Veteran Hollywood actor and director Clint Eastwood's roles in movie classics such as "Dirty Harry" and "Escape from Alcatraz" have turned him into the iconic American movie star. But 86-year-old Eastwood told a master class in cinema at the Cannes that he had worked to avoid being seen as the classic hero on a white horse.
"The white horse day is gone," said Eastwood, whose 1992 Western "Unforgiven" in which he played an ageing outlaw was screened at this year's Cannes as part of the festival's 70th anniversary celebrations. Eastwood's movie and television career might stretch back to the 1950s but his international fame came in the 1960s when he appeared as Rowdy Yates in the TV Western "Rawhide" and helped to launch spaghetti Westerns onto the cinema world with "A Fistful of Dollars."
"I grew up in the 1930s and 1940s when every kid wanted to be in a Western," said Eastwood. "Everyone wanted to pack a gun and ride a horse." Eastwood believes that the Western remains an unchallenged part of movie making today: "It is pure escapism to a different time when an individual took care of himself."
But this, he said, was not possible in more ordered, contemporary societies. Eastwood went on to a star in such hits such as "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" and "Every Which Way But Loose" and a series of films which helped to drive the new wave of American cinema in the 1970s. In 1991, he directed his first film, the psychological thriller "Play Misty for Me," in which he played a radio DJ being talked by a fan.
Since then, his list of directorial and acting credits include the 2008 hit "Gran Torino" about US city crime gangs, the biographical war drama "American Sniper" in 2014 and the historic war film "Letters from Iwo Jima" in 2006. As a director Eastwood is known for having a light touch rather than an authoritarian approach. He also believes that a successful first take can sometimes drive a film forward. "If it works on first take then everybody is OK; we're going somewhere," he said.
Eastwood has also carved a presence on the political stage, serving for two years as mayor of the Californian town of Carmel-by-the-Sea. In 2012, he backed Mitt Romney as former US Democrat President Barack Obama's Republican challenger in the 2012 presidential race. Last year he supported Donald Trump's bid for the White House. Eastwood has also won a series of academy awards for his films including for "Unforgiven" and "Million Dollar Baby" about a young woman boxing star.
He has been awarded a French Legion of Honour as well as a Venice Film Festival life-time achievement award. He has also won a life-time achievement award from the festival in Cannes. But a top prize in Cannes has so far eluded him. Despite his expressed love for France, failure to win a top prize in Cannes is not something that seems to trouble him.
He said that after being Cannes jury president in 1994 he saw the difficulties that six- or eight-member juries faced in reaching a decision. "There is no way that everyone can agree," he said. In recent years, Eastwood has preferred to be behind the camera rather than out in front. "Once in a while I miss acting. I'll visit it again someday."
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