Despite stumbling upon acting initially, Clint Eastwood’s true passion has always been directing. Throughout his career, he has time and again admitted that the “bug” for directing never left him. After years of contemplation, he took the leap and directed his first feature film, Play Misty for Me in 1971, relatively early on in his career. Since then, he has never looked back.
According to Eastwood, being a good director requires a visionary mindset. Unlike some directors who go with the flow and discover the story along the way, he has always approached directing with a distinct purpose. He doesn’t rely solely on improvisation but instead meticulously plans and envisions his films from start to finish. Thus, his candid thoughts on the qualities of an ideal director shared during an interview with The New York Times were met with disagreement from many.
Clint Eastwood Once Called Out Directors for Having No Vision
With direction as his one true love, Clint Eastwood, the extraordinary actor, and director, holds no tolerance for those who undermine the craft as mere child’s play. According to him, directing requires commitment, determination, and the ability to transform a mere concept into a compelling reality. Thus, Eastwood’s deep passion for directing has often led him to speak out against other directors whom he believes are falling short in their responsibilities.
In a 1979 interview with The New York Magazine, the Hollywood star candidly expressed his thoughts, and pointed out everything that was wrong with the industry. He said,
“Some of these new directors will shoot 30 takes of a scene just because they don’t know what they want. They wind up with thousands of feet [of film], then they cry for some some editor to come in and save their butts. If you can’t see It yourself, you shouldn’t be a director.”
As evidenced by the interview, Clint Eastwood is a strong believer in using a minimal number of takes to get the perfect shot. Consequently, the stakes naturally rise to great heights. However, being Clint Eastwood, he never fails to gracefully stride into the sunset, like the triumphant cowboy he is.
Clint Eastwood’s One True Love- Directing
After years of contemplation and restrictions by CBS, the actor Clint Eastwood was finally able to act on his wishes to become a director in 1971, merely 17 years after starting his career as an actor. The actor once shared with DGA,
“They said that CBS didn’t want actors who were in the shows to be directing the shows. So I kind of dropped the idea for a while and then, after I’d been working with Sergio Leone on A Fistful of Dollars, observing the crews in Europe and getting a broader look at filmmaking around the world, I got interested again.–It was a great experience, and I had the bug after that,”
Although the world loved him as an actor, he wanted to leave a mark, a legacy, and above all, do something he was truly passionate about. Although massively successful, the actor was ready to gamble all he had for directing, he once revealed how important both of the jobs were to him,
“To doing both jobs, I’ve done it so many times that I never put the difference in. Directing a film is the same… it’s a little more leisurely that way. You don’t have to suit up. People aren’t coming in and combing your hair or whatever. It’s a little more leisurely, but different. But they both have an adventure. It’s a new adventure,”
But ultimately he couldn’t choose and ended up acing in both of the fields. Following that, acclaimed films such as Letters from Iwo Jima, Million Dollar Baby, and Unforgiven have garnered widespread praise and recognition and received accolades from the Academy as well cementing his name in the industry as a prominent director forever.
Source: The New York Times
