscar nominations. Eastwood has made several as a director, including Sully, starring Tom Hanks as Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot who made an emergency landing on the Hudson River. But Eastwood just can’t see one being made about himself.
Still, when pressed to pick a moment that might work as the basis of his potential biopic, Eastwood selected a moment in his life that could’ve ended it all. He might never have even seen the day he’d become a Hollywood icon.
“I once rode a plane into the ocean in Northern California when I was 21 years old, as a passenger. It was a military plane, but I was a passenger, and that was a little story that was kind of… hectic. Because for a 21 year old, you think, ‘This is my ending, this is my demise, and I’m just now turning 21.’”
It seems that Eastwood has many crazy stories up his sleeve, but perhaps he has become immune to the intensity of these tales. How can he be so blasé about crashing into the ocean? Does he not remember that he made Sully?
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