The legendary 1971 role Clint Eastwood turned down: “I was offered pretty good money”
1971 was a defining and pivotal year for Clint Eastwood as both an actor and filmmaker, with two movies released months apart that cemented him as a superstar and established him as a director, and it’s enough to make you wonder what could have happened had he not turned down the iconic leading role in a third.
Eastwood did appear onscreen three times in ’71, but Don Siegel’s The Beguiled quickly became an afterthought when Play Misty for Me debuted in October. He’d fought tooth and nail for the opportunity to step behind the camera, and he was so confident in himself that he staked his entire career on it.
The psychological thriller didn’t necessarily set the world on fire, but it was a well-received, profitable picture that showed Eastwood had some chops behind the camera. Half a century, 39 features, four Academy Awards, and five Golden Globes later, that would prove to be an understatement and a half.
In December, Dirty Harry opened on the big screen, and as controversial as it was, it nonetheless added a second cinematic icon to Eastwood’s collection, after the ‘Man with No Name’. A franchise-launching, influential, and era-defining classic, it cemented the leading man’s action hero credentials, and the grizzled, no-nonsense act that he perfected as Harry Callahan would become his go-to persona.
Six days before Siegel’s cop thriller had landed in theatres, another picture premiered, one that had cast its net far and wide to find someone willing to step into a pair of the industry’s biggest shoes. Eastwood was asked, and he said no. Burt Reynolds was asked, and he said no, too, with Cubby Broccoli eventually circling back around to rehire Sean Connery as James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever.
Having defined the suave secret agent for five movies, it was an almost impossible task to replace Connery as 007, but George Lazenby didn’t do himself any favours. When he quickly vacated the tux, the producers were sent scrambling, and a lucrative offer eventually made its way to Eastwood’s desk.
“It was a nice compliment, but it wasn’t for me,” he demurred. “I never saw any sense in doing something that already belonged to someone else.” Still, the living legend acknowledged that “I was offered pretty good money to do James Bond if I would take on the role,” but stepping in at the seventh time of asking with Connery’s shadow still looming overhead hardly sold him on the prospect.
Not to beat around the bush, but what a shitshow that would have been. Eastwood as Bond? That’s almost as ludicrous, but still not quite, as Reynolds inheriting the mantle. Eon have been open to an American 007, since James Brolin was literally cast before the rug was pulled out from under him and Roger Moore returned, but casting a recognisable star would have been several steps too far.
Hypothetically, if he’d said yes, that could have changed everything. Diamonds Are Forever was shot between April and August of 1971, overlapping with Play Misty for Me‘s post-production and Dirty Harry‘s principal photography, so a squinting, weathered, Eastwood-shaped Bond could have sent his career spiralling off in a completely different direction.
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