The movie Clint Eastwood said “everybody in the world advised against doing”
Early in his acting career, Clint Eastwood was typecast in a way unlike any of his contemporaries. Having given performances in Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy and the Dirty Harry movies, plus a swathe of other westerns, Eastwood was known for playing no-nonsense, mysterious characters of pure masculinity.
While Eastwood certainly mastered the cowboy archetype, like any actor, he felt that his talents could extend into further realms of cinema. As the 1970s drew to a close, Eastwood made one of the most shocking turns of his career with a performance in the 1978 action comedy Every Which Way but Loose, directed by James Fargo.
In a 1984 interview with David Thompson, Eastwood once explained how he likes to be “challenged” by certain kinds of movies, especially considering his early typecasting. “I can’t just do the mysterious kind of character who has everything under control,” the actor said. “That’s fun to play, but I’ve done it a lot. I’ll do it again, probably, but I have to broaden the scope.”
Eastwood certainly broadened the scope with Every Which Way but Loose, in which he played a trucker and bare-knuckle boxer who sets off across the American West in search of the woman who left him, accompanied by his brother/manager and his pet orangutan Clyde. If that sounds unlike Eastwood, especially in the 1970s, that’s because it truly was.
Still, the film ended up being one of Eastwood’s most successful ever, at least from a financial perspective. In the interview with David Thompson, the actor noted how “everybody in the world advised [him] against doing Every Which Way but Loose,” telling him that it wasn’t going to be “a Clint Eastwood movie,” considering the fact that he’s “dumped by the girl” and has a “silly orangutan” for company.
But still, Eastwood said that the film appeared to him to be “kinda interesting”, and it certainly turned out to be an almighty commercial success. “It’s comedic, and yet it’s different,” the actor told Thompson. “And if I hadn’t felt in a broadening mood, I might have said, ‘Yeah, you’re right, that isn’t me. I’d better do another Harry or a cowboy.’ Which is fun – I like to do that. But you have to broaden out.”
Speaking with The Guardian, Eastwood had once again said that several figures surrounding him “begged” him not to take on Every Which Way but Loose and admitted that it was indeed a “strange choice” to take on the role. Still, Eastwood had been keen at the time to “reach out to a younger generation” and make a movie that “the kids could see.”
Even despite the sheer bizarre quality of Every Which Way but Loose, Eastwood found “something hip in an odd way” about it. “This strange guy tells his troubles to an orangutan and loses the girl,” he explained. “Everything about it was a little bit off-centre. It seemed like something to do at the time.”
Given Eastwood’s brilliant overall career and the fact that Every Which Way but Loose brought in a handsome box office take, it’s unlikely that he regrets taking the film on and is perhaps glad he ignored the advice of his peers and colleagues. Sure, the film sticks out like a sore thumb on the actor’s filmography, but it serves as a wacky moment in an otherwise glittering career.
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