Interview: Clint Eastwood
Interview: Clint Eastwood
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Thursday, 04, Feb 2010 08:56
By Richard James.
Though he's supposedly retired from life in front of the camera, The Man With No Name's time in the director's chair has produced decades worth of engrossing, mature dramas with the World War II double-header of Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima followed by the tearjerking true story of Changeling. While his latest project Invictus might not seem as personal an outing as 2008's Gran Torino, the remarkable tale of the South African rugby side's 1995 World Cup campaign is wrought with just as much heart and stoicism as Dirty Harry's other directorial outings.
Speaking at a London press conference, Eastwood proved that at 79, he's still got the steely presence to reduce a fellow man to rubble, as a sound technician checking levels was met with a gruff: "Am I talking too loud for you, kid?"
Ahead of the release of Invictus, four-time Oscar winner Eastwood discusses his potent work ethic, the charisma of Nelson Mandela and the truth about his 'retirement' from acting.
You're at a stage in life when most of us would be taking things a little easier, yet you continue to make challenging movies, some of the best films created in any given year. What is the driving force behind this for you, why do you continue to work so much and so well?
I hadn't planned on working at this stage in life but no one can plan on what their going to do when they reach my age of… 49… 39. I just feel I'm enjoying work as more now than I ever have, or just as much certainly. I feel that I'm at an age now when I can take on more challenges than I have in the past because I know more, of course at this age you can forget more… but I try and avoid that. I just enjoy it, I enjoy the process, I enjoy being behind the camera, equal to that of being in front of the camera for all those years. I've been lucky enough to work in an profession that I've really like and I figure I'll just continue until someone hits me over the head and says 'get out'.
You're known for the speed of your shooting and always taking just one or two takes to get your shot and move on - why is that?
Well I don't necessarily do one take, but I'm always trying to do one take. If the first take works, I'll print that, if the third take works, I'll print that. Sometimes I do quite a few set-ups but I try and make the decision at that time whether they are good, bad or otherwise because I think I think if you start doing 30-40 takes you're lost somewhere and you don't quite know what you're looking for and I like to think I know what I'm looking for whether right or wrong.
I've always thought that when someone has to do 20 takes or something that it's because one of two reasons: i) That they don't quite know what they're looking for but also ii) They don't know what the next set-up is and so they're just killing time and they're utilising the actors to kind of kill time until some great idea comes to them and so that become a bit of a problem. It can give you a sense of insecurity. I've worked with people like that and it gives you a big insecurity.
When choosing your films does a lot of it come down to trusting your instincts?
Yes I do, I trust my instincts. [Invictus] was just a story I liked. People will say – 'How do you feel about doing a feel about doing film about rugby?' but I didn't approach it as a picture about rugby. We wanted to make the rugby very good obviously, that was an inspiration for Mr Mandela to utilise this as an avenue to unite in his country. [Morgan] Freeman rang me up and said 'I've got a really good script' and he didn't even tell me it was about Nelson Mandela so I read the script and I like it very much and I've always admired Mr Mandela and I was amazed at reading the script and the book about this incident because it seemed so creative – such a creative way to unify a country that was in really deep trouble, on the brink of civil war and Mr Mandela had been in prison for quite a few years so no-one knew what was going to happen here. But to come out and to come out with this kind of imagination - and I just thought this is something politicians around the world today could learn a lot from - is having a certain creativity and bringing people together instead of just talking about it and not doing it. He seemed to be a rather unique person and that was my reason for doing the picture. The rugby was exciting and that fun and it was fun to have that in there, but if it had been Nelson Mandela and a Texas hold 'em poker tournament, I suppose I still have done it because I admire the man.
Had you met Nelson Mandela prior to or after shooting the film, and if so, what did you think of him?
I have met him and I thought he was equally as impressive as he was on film, I had seen him on news reels and various film presentations over the years. He's an extremely charismatic man, and he had that million dollar smile when he walks into a room that makes everyone else want to smile with him. But I never got a chance to talk with him very much. When we got to meet him he was 91, 92, or whatever age he is now and he also doesn't get out a lot but being around him you just get a feeling.
I learned most of it [information about Mandela] from just studying various films, remembering all the moments from history he was going through… and also watching Mr Freeman.
What were the particular challenges of depicting rugby matches in this film, compared to say a normal dramatic scene?
I didn't grow up with rugby, I went and saw people who played, met the coach at University of California who gave me a run down of the game, and I watched practices and I watched everything they did there and got some ideas. And then when I got to South Africa we had [former Springbok player] Chester [Williams] and [World Cup-winning captain] Francois [Pienaar] and various people who had actually been in the game and after you've talked to everybody you get a feeling for i. And we hired rugby players to play all the acting parts apart from Matt [Damon] and a few others but they were all people who came up to the game really fast so we just had them play. Chester would just tell the players 'let's play rugby' so they would be hitting and hitting hard. So our biggest challenge was to stay out of the way, so we did. Our camera crew is used to working 'on fly' so that's the way we approached it.
This film received a number of Golden Globes nominations - how important actually are these kind of awards?
They've changed awards now, they say: 'And the statue goes to…' and they don't say 'win' because you don't actually win because they're voted on awards. They're not like a person in a swimming meet or a track meet, you don't actually have to win the race, with an award people vote on it and it's their idea, you've always got to remember when a person gives you an award… they could be wrong, so you've just always got to just keep that in mind and go ahead and enjoy it. It's a pat on the back and great you'll take it and you'll move on.
You've said previously Gran Torino may be your last performance on screen, is that still the case?
I said that back when we did Million Dollar Baby [and] it was a picture that turned to be a success so I thought maybe this would be a good time to go out on top unlike most people who drift down to the end, or like a prize fighter who fought one to many fights or something but umm… then Gran Torino came along, it was an interesting part, it was about a man my age, I didn't think I was stretching that much, so I decided that yeah I'd go ahead and give it another shot.
Saying that, I might do ten [more] roles if ten great roles came up, but I don't know how many great roles there are for a guy who's… 38. So you just don't know, so you just never say never. I had always planned when I started directing in 1970 that after a few years I'd get tired of looking at myself on the screen and say 'well, OK let,s not do that anymore' but I just continued on and every once in a while something pops up and I'm not saying that it won't happen again but probably the odds get less as you set yourself in roles that fit your age group… unless I do Bucket List 2!
Looking back now, which of your directing efforts and acting performances are you most proud of?
You know when you've done as many films as I have you just keep going. I never look back and think too much about them… I've done some work that I've been proud of over the years. But which is my favourite? I don't know, I really don't know. I could say it's the last one, I've had moments, little jumps in my career like Unforgiven possibly, but then I try something different… Letters From Iwo Jima was a film I liked doing a lot. I loved anything with Morgan Freeman, which is several times, anything with Mat Damon, who I'm working with for the second time now. So I get a chance to work with people over again I respect a lot.
You never know what's the favourite. A favourite performance? I don't know. Once a film is done and once something has been performed it's up to someone else to make a judgement on it, it has nothing to do with you. Maybe you had a good time or maybe you had a headache when you were making it, either way sometimes that leaves a lasting mark on your memory.
Invictus is released on February 5th.