The Oscar-nominated performance Clint Eastwood called “the worst piece of acting” he’d ever seen
Despite playing some of cinema’s iconic characters and enjoying one of Hollywood’s most legendary careers, there’s always been a pervasive belief in certain circles that Clint Eastwood isn’t that great an actor.
He’s exceptional at playing Clint Eastwood, which is to be expected, but based on the number of performers who’ve sought to channel his spirit and failed miserably, it’s not as easy as it looks. He’s spent six decades as a star and carved out one of the industry’s most impressive secondary careers as a director, but his off-camera accomplishments have drastically outweighed his onscreen accolades.
The icon has won four Academy Awards from 11 nominations, but Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby are the only times his acting was recognised. He’s also won a quartet of Golden Globes from 14 competitive nods, and, remarkably, not a single one of them was for an on-camera performance.
Eastwood is one of cinema’s most recognisable figures and the epitome of longevity, and yet, he’s never won as much as a solitary award from a major organisation for acting. He won’t mind, and his legacy was secured a long time ago, but it does make him an unusual choice to speak out against an Oscar-nominated turn he believed was an insult to the name of performance.
The’ Best Actress’ race was stacked at the 1982 edition of the Academy Awards. Meryl Streep won for Sophie’s Choice, and she was up against An Officer and a Gentleman‘s Debra Winger, Victor/Victoria‘s Julie Andrews, Missing‘s Sissy Spacek, and Frances‘ Jessica Lange.
When Gene Siskel asked Eastwood about the rumours that he intentionally avoided hiring female leads who cost too much and had the talent to blow him offscreen, he was momentarily taken aback. That’s fair enough, but then he launched into an impromptu attack on that year’s field of awards season nominees.
“There are dozens of fine actresses out there who are as talented, and some more talented, than three women who were nominated for those ‘save-the-farm’ movies this year,” he said, referring to Spacek, Lange, and Sally Field’s Golden Globe-nominated turn in Kiss Me Goodbye. “But these other actresses are not the girls of the moment, the fad of the moment, so nobody hires them.”
Eastwood brought up Play Misty for Me‘s Jessica Walter, frequent collaborator and offscreen partner Sondra Locke, and Pale Rider‘s Carrie Snodgress as three examples of female actors he didn’t consider “the fad of the moment.” He’s entitled to his opinion, but then he rounded on Lange in particular.
She won widespread acclaim for her performance as the short-lived Hollywood sensation and troubled starlet, Frances Farmer, in director Graeme Clifford’s biopic, but Eastwood wasn’t convinced. Not only did he say that she couldn’t “act in the same league with any of the gals I mentioned,” he called her Oscar-nominated outing “the worst piece of ham acting I’ve seen in my life.”
Frances may not have been to his taste, but calling Lange, who has two Oscars, five Golden Globes, three Primetime Emmys, and a Tony in her trophy cabinet, a “ham” seems harsh. Clearly, he wasn’t a fan of the movie.
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