Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.MX

- EASTWOOD: I've always said that I learn - Something new on every picture.

Not only about picture-making...

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

about personalities,

with crew and cast...

but also about yourself.

HACKMAN: He's a likable guy,

and you see that in his films.

- The camera kind of doesn't lie - About that kind of thing.

There's no doubt that he is the link...

- ...from the cinema - That I grew up with and loved...

to the modern day.

What else is he gonna do?

Because he's surprised us so many times.

- SWANK: - Life is exciting to him.

He always wants to try something new.

HARDEN: I think Clint Eastwood has a style

of directing and dealing with people.

But I think he's a style in progress.

- He'd be the first person to say - He doesn't know everything.

- The first person to say - He makes mistakes.

- HOLBROOK: He's proved something - About the difficulty of achievement...

dedication to a principle...

the willingness to always learn more.

Not just sit and collect your check.

GRAZER:

He's quietly competitive.

Beneath the creativity

and the gentle nature that he has...

he is very driven.

He continues to astonish all of us...

who thought we got the idea

of what a Clint Eastwood was all about.

And the second we try to pigeonhole him...

- ...he does something else out of left field - to make us eat our words.

Time and time again, you'll see him know

the kind of influence that he has on people.

And he will, in the subtlest ways,

make them comfortable.

There's a lot I'm curious about him.

And I'm not sure he's telling.

I think he's inspirational.

I've waited 75 years for this.

I think Clint has changed the paradigm

of his own image...

- ...several times in his lifetime - In this business.

You get the conversion...

- HARDEN: I think he understands - That stagnant equals death.

His mind is always open

to the intake of creativity.

-All right. Ready?

MAN: Yup.

Go ahead now.

- STREEP: - He's interested in the story.

He doesn't have to take jobs.

He takes it because he's interested.

And one of the things...

...that makes him

most wonderful to me...

is I like to see somebody

come out of the shadows, as it were...

and fool everybody...

at how good they are.

Get off my lawn.

-You might be interested in training me.

-I don't train girls.

You wanna leave your husband?

No.

-Well, I guess they had it coming.

-We all have it coming, kid.

When I was a young contract player

back in early '50s...

I used to go down to the sound stages

mainly to watch the actors.

I was trying to learn as much as I could

about the acting profession.

But I was always curious

about the directors...

- ...and about how - They were putting it together.

He didn't wear jodhpurs and a cowboy hat

and smoke and have a lorgnette.

- He didn't go for the trappings, - He just did it.

I think he was just born

with that kind of creativity.

The few things that he told me about,

you know, being a pool boy...

- ...his dad running a filling station, - Money was tight.

And he grew up

understanding the economy of scale.

BACON: He has a really good understanding

of people...

...and of how complex we are

as human beings.

There's a "seemingly simplicity"

to the style.

- EASTWOOD: - Okay.

-Let's just fire one off to see where we are.

WOMAN: Okay.

- His personality as a filmmaker - Is not forced on you.

The things that he's directing,

he cares a great deal about.

- GRAZER: - I think he just trusts his gut.

It probably started early in Rawhide

in Hollywood and he started with nothing.

And, you know, he earned his way

into a great situation.

- In the late '50s - When I started on Rawhide...

- ...you have different directors every week - coming and doing a show.

- You start finding out what you like, - What you don't like...

about various characteristics

the directors have.

- Finally, one day, I started thinking, - "I gotta try this myself."

- And he began to realize, - you know, "I could do this," I would think.

- I'm not putting words in his mouth, - "I have the heart for it."

The first time I worked for Clint...

the history that I knew of Clint

was Rawhide.

Because as a little girl,

my sisters and I would watch Rawhide...

and we would get to be

the different characters.

- My sister got to be Rawhide, - The other got to be the girl...

I had to be the cook,

but we loved him.

HANCOCK: The directors that influenced

him most were Sergio Leone and Don Siegel.

Such different directors,

but in Clint movie's...

...you can see the impact that both

of them had on him.

How was Sergio Leone able to influence?

Not exactly sure how, but if you look

at the mechanics of those movies...

they didn't rely on a lot of dialogue.

- EASTWOOD: But he was great. - He had a very vivid imagination.

- When we did the first one, - He didn't shoot many close-ups.

- Being from television, I said, - "Well, you know, I've..."

- I'm playing kind of a crazy character, - You gotta...

So instead of doing the close-ups like this,

he would go to... He'd go...

He'd do everything in broad strokes.

- EASTWOOD: The way he approached things - Was so unusual.

He always had a childlike glee

about things.

One time we were shooting in Spain...

and he wanted a tree...

with a hangman's noose

hanging from it...

as sort of a threat to anybody

who's riding by.

And there were no trees in southern Spain,

and Almería was just desolate.

But there was this one yard,

had an old big dead tree.

He goes to the house and he just,

all of a sudden, goes in their yard...

- ...and has the crew out there - Sawing down this tree.

And of course the guy comes out

who owned the house...

and he was incensed.

- And so Sergio told him - He was from the Highway Department...

and that the tree

was a safety hazard...

- ...because it was gonna fall on the road. - We had to take it out.

And here he is, an Italian speaking

with an Italian accent to this Spaniard...

and he convinces him

that he's from the Highway Department.

I came back into the States,

started doing American films.

And in 1970,

I found this script, Play Misty for Me.

I actually found it in 1969,

and I was just fascinated by it.

- I know - That when he did Play Misty for Me...

- ...he had gone to Lew Wasserman - At Universal...

- ...made a deal - So he could direct his first movie.

And he said, "Yeah, that's fine."

And I was completely surprised.

And my agent, Lenny Hirshan, was there

with me, and he came to me and says:

"Yeah, there's just one additional thing

that they forgot to mention.

They don't wanna pay you."

To me, I said, "They shouldn't. They

shouldn't pay me anything. I'll pay them."

- I said, "They should make... - I should have to prove myself."

-What do you want, Evelyn?

-One Coke.

I'll tell you, tonight I'm really whipped.

[GIGGLES]

I think the first time I knew Clint Eastwood

beyond his iconic status...

as an international matinee idol...

- ...was when I saw Play Misty for Me - For the first time.

- And along with the rest of Hollywood, - Clint was...

Overnight, we all recognized Clint...

you know,

to be a fantastic filmmaker...

- ...someone who is really a storyteller, - Not just an actor...

- ...whose job - Was to tell someone else's stories.

With Don Siegel, he started to get interested

in the other side of the camera.

You know, he really did

kind of watch Don Siegel a lot...

- ...and learned the kind of basic craft - Of making movies.

- EASTWOOD: - He was just a terrific guy.

He didn't waver from his confidence.

He liked what he liked and he moved on.

If something wasn't working, if you offer

something to improve the scene...

he was the first guy to grab it.

- He used to joke. - He said, "Yeah, anybody.

The janitor can come up to me and give me

an idea. If it's good, I'll steal it."

They had a great relationship,

worked quite a few films together.

And then Siegel was in Play Misty for Me

and...

I think as a bartender.

- EASTWOOD: I gave Don a part - Because I thought it would be fun.

- I said, "Wouldn't you want to play - This bartender?" He says, "I would.

I'd like to do it, but you should just have

a really good character actor do it."

And I said, "No, no. I was kidding."

Half kidding, maybe I was half serious too.

I said, "You'll be better for it.

- You have more understanding of actors - For playing it.

And I'll have you there

in case anything goes wrong."

I copied from Don Siegel,

a technique that he used.

I would write down all my notes

on the opposite page...

- ...and then I'd get it all planned out. - I said, "I got this."

I turned out the light, I'm sitting there,

just almost going to sleep...

I woke up, I said, "Wait a second.

- I've gotta speak, I've gotta command, - I've gotta be ready to go."

- So I had to turn on the light, - Sit back up...

- ...go through it - From a whole other perspective.

Then I realized that this ain't gonna be

an easy job doing both things.

But then after a while,

you get used to it.

Film the whole thing of this converging.

It'll start moving...

I really don't understand how people direct

and act at the same time.

And then to produce, direct and act...

...all at the same time

is a pretty daunting task.

If you're an actor and start to direct,

it must give you a great appreciation...

for how hard the director's job is.

If you're an actor, you'd have to be an idiot

not to know how hard a director's job is.

You see that.

- SWANK: It was interesting having your co-star - also be your director.

- It's nerve-racking just because he's Clint. - He's an anomaly.

He's a legend.

- Hard at first because you're looking - At Clint Eastwood.

And then you just get into your groove,

and I started seeing him as his character.

Then he was also directing me.

You don't even know

you're being directed.

Boss.

That little house we talked about?

I bought it.

Well, smart girl.

For my mama.

Okay.

His ability to see and watch

while he's acting with me...

is nothing short of astonishing.

I never felt him directing me...

- ...while we were acting in a scene together, - except once.

A scene in the kitchen

talking about his exploits in Africa.

For an actor,

there's no more disconcerting feeling...

- ...than knowing that the person - You're in the scene with...

has absented himself.

He was watching the movie.

[CHUCKLES]

- He was watching me, - But he wasn't in the scene with me.

- I said something - because I really had never felt that before.

And he said, "You're right. You're right.

It'll never happen again." It never did.

Directing a movie that he's in,

he understands the pitches...

that he hits really well.

And he sets himself up to succeed.

Girly, tough ain't enough.

- SWANK: When people think of him, - They think of the guy:

- [IN RASPY VOICE] - "Go ahead, make my day."

- [IN NORMAL VOICE] - You know, like coming out with guns and...

Dirty Harry and...

Yet Clint has one of the biggest hearts

of anyone I know.

SPIELBERG: We were friends.

I just, one day, was with Clint.

I said, "I've got this NBC series

I'm doing called Amazing Stories and...

Scorsese is gonna direct one."

I gave him a list of the directors

I was trying to get, feature directors...

to make these half-an-hour

television anthological stories...

and I offered him something

that I had written myself...

called Vanessa in the Garden.

And he liked it.

And he mounted it and he directed it...

and he cast my mother in it

as a glorified extra.

- One of the greatest things he did - For my family.

- Getting my mother on television - For the first time.

Only Clint Eastwood could do that.

HARDEN: I don't think Clint takes himself

so seriously.

I think he takes the business seriously,

but not himself seriously.

JONES: Sometimes it was hard to get a take

on the first because everybody's laughing.

- And that's very important. - That infuses the film with spirit.

Even if it's a sad scene.

If everybody's having fun...

...then the audience is all the closer.

I don't like contention.

I don't like bells ringing, people yelling.

I like everything to be smooth.

- I think it should be... - If it isn't fun, we shouldn't be there.

- BACON: I'll never forget, - We were doing a scene with a guy.

I guess the guy was a little nervous,

you know. He was a little unsure of himself.

- Clint took me aside, he said, - "You know, sometimes it helps...

if you could screw up a little bit.

It might make the guy feel like:

'If Kevin's screwing up, then anybody

can screw up and I can do better.'"

- And I was like, - "Wow, that's a really interesting idea."

So the next take, you know,

I went in and I flubbed my line.

And sure enough, the guy got better.

He got stronger.

And then I went in and did another take

and flubbed my lines.

- Clint said, - "Okay, that's enough screwing up." Ha, ha.

- HACKMAN: On Unforgiven, - it occurred to me that there was a time...

when a bunch of studio heads

came up to the film...

- ...and Clint had his helicopter up there - In Canada.

He had his pilot fly them down to the set.

It was no big deal.

They weren't pressuring you or anything.

- When they called lunch, - Clint looked at me, he says:

"You wanna go for a ride?"

And I said, "Yeah, sure."

So we go out,

and Clint was qualified in the helicopter.

We both get in the helicopter.

Ha-ha-ha.

And through the front

Plexiglas window...

you could see

the four or five studio types...

standing there on the hill, you know:

"What in the world?" You know,

these two guys going up in this helicopter.

I loved it.

- MAN 1: All right. - MAN 2: Back to one.

- MAN 3: Drop half a step... - MAN 4: Okay.

MAN 3:

Get ready, and go.

The only time I ever saw him

rouse himself...

was when I heard...

There was a slight noise outside...

the kitchen where we were shooting

Bridges of Madison County.

Someone moving a truck, you know,

just trying to anticipate his every need...

down the lane, and he heard:

[MUMBLES INCOHERENTLY]

-And he just yelled.

-I'd be terrified to see his temper.

Technical difficulty.

Holding up things.

Something they couldn't get right

and was holding him up.

And his anger suddenly

was like an explosion:

"Fix it."

That's the only time I've ever seen him

get anywhere beyond placid.

I've seen his disappointment in people.

And when that happens,

I've seen the sort of...

The icy side of him.

And...

I've seen him do that to somebody...

and I just never want to be

in that vision myself.

When he yells, it so shocked everyone.

We all had to go lie down. It was really...

He doesn't question

the choices he makes.

He just had that sly confidence

that this is gonna happen.

I think that comes from the roles

that he did over the years...

before he decided to direct.

You're thinking,

"Did he fire six shots or only five?"

- Now, to tell you the truth, - I forgot myself in all this excitement.

Clint came along with the right product,

the right story, the right character.

And I think the audience just really,

like a magnet, attached itself to it.

- It's a fantastic character he created, - And it's iconic.

- And it's part of American lore, - Cinematic lore.

It was crossing over a line,

caught a wave at the time.

The kind of idea of lawmen

as judge and jury.

You have this extraordinary persona...

that is also... In these films...

going from the Leone pictures

to Dirty Harry, also has a range.

- He's got a range. - You'd wanna see a Clint Eastwood picture.

Didn't matter who directed it.

You go see that persona,

you wanna be in that presence.

- SANTONI: - I remember Don Siegel was sick.

They were shooting the scene

where there's a jumper.

Clint ended up directing that sequence.

The guy goes up on a...

One of those telescopic cranes...

to get the guy off and he talks him down

in a rather unorthodox way.

- HARRY: I'd just like your name and address, - that's all.

- -Why? - -Well, like I said...

it's such a mess down there afterwards.

It makes identification impossible.

Even if they find your driver's license,

all that blood and everything.

I think...

I think I'm gonna puke.

Oh, now, don't do that, son.

All those people down there looking up.

The fire chief looking up, his face:

Heh, heh.

You rotten bastard.

HANCOCK: He's still the guy that when you're

with him, having lunch or whatever...

people will, in equal measure, say:

"There's Clint Eastwood,"

as, "There's Dirty Harry."

Clint was so popular after that movie...

- ...he probably could have been - Elected president.

To break through the molds of Rowdy Yates

from Rawhide and then...

And all the Sergio Leone pictures...

and then his own, you know, triumph

as a Western actor and director...

with Outlaw Josey Wales which...

- One of the most brilliant Westerns made, - In my opinion.

- HANCOCK: - With Josey Wales...

Clint had completely escaped

the shadow of Leone, in some ways.

- It's a story about a man - Who lost his family.

EASTWOOD: To me, it was a sort of ultimate

man wronged kind of thing.

- JOSEY'S WIFE: - Josey!

Josey!

The effects of war on this particular...

On everyone, but this particular individual

and betrayal...

- ...to the point where he wants to become - A total recluse.

In Josey Wales, he tends to attract

a group of ne'er-do-wells and misfits.

That's kind of a recurring theme

in some of Clint's movies.

I was just wondering.

I suppose that mangy redbone hound's

got no place else to go either.

Well, he might as well ride along with us.

Hell, everybody else is.

- FREEMAN: - You listen to a lot of Clint's movies...

there are things that he's saying in there

that are very pithy, deep.

It's quintessential Clint...

in terms of the character,

in terms of the story.

- Well, are you gonna pull those pistols - Or whistle Dixie?

I liked the saga of it,

the movement of it, the traveling of it.

- It was one of my favorite films - That I've done.

- It kind of breaks the trend of - "And he rode off into the sunset."

And I'm not sure, you know,

if there was some inherent message...

that the loner ultimately has to join

for the world to succeed.

It's for other people to judge the work...

- ...and it's other people to judge - Where I come from on it.

It's more fun that way.

Come out, everyone, actually.

- ROBBINS: Despite the things - Everybody knows about him...

I think he's a pretty complicated guy.

- I like the way he operates. - And I wanna be...

That's... I wanna be like Clint. Heh.

Imagine that dude at a poker table, and...

You know,

it's the guy you know is gonna...

That guy's wanna wind up

with all the money in my pocket, I know it.

Somehow...

He's not saying a word.

I think Clint is incapable of boredom.

I don't think he's bored about anything.

- Look what he's got. - He's got Dina, he's got his kids...

he's got his lifestyle, he's got his art...

and he's got his music.

And he loves musicians.

[PLAYS JAZZ RIFF]

And he loves singers. And he and I,

for years, we've always sat around...

talked around Billie Holliday

and Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.

I mean, that's his thing.

He was a piano player for singers.

He loves that.

His love for jazz

and the way he expressed it in Bird...

and the way jazz has become

a kind of leitmotif of a lot of his work.

That is the greatest relaxer I can imagine

anybody having in their lives.

And music is such a wonderful way

of just, I guess, chilling.

- He'll collaborate with an orchestrator, - A composer...

- ...but the main themes - Clint Eastwood writes himself.

- COX: - He wrote the theme for Unforgiven.

You know, Mystic River,

he wrote the whole score.

He wrote the whole score

for Million Dollar Baby...

...he wrote the whole score

for Flags of Our Fathers.

Writing music for the movie

is another way for him to say:

- "Well, look, this is a personal movie. - Not only did I...

I didn't write the story,

but I interpreted the story as a director.

- Now I'm going to interpret the story - Musically."

As you read a script, see it realized,

the better directors find the music in it.

- They don't know the specific piece - That they're going to use...

but I think they get a pretty good idea

of the mood or the tone.

BACON:

If you are a musician, certainly...

...and even if you have a great appreciation

for music, it's sort of there...

...as you walk, as you talk, as you think,

in your moments of silence.

There's some kind of interlude

or some kind of score for your life...

that's kind of like, you know,

floating there in your subconscious.

- And I think that that is certainly the case - with him.

- -It should go real fast: Boom, boom, boom. - -Okay.

You read this all the time

that he's gotten better as a director...

as he's gotten older.

- SPIELBERG: As his filmmaking - Has evolved and matured...

his characters have matured

and become more complicated.

Mystic River comes to mind immediately.

Unforgiven comes to mind...

in the same sort of, you know,

mental breadth as Mystic River.

- MAN: - A camera mark, 548, take one. Mark.

- EASTWOOD: - It was an interesting project.

I was looking for somebody

to rewrite a script.

A girl I knew on the lot here

was a reader for Warner Bros.

- She said, - "Well, if you want a really good writer...

you ought to read this story

by David Peoples."

Option was running out.

- It was the day it ran out - Or somewhere in there.

We got this call from Clint Eastwood.

I said, "Well, I'll take that."

But this was 1985,

and he bought the film outright.

I didn't wanna do a Western at that time.

I had done quite a few, and I felt

I'd like to maybe sit on it for a while.

Maybe it would be better to play

this character when I was a little bit older.

- All of a sudden I see - he's making this Western called Pale Rider.

- I was disappointed - He was making something different.

I put it in a drawer...

and went through the whole '80s

without even thinking about it.

I think I talked to him once or something

about a rewrite on the telephone...

and he said he was gonna get to it.

1991, I took it out of the drawer

and said, "It's..."

And I reread it and fell in love with it

all over again, and I said:

"Yeah, this is time to do this."

- He did want a couple of scenes - Rewritten.

And I wasn't crazy about the ideas...

- ...but I was a little intimidated - About the idea of...

I can get pretty feisty, but I wasn't

gonna be feisty with Clint Eastwood.

I started rewriting things.

And I found out the more I screwed with it,

the worse it was getting.

I said I'm doing what Siegel used to call

"killing it with improvements."

And this is just really good.

- I don't know why - I'm fiddling around with this.

When he showed me this cut of the movie,

I said, "Rewrites aren't there."

- He said, - "No, it was better the first time."

And that I tremendously appreciated...

because one of the things in this business

is things just get worse and worse...

as you keep rewriting them,

and nobody can ever stop, right?

And he has that wonderful restraint.

I think Unforgiven is one of my favorites.

Unforgiven, that's the first

Clint Eastwood movie I had ever seen.

Unforgiven is a really classic movie.

And I think that...

It's interesting, but I think great Westerns

depend on their literacy...

not on their gunfight.

A compassionate heart...

and a sensibility...

...that was not what you would imagine

as knee-jerk masculinity.

An eye for an eye:

[GROWLS]

"Make my day."

COX: He saw a different way of doing

films and wanted do more serious films.

He had done all the other films.

As you get older, he says:

"There comes a time in a man's life

when he can't just beat up every person."

You know, age-wise, where it's

believable to the public.

Yes, let's see what you do there, Richard.

- EASTWOOD: As you mature in life - In other areas, you mature in your work.

- You should be learning - And getting better.

If you start getting worse,

then you should maybe join AARP.

[CHUCKLES]

COX: Unforgiven was

a changing film for Clint's career...

for a lot of our careers

that worked for him.

Because the film got seven nominations,

got four Academy Awards...

and really the critics and the world

looked at him doing films differently.

That's not Dirty Harry...Wait, all right.

It's okay, it's all right. Good.

People grow. Ha, ha, ha.

They continue to evolve.

- COX: But the other films - Were more genre films...

- ...and we just went out in the days, - 42 days, and shot them.

And he did take more time with this...

because I think he felt

this might be the Western...

that might be his career.

FREEMAN: I got the job

because he asked me to do it.

He owns me from that moment on. Ha, ha.

I got to Alberta and we met,

we shook hands.

It was like meeting an old friend.

- And when we started working together, - There was this...

It was like putting on

an old pair of shoes.

I didn't like the idea of having to play

a tough cop again, you know...

and kind of a badass kind of a guy.

- You been talking about the queen - Again?

On Independence Day.

[GRUNTS]

Clint talked to him about it

and said his idea was...

- What he was gonna do with that - Is be more character-driven.

And Gene Hackman agreed to do it.

- HACKMAN: - I believed in him enough, finally...

that I felt maybe he would find,

and help me find, something to make it...

Make the role interesting.

And for Gene Hackman,

it was a great move...

- ...because he ended up - Getting an Academy Award for it.

You'd be William Munny out of Missouri.

Killer of women and children.

That's right.

I've killed women and children.

Killed just about everything that walks

or crawled at one time or another.

[THUNDER ROLLS]

And I'm here to kill you, Little Bill...

for what you did to Ned.

SCORSESE: He's not afraid to have to

take on a really horrible character...

- ...and say, - "Yes, that's me. That's who I am."

- "You killed those women and children?" - "That's right."

[LAUGHING]

"I'm gonna take you down."

To take a, you know, Western

in a different direction...

making the hero a bad person.

He knows... He doesn't wanna do it...

because his wife used to

really get upset about that.

- And he really feels bad about it, - But he's gotta do it.

[GUN CLICKS]

Misfire. Kill the son of a bitch.

- SCORSESE: Coming out of - The tradition of the American Western...

- ...which reflected America - In the first half of the century...

he seems to be tackling what is ultimately

the truth about it in Unforgiven.

There's a ruthlessness, you know.

There's a ruthlessness involved.

The individuality in order to survive.

- HACKMAN: I came on the set one day - And he said, "I got a problem."

Yeah, if you hit this thing...

For whatever reason,

the scene that was scheduled...

we couldn't do it.

The actor didn't show up or something.

I can't remember quite what it was.

- So he says, "Can you go to scene 35?" - You know, blah, blah, blah.

And I said, "I haven't looked at it."

So it was a couple of pages of dialogue.

And I said, "Well, I'll try," you know.

And he was so good about that

because he had to do that scene that day...

and he was so thoughtful

and so understanding...

of what an actor goes through

when you're searching for lines...

- ...and you do something unexpected - Like that.

I really, um... I really loved him for that.

- COX: I know - That when we finished Unforgiven...

- ...we walked back to our office, - He sat down on that couch across me...

- ...and he says, - "I hope we have an audience for this film."

Because I was so emotionally involved

in it, I thought it was fantastic.

- But somehow I didn't think - Anybody else was gonna get it.

And I was stunned at what he had done.

Exactly what I had written.

I was overwhelmed.

But again I thought,

"Poor Clint Eastwood, he made this movie.

- Only the writer is gonna be the one - Who likes it."

I think Unforgiven will stand

for a long time...

as the last great Western.

It was a long time

before he made the movie.

Ah, but it was worth the wait.

It was just kind of one of those things

where its destiny was to be in the '90s.

As a filmmaker,

he's like a High Plains Drifter.

He's just drifting.

- He just goes - From experience to experience.

He's not intellectual about:

"I've gotta make a story in this genre,

in this style."

He waits for something to wash over him.

He waits for a book, a script, an idea.

- ROBBINS: That's the special thing, - That's the good thing...

the thing that should be lauded.

You know,

in a town that wants conformity...

you know, a town that wants

the same product repackaged...

- ...that Clint has chosen the path - He's chosen.

- MAN: That's good. - -We haven't seen that close-up.

- BACON: - I think that his films, to me...

- ...purely as a viewer, not as an actor - That's having worked with him...

...but just as a movie consumer...

...have a unexpected level...

of depth and complexity...

that somehow he is able to tap into

again and again and again.

Basically,

you have trust your own feelings...

your own instincts and your own taste

in judging material...

because that's all you have to go by.

If you try to start pre-thinking

what other people are thinking, you're not...

You're gonna get yourself

in a real confused state.

- You know, he's been a mayor, - For Pete's sakes. He was an actor.

He did spaghetti Westerns, Rawhide.

- He does TV. - His family just did a reality show.

He directs all kinds of different films.

He doesn't seem to say no.

He seems to say, "Why not?"

Mark.

- SPIELBERG: - I bought the book...

a popular book,

on the bestseller list for years.

- And we were looking for a director - To tell the story...

and my first choice was Clint.

So, yeah, just go ahead.

There was no real precedent to make it

an easy choice for me to just basically say:

"Clint made a movie like this,

so perhaps he'd like to make this one.

- Since there are many connections, - Similarities."

- I don't think this was similar - To anything he'd ever done before.

For that reason, I went to him.

And I was also hoping he'd agree

to play Kincaid, the main character.

Well, it was Clint's idea to cast Meryl.

- When we sat around - In our first couple of meetings...

to decide who we were gonna get.

Clint only had one choice. He said, "I think

I'd like to see what Meryl thinks of this."

STREEP: I didn't know anything

about it, except the books.

You know, Romeo and Juliet

was taken from an earlier source.

- -That play, nobody remembers. - MAN: Yeah.

But it's what Shakespeare did

with the same plot, same story.

But it's just how you tell the story.

I was just picking you some flowers.

Oh?

Men still do that, don't they?

I'm not out of date, am I?

Picking flowers for a woman

as a sign of appreciation?

- No, not at all. - Except those are poisonous.

[LAUGHING]

I think he saw an opportunity for himself

to reveal something...

that was another dimension

to his fans...

that already bought

a certain character from him.

I think he has very highly evolved

both sides of his character.

He has...

I don't know

if anybody else would agree with me...

but he has a female sensibility

in many ways.

I don't wanna need you.

What?

Because I can't have you.

I really didn't realize...

how vulnerable he let himself be

in that role.

And that's not something you just unpack

from your kit bag.

That has to reside somewhere in you.

And yet he has this image

of the sort of über-man.

- -Got you. - -Oh!

- STREEP: - I think he's a harsh judge of himself.

He sure was.

And a little bit of it was, um, bullshit,

you know.

A little bit of it was just trying

to make everybody feel at ease...

after each take of his own.

He'd say, "Well, that was adequate."

You know, you... Ha, ha, ha.

- There was a scene in the kitchen where... - A big fight scene.

He was at the counter

and he turned away from me.

And I could see he was really upset.

The scene never made it into the film.

And I said:

"Why would you turn away

the envelope...

you know, that would come your way

if you put this out?"

I mean, it was a beautifully played scene.

And he assessed it as not right.

The director assessed it

as not right for the film.

Where the actor might have wanted

all the accolades.

And roll it.

- MAN: - Rolling. B.

STREEP: For a man, especially

a man who walks in our business...

with the persona that he owns...

to rip open his chest that way.

But he felt, for the film,

it was best that it not be there.

That's a really seer kind of intelligence...

and willingness to be cold

about your own work.

Well, ego...

Well, it kills all of us,

certainly in terms of creativity.

Because you have to let things go.

Sometimes in letting something go...

you find something really lovely

and brilliant and creative.

And it may not be something really big...

but something will replace it.

And he doesn't wanna miss

that fresh moment...

of anguish, humor, mistake

that turns out to be fantastic.

The stumble that you might do

that says everything about your character.

He loves that stuff.

Once in a while you get a surge...

you get a little surge

of two or three scripts that...

- And you think you would like to do - All of them.

In the early 2000s,

as fast as I would finish one picture, I'd...

- Somebody would give me another script - That I like.

- So sometimes I'd be preparing one I like - That I was do...

- Editing one I also liked, - And I kind of went through that.

- When I was doing Mystic River, - We were working in the editorial room.

- At the same token, I'm reading - Million Dollar Baby, I liked that.

- I'm thinking, - "Yeah, I'll do that. I'll do that next."

So I'm preparing one

as I'm starting another.

- And I went through a little period - Like that.

The first reason to want to do Mystic River

for me was Clint.

I love the idea of directors who have

a kind of continuity with their actors.

- BACON: - One thing that was really different...

was that he expected

all of the performers...

to have done our homework...

and to come to work ready to go.

You're not gonna have rehearsal...

and you're gonna maybe go through

the same sort of process...

that you've now come to expect.

- You know, - I'm gonna have endless conversations...

- ...with the director or the writer - About my character.

And, you know, with Clint,

you know, I had one conversation.

He once came up to me and Laurence

and said:

"That's good, you guys. A little faster."

And I was like, "Wow, I think

that's the first piece of direction I got."

- And that could have been the last. - "A little faster."

- Mystic River, - It's even more impressive...

because most everything you see in that

is first take.

Well, let's call it creativity because that's...

I think that's what it is.

That's his form of creativity...

- ...that he understands that many times - On a first take...

you'll get something fresh...

- ...that you wouldn't get on take eight - Or nine or whatever.

There's real respect for imagination

and the hard work.

But there's no:

"Let's just go again 12 more times

just to see what happens."

For certain kinds of actors,

that's the best kind of vote of confidence.

And so all of us,

me and Sean and Kevin...

and Laurence and Marcia Gay and Laura,

we were scared.

We didn't wanna be out there

with that one take that sucked, you know.

So we all practiced.

When he wants one more take...

- ...it's gonna cause tremendous panic - In the room.

Five actors, but he wants one more take.

All probably looking at each other:

"What did I do? Was it me? Was it you?

Why does he want one more take?

He always walks away after two."

If Clint wants one more take...

- ...that third take, - Everybody's gonna be the best...

- ...they've ever been in their careers - To please him.

- POLICEMAN: Hey. - -Is my daughter in there?

Is that my daughter in there?

- SCORSESE: - Mystic River is a very sad film.

- A dark world - In which vengeance has to be taken.

It's like the tragedy of the every day.

- People's lives, - The ones on the periphery...

the ones we don't hear about.

Get in.

Get inside.

- ROBBINS: I grew up in a tough neighborhood - in New York City...

and that kind of situation

that Dave Boyle went through...

was omnipresent pretty much.

I had friends that had been molested

as kids.

- And you see the decay that happens - From the start.

And ultimately a most terrific crime...

because it's a crime that visits itself

upon the victim...

over a course of his entire life.

In the case of Mystic River...

that's a transgression

that's incomprehensible.

HARDEN:

He lets you find what you wanna do.

You think you're doing it on your own...

but it's within in a very clear structure

that he already has.

- BACON: One of the basic things - That's great about him...

is that there's a lot of stuff

that we've gotten used to kind of doing...

over the years that are the ways

that we think movies have to be made.

And he has sort of cut away

a bunch of the crap.

STREEP: One of the secrets

of his being a really good director...

is married

to this, uh, seeming no pressure...

casual, easy-going is a deep prep.

He has imagined the scene.

He has scored it.

He has lit it in his mind.

- And all he doesn't know - Is what's gonna happen in it.

ROBBINS: Efficiency is really something

we should all aim for.

- Unfortunately - We all have in our minds...

that unless you suffer some kind

of consequence, it's not art, you know.

And I think Clint has proven that wrong.

One thing I'll never forget

is we were shooting a scene...

and Tom Stern is just a great cameraman.

He's worked with Clint for a long time.

- And there was very little lighting - In the scene.

There was a practical lamp

sitting on a table.

I think there was maybe one other light.

And we walked in...

Clint take a look at the scene

we were about to play...

and he just went over and said...

And just turned off one of Tom's lamps.

Just one of those... Not practical lamp,

like the big lamps. He said, "Okay, roll."

And I saw Tom just like... you know.

And it just... It killed me...

because I thought,

you know, for his eye...

he knows what he needs

in terms of light in this scene.

I mostly thought to myself

to be a cameraman and work with him...

you've gotta say, "Okay, that's...

You know, that's what he wants."

At the end of the movie...

I got this kind of moment

where Sean Penn's character looks at me...

- ...he's across the street, - There's a parade.

I said, "What is this?

What's going on here? What is this about?"

And he wouldn't tell me, you know.

He wouldn't tell me.

So... Which is fine because then I go:

"Okay. Well, if you're not gonna tell me...

then I'll just have

to make something up."

When I asked him, he said:

"That's gonna be up to the audience

to decide."

So when people have asked me that, I've

sort of respected that wish, you know...

- ...and said, - "I guess I'll keep that to myself."

It's not too often that you are able

to take something like that...

- ...and, you know, just kind of hold it, - You know, some...

I'm taking that to my grave.

When we got to the end

of Mystic River...

- ...it was supposed to be a nine-week shoot. - It only took seven.

And I was really disappointed

that the movie was done.

I really wanted to... "Why can't we do

those extra two weeks?"

- Because it was so great - And such a great experience...

and such a, you know,

kind of reinvention for me...

about the way you could make a film.

GRAZER: The movie with Angelina Jolie,

that was the first time I worked with him.

I was scared to call him.

Ron Howard and I were...

We called him together.

- We were both on separate lines. - I've never called Clint Eastwood.

- And I thought - I've got to know him a little bit.

- There's some kind of tiny bond - That we have.

So we called him, got him on the phone

and pitched him the movie.

And he said,

"Well, let me take a look at it."

And then a few weeks went by

and he called me...

- ...and I was actually - At Steven Spielberg's house.

And he called me up through my office,

I got him on the cell...

and he said, "I think I'm interested."

- And I just thought... - Got off the phone and I said:

- "Oh, my God, - Ron, Steven, this is amazing.

Clint Eastwood's gonna direct it. I think

he's gonna direct a movie of mine."

And I was just really thrilled.

- Ron and I went out in the street, - High-fived each other.

Every day you learn something

from Clint.

- The way a set is run, - The way a director can talk to people...

get performances out of people...

the way you cannot get bogged down

in details...

- ...that are not gonna make the movie - Any better.

You watch him work

and it seems sort of simplistic.

It's just sort of a seductive diffidence.

He sits back

and doesn't seem that invested in judging.

It's freedom that you really wanna feel.

That's something that the actors feel,

and the crew does not feel that.

I'm just going to tell you,

the crew is in a different kind of vise.

Because he's so invested

in making the thing have momentum...

and move quickly and organically.

When he feels that he has the scene...

credibly, authentically made

by the actors...

he'll move on,

and it strikes terror into his crew.

And so they come

and they're on their very tiptoes...

- ...to be ready for anything - That might happen.

Clint has, for years,

kept his crew together.

And it's a familiarity.

It's also he knows what to expect.

He even says, "I hire the people

I feel are right for the jobs."

And he lets them do their job.

He gets out of the way is what he says.

- HAGGIS: - He comes to the set...

usually they start around 9:00.

Everyone's prepared.

You got a good night's rest,

you do your work.

How are we going home by 2:00

in the afternoon?

How is that possible?

HARDEN: Clint cares about the people

with whom he's working.

It is a family.

- He really respects and admires and loves - His crews.

HARDEN: He gets that a crew spends

12 to 13 to 14 to 15...

come on, 16, 20, whatever hours...

at the expense

of their own families.

So on Space Cowboys...

Friday, Clint would have steak and lobster

for the crew from the catering...

and after lunch, you went home.

Well, I mean, we had to finish by 4 so

he could get on the golf course because...

[MAN CHUCKLING]

To get that one shot we can never get.

I was sitting in the trailer one day,

and it was lunch...

- ...one of the PAs came up, - Said, "Lunch."

- And I thought they were gonna say, - "What would you guys like?"

And instead, Clint said, "Let's go."

And there's a long lunch line...

and usually an actor or director

will go to their trailer...

and their food is brought to them

or already waiting for them.

- We walked over - To where the catering trucks were...

and he picked up a tray.

And Clint was, you know, behind...

I don't know, 20 people.

And he wouldn't even think

of cutting in front of anybody.

I just thought:

"Oh, that's why he gets people

to work with him...

time and time again."

- He's like, - "They gotta eat too. We're all eating."

There's no bodyguards,

there's no coterie...

there's no pomp and circumstance.

It said so much in that one moment

about who he is.

- You're wasting your time. - I told you I don't train girls.

I thought you might change your mind.

There's dozens of trainers who train girls.

You won't any have trouble finding one.

- I don't hardly need a dozen, boss, - You'll do fine.

I remember reading it and...

From page one to the end,

I thought it was perfect.

Later into the process, I heard that Clint

was not only wanting to star in it...

but wanting to direct it.

And I was asked to take a meeting.

We sat and we talked for about an hour.

- Uh, we talked about the movie, - We talked about my background...

he asked if I was an athlete.

- We chatted a bit about Mystic River - Which was...

Had just gotten nominated.

I remember actually something he said at

that time which has always stayed with me.

I congratulated him, and he said:

- "You always aim for the bull's-eye, - But you don't always hit it.

So it's a nice thing when it works out."

And at the end of the meeting, he said:

- [IMITATING CLINT EASTWOOD] - "Well, you better start training."

MAN: She's gonna be boxing with me.

-She'll come in and then she'll punch you...

Move around a bit.

- HAGGIS: If anyone else had directed - Million Dollar Baby...

...it wouldn't have got much notice.

Everybody has their own ideas

about what a movie should be.

And I suppose executives here or elsewhere

have ideas...

about what the studio

should be making.

There were several pictures in a row there

that the studio here had doubts about.

And one of them was Million Dollar Baby.

- MAN: - Yeah. Get in there.

- HAGGIS: - It's a boxing movie.

It's a girl boxing movie.

A girl boxing movie about a woman

who wants to kill herself in the end.

I mean, who would see that film?

But make it a Clint Eastwood movie

and people are really curious.

- EASTWOOD: - It could have easily been a terrible flop.

All movies can easily be a terrible flop.

And good movies don't always do well

and bad movies sometimes do great.

- So there's no rule. - There's no rule you can follow.

Everybody thinks there's a rule...

- ...and everybody thinks - They've got the answer.

But nobody has the answer.

- MAGGIE: - You got any family, boss?

Well, I've got a daughter, Katie.

That's family.

We're not exactly close.

EASTWOOD: I approached it

like it was a father-daughter love story.

It was the daughter he never had

and the father she never had.

- SWANK: Actually, - It makes me emotional taking about it...

because it's exactly how

our relationship evolved...

as director-actor, actor...

And then how it built into a friendship.

- EASTWOOD: - She was successful...

but also had caused the tragedy

the picture eventually takes on.

We didn't shoot in... Right in order...

- ...but we did do the hospital stuff - At the end.

- Which was good because - That's when my body was deteriorating...

and I stopped training.

I'm gonna disconnect your air machine...

then you're gonna go to sleep.

Then I'll give you a shot

and you'll stay asleep.

And just at that point, we had gotten

to this closeness in our relationship...

that I think helped with all of that...

- ...and Clint has a very special place - In my heart.

Mo cuishle means my darling.

My blood.

You know, in this world,

we need people who believe in us.

And Clint believed in me

just like Frankie believed in Maggie.

And he gave me that gift.

And it was an extraordinary feeling...

- ...to have that support, that confidence - Behind you.

If I had to be done tomorrow

and I could never do it again...

having the experience with him

would make it okay.

- SPIELBERG: - He'll read a script and he'll say, um:

- "Yeah, this could be an interesting - Little picture."

- Give him something, - He'll read it right away.

Which is really not something you can

easily say about most gigantic filmmakers.

- They don't really know - If they wanna do it.

- You could wait months and years - To find out if they really wanna do it.

- Clint Eastwood tells you, pretty early on, - you're in or you're out.

Maybe I'm a little more decisive.

I think that happens

as you get more miles on the trail.

- There isn't a gray area - where you're gonna talk him into anything.

- And the older you get, - I think there's something about...

- You get to a certain age and - What can they do to you?

Not much. Heh, heh.

I mean, I wish I had that

low-stress approach to finding material.

- In the case of Gran Torino, - From the point he said, "I like it"...

- ...to the point it was on movie screens - Was less than a year.

Which could be a record

for a studio picture.

Get off my lawn.

Listen, old man...

I said get off my lawn now.

- I'm not gonna say it again. - Go in the freaking house.

I go in that house

after I've blown a hole in your head.

And I sleep like a baby.

- He doesn't want anything to do - With anybody.

- Especially people - That are different than he is.

He's a guy who is very, very disturbed

about the way culture's gone.

He's had a loss in the family

and he's estranged from his grown children.

And he's... He doesn't like the way

the neighborhoods have changed.

This character seemed

like the same age as I am.

- I'm not the same curmudgeonly. - I'm not quite as...

I'm not quite as negative

as the character.

- It's always interesting to me, - As people get older, the work they do.

There's a different rhythm.

The writer, the actors and him.

EASTWOOD: I think some movies

exceed your expectations...

and others disappoint

your expectations.

If you fail on your own terms...

then at least you fail

with your heads held high.

But if you fail on somebody else's terms,

you're gonna hate yourself forever.

Invictus, I thought more people

would know about Nelson Mandela...

be interested in Nelson Mandela...

- ...and how he governed - When he took over the country.

- Which is an interesting lesson - In today's world.

Generations pass

and they forget all about him.

At least Americans do.

But Americans move on fast

to other things. Heh.

Now push it forward to him. Push it.

There you go.

If the stories are becoming

more complicated, the style doesn't.

That's the difference.

If he's searching for more in a story...

- ...I mean, he still has the ability - To hold back...

not be intrusive to the image.

- Other directors are intrusive - To the image, it's wonderful.

This guy just doesn't wanna do that.

The style's in the same way.

Ultimately that leads to the film

that he made last year which is J. Edgar.

Blow it down.

GRAZER: Well, on J. Edgar, what I did is I...

I'd already had a relationship with him...

because I'd produced the Changeling.

And I felt that we had a bond...

...and that he trusted me,

you know, just man to man.

I felt Clint might be interested

because it was an era that he knows.

It's about power dynamics,

it's about a complicated man.

- Mr. Chairman, - I urge passage of the Lindbergh Law.

Making kidnapping a federal offense...

to immediately deliver all fingerprints

in this country to my office...

so that we may create a central file...

to help arm our agents...

so that they have a fighting chance

against the submachine guns...

of some of the most dangerous characters

in the history of American criminality.

It's also sort of an American tragedy as well

because J. Edgar created, formed the FBI...

and he died a very lonely death.

You know, for me it's like

Pablo Casals playing cello...

- ...in a room by himself - Towards the end of his life...

that's how it sort of enveloped me.

It went into his very essence,

his being, in a way.

And it was very subversive

because of that.

- It sucked you in. Before you realize, - You didn't wanna leave...

- ...but you don't like the guy, - But you're not leaving.

- I've been with the department - Of the bureau for seven years.

Almost as long as you.

No.

You were with the old bureau seven years

and that bureau is now gone, sir.

And so are you.

Um, I was a little surprised

that more people didn't see it.

- Many pictures people haven't gotten, - 10 years later, they get them.

- Biographical films, - we've seen a lot of them over the years...

some of them work and some don't.

There's no doubt, I think this one has a

depth to it and a power, a staying power...

that once people calm down a little bit

and try to see what the hell it was...

they'll come around to it.

- A lot of times - You find material that's interesting...

- ...and the public doesn't find it interesting - at all.

- But that's horse racing. You're still doing it - from what interests you.

- And if you're out of sync with the public, - that just...

That happens to everybody

at some point.

But, uh, you just...

You know, the old song.

Pick yourself up and go back in the race.

Any criticism to Clint, you know,

came under in the early part of his career.

You know, you mentioned

Pauline Kael and others.

You know, he's had the last laugh.

- We're talking and he says, - "Yeah, to tell you the truth...

- ...I still don't think - I've done my best work."

I think the strength and the power come

from his gigantic desire...

to be and stay relevant.

That is, to me,

what differentiates him from guys...

- ...who wanna sit around, - talk about how great that movie they did...

or this movie, blah, blah, blah.

You know, Clint's still in the hunt.

You don't wanna be an old gummer...

sitting around talking about how things

were so great in the old days.

- They were great in the old days, - But they're good in other days too.

- You just have to... - It's what you make out of it.

I think maybe Clint is the last of the, um...

The last vestiges of the golden age

of the Hollywood studio film.

- He's one of the most successful filmmakers - in history.

And he's a brilliant actor,

and he just continues to do his thing.

And, you know, he's laughing

all the way to the movies.

There's a body of work that will survive.

Some may be considered stronger

or last longer than others.

But I think they'll always speak

to future generations...

because of the humanity of the films,

the ethics of the films.

Clint is a legend, but he's not

carrying it around in a placard.

Maybe real legends don't carry it around

in a placard on their chest saying:

"I'm a legend, by God."

Wannabe legends do, but real ones don't.

- Some days you can't remember - Somebody's name...

or you can't remember something.

- Is it because you're actually losing - Memory...

and you're becoming

somewhat senile?

Or is it because

you just have had so much information...

crammed into your brain after 80 years

that you have...?

Can't hold anymore.

You'd like to think it's the latter,

heh, but...

He loves making movies, he likes to make

as many as he can, as many movies.

The possibility of retirement...

Once in a while it crosses my mind

and then I quickly get over it.

Of all the people I've ever met

in the business...

that he is the closest...

to being both a creative director

and a human being.

[SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]

That's it.

Cut. Ha, ha, ha.