“I’ll live with that”: Clint Eastwood reflects on his Alfred Hitchcock moment
As one of the most influential filmmakers in history, Alfred Hitchcock pioneered a number of techniques that would become commonplace in cinema, with legend of the screen Clint Eastwood happy to take his cues from the ‘Master of Suspense’.
In addition to his obvious soft spot for a blonde bombshell, his fondness for subverting audience expectations through his voyeuristic approach to the story, and his constant desire to push the boundaries of convention and technical virtuosity, Hitchcock left behind a monumental legacy.
One of his most famous habits was the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it-cameo, with Hitchcock taking it upon himself to lurk in dozens of his own features. Whether he was leaving a pet shop in The Birds, appearing in a class reunion photograph in Dial M for Murder, crossing the road in Rebecca, or missing a bus in North by Northwest, viewers knew to keep their eyes peeled for his background guest spot.
Eastwood appeared in plenty of his own films, too, but it was always a great deal more obvious when he was either the leading man or a key supporting character. Directing and leading the cast of High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Unforgiven, Gran Torino, The Mule, Cry Macho, and more, the icon never found the need to hide himself in plain sight.
There always tend to be exceptions to the rule, though, and in Eastwood’s case, it was his 2014 musical drama Jersey Boys. The film dramatises Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons’ story; set in the 1960s, it chronicles the iconic band’s journey from struggling street artists to international sensations.
Speaking to Cinemovie, he dished the dirt on a sly where his career-launching western series Rawhide pops up on the television, an idea he revealed was the suggestion of Erich Bergen, who played the part of Four Seasons keyboardist and backing vocalist Bob Gaudio.
“We were sitting there talking about doing the scene where he is going to be sitting there, watching television, when this woman walks into the room, and he said, ‘I’d be sitting there watching Rawhide,'” Eastwood explained. “And I started thinking, ‘Yeah, could be’. Because, after all, that was about the era, about the right timing.”
The four-time Academy Award winner didn’t immediately implement it, with the decision ultimately being made without his knowledge. “I put it out of my mind, and somebody who works for me – a woman who handles all of our television stuff – just went ahead and did it,” he said. “So, afterwards, I just said, ‘OK, I’ll live with that.'”
In his defence, Eastwood clarified that the “Hitchcock moments are distracting,” which is why he was hesitant about the idea until a member of his team took the decision completely out of his hands and made it for him.
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