“I can’t repeat that one”: The story of how Ridley Scott “pissed off” Clint Eastwood
There are plenty of things Ridley Scott and Clint Eastwood have in common, and while there are just as many things that make them completely different, several of the most important shared traits the two possess are commitment, dedication, and work ethic.
Both are illustrious veterans who continued making box office smash hits and awards season favourites when the majority of octogenarians in all walks of life are taking it easy, they’ve each helmed a ‘Best Picture’-winning movie, weathered the storms of change to maintain their positions at the top of the industry, and they are not men to be trifled with.
When any filmmaker has a reputation like Scott or Eastwood, people on their sets are going to fall in line. That’s not to say either of them are tyrants, but they immediately command a certain level of respect and reverence, which extends to the people footing the bill when they’re more than capable of making at least one film on an annual basis, which always comes in on time, on schedule, and on budget.
Of course, whereas Eastwood is stoic and steadfast, Scott has a mischievous streak. He’s not one for feigning interest or fielding questions he believes to be inane or not worth answering, but on one of the rare occasions when he was effectively a director-for-hire, he ended up deliberately rankling the four-time Oscar-winning legend.
Scott entered talks to helm The Martian in early 2014, but star Matt Damon had been attached long before then. It was a mutually beneficial partnership that reaped huge rewards when the sci-fi drama cleared $630 million in ticket sales and notched seven Oscar nods, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Actor’, with the Gladiator steward’s economical approach serving him very well.
Damon wasn’t too far removed from working with Eastwood twice in quick succession on Nelson Mandela biopic Invictus and supernatural story Hereafter, and it was clear from the beginning his latest creative muse ticked all the boxes he was looking for after Scott admitted he “auditioned for Matt” to get the gig.
“He says, ‘How many takes do you do?’. I said, ‘Two’. He goes, ‘That makes you twice as good as the guy I worked with recently,'” the director told Spliced Wire. “I can’t repeat that one. When I repeated it, Clint got really pissed off. Clint gives one take. Matt said, ‘Can I do another one?’ and Clint said, ‘Well, if you really must waste everybody’s time’. So, I give him two.”
A perfect example of Scott’s famously dry humour, he maintained that the sole reason he allowed Damon two takes of any given scene in The Martian was to stick it to Eastwood’s rigid practices in a roundabout way. It got him the job and ended up as the highest-grossing movie of his career, though, so it would be fair to say shooting setups twice over paid off big time.
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