The iconic actor Clint Eastwood was banned from working with: “We don’t want any part of it”
It’s been a long time since a filmmaker, actor, or studio has overruled Clint Eastwood, which comes with the territory when he’s spent over half a century as one of Hollywood’s biggest and most successful figures, boasting a cabinet full of trophies and an impeccable track record of box office success.
However, before he reached that point in his career, he had to acquiesce to the demands of the people above his pay grade, which meant he wasn’t allowed to work with a ‘Golden Age’ icon after the studio put its foot down and told Eastwood he’d have to find himself another co-star.
Ironically, the film that saw the actor bow down to the boardroom was notable for being the last time he ever took second billing in a picture. Reuniting with his Coogan’s Bluff director Don Siegel in Two Mules for Sister Sara, Eastwood ceded the spotlight to Shirley MacLaine, whose name came first on the posters and trailers.
That would be the last time it ever happened, with the fast-rising favourite ensuring he never played second fiddle again. The plan was always for Eastwood to let one of the industry’s marquee female names take precedence, except it wasn’t supposed to be MacLaine.
Instead, having become close when he worked with her husband, Richard Burton, on Where Eagles Dare, it appeared as though the fates were aligning for Elizabeth Taylor to play the Sara to his Hogan, with the story following the friendship that develops between a mercenary and a nun harbouring a secret.
“Universal had told me about it,” Eastwood informed Paul Nelson. “She ironically asked me about it as they were telling me about it. She asked me if I’d look at it, so I read it, and I told her I liked it. We shook and said, ‘Great, OK, we’ll do it’. I promptly struck up a deal with the studio, and I understood she was striking up a deal with the studio. Then, all of a sudden, pow, it all fell apart.”
There were a couple of factors in play that ultimately ruled Taylor out of Two Mules for Sister Sara. One was her exorbitant salary demands, which shouldn’t have been a surprise when she was a two-time Academy Award winner who’d already been one of cinema’s highest-paid names for years.
Another was her insistence that Burton accompany her throughout the production and be compensated for pausing his own career to act as the doting husband, and the deal-breaking third was her spotty recent track record. Taylor was coming off the back of several high-profile bombs in a row, and the studio didn’t think a string of flops justified a massive investment.
“What happened is, I guess their salary got big,” Eastwood mused. “They’d been doing a lot of pictures together that hadn’t been clicking.” Despite the handshake agreement he had in place with Taylor to embody the main roles in Two Mules for Sister Sara, the numbers didn’t add up for those in charge.
“It just became complicated,” he explained. “And Universal finally said, ‘We don’t want any part of it.'” The studio was happy to make the film with Eastwood, and willing to fund it, just not with Taylor attached. Once it became clear it wasn’t happening unless somebody else played the female lead, off she fucked, with MacLaine brought in after the star was banned from getting his first choice.
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