Clint Eastwood is about as high up in Hollywood royalty as one can get. He has been a beloved actor for 50+ years and a director with some of the most highly-acclaimed films under his belt.
He's just the epitome of cool. And most of us truly hope he's this cool in real life. Well, it turns out… he is.
Of the many stories from the actors he's worked alongside and directed, we couldn't find a single bad thing said about the man. He seems to be a humble, prepared, and efficient director.
So read on to learn about some of the reasons why the biggest stars in the world can't say enough about Clint Eastwood.
- 1
Matt Damon Said Clint Eastwood’s Reputation For Using The First Take Forces Everyone To Come In Super Prepared
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- Invictus
- Warner Bros. Pictures
Before filming 2009's Invictus about the South African rugby team, Matt Damon had heard tales of how quick Clint Eastwood works. As in, he uses your first take and moves on.
This can be nerve-racking for an actor who usually has dozens of takes for a scene - especially when it involved having a difficult accent like South African. So, Damon decided to do some firsthand research.
I tested that theory [that Clint Eastwood likes one take] on Day 1 of shooting. We did the first take. It went pretty well. Clint says, “Cut, print, check the gate,” which means we’re gonna move on. And I said, “Hey, boss, maybe you think we could get one more?” He just turned and goes, “Why? Do you want to waste everybody’s time?”
As is the theme for many of the actors in this list, Damon was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in the movie.
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- 2
Richard Harris Said In Every Movie He’s Ever Been In, There’s Some Group Of People Grumbling About The Director - But It Never Happened With Clint Eastwood
- Photo:
- Unforgiven
- Warner Bros.
Understandably, in the hundreds or thousands of people that work on a movie, some of them will find fault with the director. However, Richard Harris - who starred in Clint Eastwood's 1992's Unforgiven - said this wasn't his experience with Eastwood.
I've never been in a movie that was so well-organized. His preparation is astonishing… You always find a group in a picture who either hates the producer or director. Never have I seen such universal love for the guy. He's worked with them so long, if he's gonna make a movie, he calls all the boys in.
Harris also praised Eastwood's approach to filmmaking:
[Eastwood] created an area of security around the actor - nothing interfered with the concentration and the joy of what you were doing… [Eastwood's] laid back, but in control because he has done the preparation.
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- 3
Tom Hanks Said That Instead Of Yelling ‘Action,’ Clint Eastwood Uses A Hand Gesture Dating Back To Old Westerns
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Clint Eastwood is legendarily a man of few words. His quiet confidence is what has won so many of his audiences over, and he seems to roll that attitude into his directing.
While most directors yell “Action!” to signal that the cameras are rolling, Eastwood has a different approach. Tom Hanks explained Eastwood's unusual practice, after working with him on the 2016 film Sully, about the “Miracle on the Hudson” plane crash.
What’s it like working with Clint? He treats us like horses.
Hanks was referring to Eastwood's process of quietly raising his finger in a circle to signify that the camera was rolling. This practice stemmed from Eastwood's own annoyance with the loudness of directors back in his Western days. As Hanks said:
So he and all the other cast members of Rawhide were on their horses, and they were supposed to have a conversation, and that whole build-up to "Action!" would make the horses [freak out and buckle]. So, one day, he just said in his inaudible way, “Is there any way that you could just, y’know, tell us to ‘go’ instead of saying ‘action’ so the horses won’t flee?”
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Hilary Swank Respected How Humble Clint Eastwood Always Was - Even Standing In The Lunch Line On Set
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- Million Dollar Baby
- Warner Bros. Pictures
Hilary Swank's performance as a first-time boxer in Million Dollar Baby is perhaps her most well-known and best-received role - she won an Academy Award for best actress from her work on it.
When Swank first signed on for the role, she was understandably a little intimidated by the living legend who was directing and starring opposite her. But that worry faded away when she got to know Clint Eastwood. As she said:
He just made me feel right at ease and, but I mean, he’s a legend. I love him but, you know, he quickly makes everyone feel really comfortable. He stands in the lunch line and never wants to cut.
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- 5
Meryl Streep Said The Studio Thought She Was Too Old For ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ - So Clint Eastwood Stuck Up For Her
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It might be hard to imagine a studio would ever not want the Meryl Streep to star in a film she was interested in - but that was the case for The Bridges of Madison County, the 1995 film that follows the four-day connection that an Italian war bride (Streep) and National Geographic photographer (Clint Eastwood) share in rural Iowa.
The film's female lead was 45 years old - the same age as Streep. But the studio apparently thought the 45-year-old actress was too old to play a 45-year-old.
However, as Streep said:
Clint made a, I gather, case for me. Which I was glad about - and I would certainly have made a case for him.
Streep ended up being nominated for nearly every award for her role, including an Academy Award.
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John Malkovich Said He Was Tasked With Cracking Clint Eastwood’s Facade On ‘In the Line of Fire’
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John Malkovich - though known for his intense roles - can be quite the jokester on set. As soon as the cameras cut, his assassin persona can be gone - and he'll be talking about baseball.
This was the case for 1993's In the Line of Fire, which Malkovich starred in with Clint Eastwood. Malkovich played a clever, sadistic assassin who toys with a secret service agent played by Eastwood.
Apparently, the director, Wolfgang Petersen, would tell Malkovich to “mess with [Clint].” So that's just what Malkovich did.
In one scene, Eastwood has Malkovich cornered - holding his gun barrel just away from Malkovich's face. Then - completely improvised - Malkovich leaned forward and took the barrel in his mouth.
While it reads incredibly creepy onscreen, just off camera, it made Eastwood crack a smile - which can be a hard feat to accomplish.
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Morgan Freeman Called Clint Eastwood His Favorite Director - ‘He Hires You To Do The Job, So He Ain’t Doing It For You’
- Photo:
- Million Dollar Baby
- Warner Bros. Pictures
Morgan Freeman has been acting for nearly 60 years, working with dozens of different directors throughout that time. But could you guess who he calls his all-time favorite director to work with? Clint Eastwood.
Freeman has worked on three movies that Eastwood has directed - Unforgiven (1992), Million Dollar Baby (2004), and Invictus (2009). Freeman has had pretty good luck on these films, too - being nominated for Academy Awards for the latter two, and winning best supporting actor for Million Dollar Baby.
And Freeman is not shy about his admiration for Eastwood. In multiple interviews, he's talked about how easy it is to work for and with Eastwood:
He doesn't fool around with actors. He hired you to do that job, so he ain't doing it for you… He respects the actor. And everybody who's ever worked with him comes away with that feeling. [That] this guy's tops.
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- 8
Sergio Leone Said He Was Specifically Drawn To Clint Eastwood As An Actor Because He Barely Reacts To Anything
- Photo:
- A Fistful of Dollars
- Unidis
Sergio Leone was the director who made Clint Eastwood a star back in the ‘60s - and he can almost be credited for making spaghetti Westerns as popular as they were. After Leone's Eastwood-starring Fistful of Dollars came out in 1964 (to great success), 200 more spaghetti Westerns were released in the following two years.
When asked what first attracted Leone to Eastwood, Leone didn't mince his praise:
The story is told that when Michelangelo was asked what he had seen in the one particular block of marble, which he chose among hundreds of others, he replied that he saw Moses. I would offer the same answer to your question - only backwards. When they ask me what I ever saw in Clint Eastwood, who was playing I don’t know what kind of second-rate role in a Western TV series in 1964, I reply that what I saw, simply, was a block of marble.
Leone went on to describe the difference he sees in an actor like Eastwood versus an actor like Robert De Niro:
It’s difficult to compare Eastwood and De Niro. The first is a mask of wax. In reality, if you think about it, they don’t even belong to the same profession. Robert De Niro throws himself into this or that role, putting on a personality the way someone else might put on his coat, naturally and with elegance, while Clint Eastwood throws himself into a suit of armor and lowers the visor with a rusty clang. It’s exactly that lowered visor which composes his character. And that creaky clang it makes as it snaps down, dry as a martini in Harry’s Bar in Venice, is also his character. Look at him carefully. Eastwood moves like a sleepwalker between explosions and hails of bullets, and he is always the same - a block of marble. Bobby, first of all, is an actor. Clint, first of all, is a star. Bobby suffers, Clint yawns.
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- 9
Gene Hackman Admired That Clint Eastwood Was 'Totally In Charge'
- Photo:
- Unforgiven
- Warner Bros.
When Clint Eastwood first approached Gene Hackman about starring in his 1993 western Unforgiven, Hackman originally passed.
As Eastwood said in an interview:
He said, “I don't want to do any more violent pictures. I'm tired of it…” I said I know exactly where you're coming from. Read it again because I think we can make a great statement against violence.
So Eastwood asked Hackman to read the script again, and after he did, Hackman agreed to do the film - eventually winning the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role.
After getting on set and working with Eastwood, Hackman spoke very highly of Clint:
Clint really runs a great set. He really knows how to do it. He's made so many films. He's totally in charge. That's attractive to actors - when you walk on a set and somebody's in charge. You know you can't push. You're there just to do your job.
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- 10
Saul Rubinek Said Clint Eastwood Doesn’t Like To Watch Actors Audition In Person - Because He Can’t Say No To Them
- Photo:
- Unforgiven
- Warner Bros.
Back in the day, if you were auditioning for a movie role, you did it in person. If you were still around in the last few rounds, you'd likely done a few in-person auditions to try and sell yourself.
But as Saul Rubinek described, this wasn't the case when he auditioned for Clint Eastwood's 1992 Unforgiven. The film about a retired Old West gunslinger went on to win Academy Awards for best film and best director for Eastwood.
But when Rubinek was auditioning, he couldn't get in the room with Eastwood no matter how hard he tried. Instead, he was told to send in a tape. After getting some sage advice from Jack Nicholson - who told him to go above and beyond in his tape - Rubinek won the role.
When Rubinek finally met Eastwood at the costume fitting, he asked Eastwood why he wouldn't see any actors in person. Eastwood's answer? “I wouldn't be able to say no.”
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- 11
Sean Penn Said He Learned 'The Value Of A Sense Of Calm And Quiet On A Set' From Clint Eastwood
- Photo:
- Mystic River
- Warner Bros. Pictures
Movie sets can be hectic places with actors, assistants, prop people and more running around. So it can be a unique experience to not have all that chaos going on.
This was Sean Penn's experience, who worked with Clint Eastwood on the 2003 film Mystic River. The movie depicts three childhood friends whose stories are interwoven as an investigation unfurls into the death of one of their children. The film won Penn the Best Actor Academy Award.
As Penn said:
Clint [Eastwood] is a very unusual case. The only thing I learned from him was the value of a sense of calm and quiet on a set. How he makes a movie is a mystery to me.
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- 12
Angelina Jolie Admitted Clint Eastwood's Help Was The Reason She Could Do 'Changeling'
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Changeling, the 2009 film directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie, has dark roots. It's the real-life story of a mother in 1920s Los Angeles who reports her son missing and - after much negative press about the incompetent police - is reunited with a boy who they claim is her son - but is not. After speaking out, the mother is decried as crazy - and sent to a mental institution.
As you can imagine, this is a harrowing story for any mother to hear about - let alone act out. So at first, Jolie was hesitant on being able to play the role.
However, knowing Eastwood was at the helm was the saving grace for Jolie. As she said:
Reading the script made me want to stay away from it as far as possible, because I didn't want to think about anything happening to my children. I didn't want to have those scenes. But I couldn't forget it. I found myself telling people the story of the script. And obviously the chance to work with [Eastwood] was something I always wanted. I guessed, and I guessed right that he would help me through this.
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