The one thing Clint Eastwood could never do without: “My whole career would go down the tubes”
There’s no magic formula for becoming a movie star, and there’s definitely no guaranteed method for becoming an icon. Clint Eastwood managed both and then went one better by doing the same on the other side of the camera, and he did it without having to change a thing about himself.
Ever since he first burst onto the scene and displayed his leading man credentials in Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy, which was a huge risk at the time for an American actor best known for his work on a single TV show heading off to Europe to shoot three films, his stardom has never wavered.
Eastwood weaponised his burgeoning status as John Wayne’s heir apparent to become the face of the western genre’s evolution before expanding into directing despite the pushback he faced for wanting to go against the image the studios were trying to force upon him by playing a regular guy in a modern-day dramatic thriller.
He’s the same as a director as he is an actor: no beating around the bush, no studio politics, no bullshit, and straight to the point. That efficient and economical approach has worked wonders on two fronts, and it also helps that Eastwood has played several iconic characters and developed a persona that’s been instantly recognisable to viewers spanning six decades.
‘The Man with No Name’ and ‘Dirty’ Harry Callahan captured Eastwood’s essence: tall, foreboding, charismatic, and inherently dangerous, he could glare a hole through anyone with his piercing gaze. That thousand-yard stare and squint became his signature characteristic, which is why he was so perplexed that he was accused of getting a facelift in the late 1970s.
“Totally incorrect,” he declared to The New York Times when asked if he’d gone under the knife in an attempt to maintain a more youthful visage. “If I lost my quint, I think my whole career would go down the tubes.” His self-awareness levels were high, but he’s not wrong.
An actor of his standing can’t, or shouldn’t, be boiled down to a single facial feature, but it’s hard not to think of the squint every time one of Eastwood’s most famous roles comes to mind. It’s part of who he is, and if he lost that ability, then he’d be losing an irrecoverable part of himself and a massive part of what made him a superstar in the first place.
Think of the Dollars trilogy, and the squint is front and centre. The same goes for Dirty Harry, Unforgiven, In the Line of Fire, Million Dollar Baby, and many more. On paper, he’d still be Clint Eastwood without it, but everybody would notice if it weren’t there. His tongue might have been in cheek when he said a squint-less Clint would be the death of his career, but a squint-less Clint just wouldn’t be the same.
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