Five actors who had issues with Clint Eastwood: “It’s intimidating as hell”
Clint Eastwood is undeniably one of Hollywood’s most iconic figures, excelling as both an actor and a director.
Over the years, he has delivered countless hit films that have captivated audiences and critics alike. His 1992 masterpiece Unforgiven earned him Academy Awards for ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’, cementing his legacy in the western genre. Eastwood’s directorial prowess has also brought Oscar glory to many of his stars, including Gene Hackman for Unforgiven, Tim Robbins and Sean Penn for their efforts on Mystic River, and Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman for the brilliant Million Dollar Baby.
Over the years, though, it’s become common knowledge that Eastwood’s directing style resembles his acting style pretty darn closely. The man doesn’t like to make a fuss and, more often than not, tries to do a lot with a little. For instance, it’s known that most Eastwood shooting days are finished by lunchtime, and he doesn’t like to waste time talking with his actors if he doesn’t have to. As Freeman once said, “He doesn’t fool around with actors. He hired you to do that job, so he ain’t doing it for you.”
In this vein, Eastwood is notorious for expecting his actors to come prepared when they step on one of his sets. He’s loath to shoot more than one or two takes of any scene because he values the spontaneity that comes from that. In 2005, he told Film Comment, “The objective is to make everything sound like the first time it’s said, so the only thing I can do is try to pick it up the very first time it is said. So, a lot of times, I’ll do it that way. I know some people don’t like to do that.”
In this way, working on an Eastwood movie is more like theatre than standard film acting. You get one shot at something – maybe two, if you’re lucky – and no matter how you feel you did on those takes, Eastwood will be moving on when they’re done. As Eastwood alluded to, this doesn’t necessarily sit well with everyone he works with, and it certainly rubbed Leonardo DiCaprio the wrong way.
DiCaprio played FBI director J Edgar Hoover in Eastwood’s 2011 misfire J Edgar, and although he’s never publicly commented on the role, it’s believed he had a hard time with Eastwood’s insistence on one take. It’s rumoured that DiCaprio asked Eastwood if they could do another take one fateful day, and in response, Eastwood simply wrapped shooting for the day and strode off set.
Matt Damon has also encountered Eastwood’s distaste for multiple takes, although at least his request didn’t result in the shoot being called off for the day. In 2021, he appeared on Hot Ones and discussed his experience making 2009’s Invictus with Eastwood. He revealed: “It was a little terrifying because I was playing a South African, and that’s a really hard accent to do. Clint says, ‘Cut, print, check the gate,’ which means, ‘We’re done here. Let’s move on.'”
Feeling he hadn’t quite reached what he was capable of on the take, Damon risked it all to ask, “Boss, do you think maybe we can get one more?” He admitted that Eastwood simply turned to him and said, “Why? Do you want to waste everybody’s time?”
Another thing Eastwood has a penchant for doing is keeping the camera rolling when actors think they’re rehearsing or even just having a chat. He will use that take in the movie if he likes what he sees. Dame Judi Dench, who co-starred in J Edgar, told a royal literary festival, “Leo DiCaprio and I did a scene where I was in bed with some papers and things in front of me, no dialogue or anything. So, he’s sat here and we were talking and everything, talking about everyday things. Then I said, ‘Are we going to do this scene?’ and Leo said, ‘He’s done it!’ That was it; he’d done it while we were sitting there.”
Armie Hammer reportedly suffered this same fate in J Edgar, when Eastwood called “cut and print” on a scene he believed was just a rehearsal. He even had his script in his hand for the entire sequence, and when he told Eastwood this, the director shrugged, “I’ll edit the script out.”
Finally, we come to Tom Hanks, who gave arguably the best quote about Eastwood’s outlook on his casts. During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Hanks spoke about his experience making Sully. He revealed, “He treats his actors like horses because when he did the ’60s series Rawhide, the director would shout ‘Action!’ and all the horses bolted.”
Eastwood must have drawn a parallel between these nervous animals and his insecure actors because, as Hanks revealed, on his sets, “He says in a really quiet soft voice, ‘All right, go ahead.’ And instead of shouting, ‘Cut’, he says, ‘That’s enough of that.'”
Eastwood would probably argue he’s just trying not to spook his actors, like the horses he worked with all those years ago. But Hanks saw it differently, laughing, “It’s intimidating as hell.”
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