Make His Day A Day At A Time
From Rawhide to Dirty Harry, and from In the Line of Fire to Unforgiven, actor Clint Eastwood has riveted audiences with his steely gaze and understated acting style.
Tuesday night in New York the National Board of Review honored him for his career achievements. But before he headed to that function, Eastwood stopped by The Early Show to talk film, politics, golf and life.
On the presidential race: "In the case of Warren Beatty, he wasn't serious but he likes to contemplate things out loud, but I guess Donald (Trump) is out there actually making noise about it, so I think anybody should...if they have something to say. When I was the mayor of Carmel, I used to go around and give talks to young presidents of organizations and companies to try to influence people to get into the political sector."
On his career: "I never think about (my work) that much. I kind of just hit and move on....I've never been a live-in the past type guy."
"Somebody gave me a little box yesterday of DVDs from early pictures, and I thought, 'God, did I do movies back then?' You just don't think about it. I think about what I'm doing now and what I'm doing next."
On maturing: "One of the problems with being an actor - you just see yourself constantly maturing on the screen. That's a polite way of phrasing it, but by the same token, sometimes you look back at the stuff you did earlier and say, 'Why did I do that and why did I do this?' And some of it isn't as appealing as you think it might be, and you say, 'Well, that holds up pretty good.'"
On his current work: "Some of the films I thought would be the most noncommercial came out to be commercial and vice versa. But Space Cowboys, (his current film), is a project that Warner has had, and it's about some four guys who are sort of the Chuck Yeager era, who experimented with going to space in the '50s, going up to the edge of space, never got to go."
"It's kind of true to life. Then NASA was formed and then they sent up a lot of younger people....So these guys managed to blackmail their way up on a shuttle trip, and it's kind of one of those old things, not Grumpy Old Men in Space, but something close."
On his golf game: "Hanging on for an older fellow. Working out a little bit. I mentioned earlier, we just came back from a little golf clinic for three days with Phil Rogers."
"Right now, outside, the temperature here in New York is 4 degrees. I don't think I'll be out practicing today. You'd break every bone in your body."
For more information on Clint Eastwood, check out Hollywood.com.