The Clint Eastwood Interview

Q: How far back does your association with Warner Bros. go?

A: In 1970 they asked me to do Dirty Harry and we made it in 1971. I was still at Universal at the time, making pictures for them, but I’d go back and do a sequel every now and then for Dirty Harry. So after about the third or fourth sequel I remember I had a western called The Outlaw Josey Wales and I remember I liked the story very much and I called up Warners and I said ‘look, I’d like to do that, and I’ll move over there if you want me to..’ So I did. And that was the first picture I did when I actually moved on to the Lot and I stayed there ever since.

Q: Dirty Harry is about to be re-launched on DVD. Do you watch DVDs? Do you have one in your house?

A: I have a crystal set (laughs). No, I have a DVD. I’ve been active with Warner Bros. and a lot of the studios in trying to keep DVDs in the same format. DVDs are great and if you have a favourite movie, whether it’s a Harry or some other favourite film, and you can have it in your house without taking up very much space at all.

Q: Do you think that the Dirty Harry series could have been made by another studio? Because at the time they seemed very much to fit in with the Warner Bros. ethos.

A: Yeah it could have been. Originally when it was offered to me at first I was working at Universal. And I told Universal yes, I would do the project if they could buy the script. But they promptly went out and blew the sale so they didn’t get the script so it ended up through a long circle of events at Warner Bros. and Warners came to me again and I was familiar with the material. So it could have been made at Universal and it would have been made in the same way, because it was Don Siegel (director) but whether it would have been handled as well I don’t know. I remember one of the reasons I moved over to Warner Bros at that time was because a fellow named Dick Ledderer was the head of promotions and sales and marketing and he was kind of brilliant. He was the inspiration for the film, he loved the film and he went out and marketed it in such an aggressive way and an imaginative way so that’s why I stayed at Warners, because of him.

Q: Do you ever watch your own films? And if so, what picture do you like the best?

A: I don’t do that too much because I’ve made so many films. If I go back and start watching myself I’d grow up again. The last film I watched that I was involved with was The Outlaw Josey Wales because they’d made a new print of it and they’d put it through a digital process with 5.1 sound. I was going to watch for five minutes and I ended up watching all of it. But my wife had never seen Dirty Harry and she was broadcasting with the NBC affiliate in Monterey County and the fellows in the newsroom would always say to her ‘you haven’t seen Dirty Harry and you’re going out with Clint Eastwood’ and she’d say ‘no, I’ve seen a lot of his films but not that one..’ and they said ‘well, you don’t know what it’s about..’ So one day I put it on for her and that’s the last one I watched and she loved it. Anyway, it was some sort of verification because we’re still married..(laughs).

Q: Is there one period of filmmaking you particularly like?

A: For me particularly it’s right now. The recent films I’ve done are the ones I remember the most and because I’m doing more variety now than I did I wasn’t hung up on any particular genre like maybe I was forty or fifty years ago. So I’m happy now and I guess I’m living in the present more than in the past.

Q: Would you ever pick up a Magnum and play Dirty Harry again?

A: You know I would go out to a range and target shoot with somebody but I don’t think the San Francisco Police Department would have a 77 year old man on the police force so it would be highly unrealistic. People have asked me over the years ‘would you like to re-visit Dirty Harry?’ and everything would have depended on a script. But, really, no, there’s a time to leave things alone – you do a few sequels and have a good time with it, but my brain is in another place right now. But I love looking back on it.

Q: When you got involved with Dirty Harry did you know immediately that it was going to be special?

A: Obviously I felt that way because I went ahead and did the project. I felt there was something that would make an exciting police drama. Yeah, I felt there was something there. On every picture I’ve ever done I’ve felt instinctively that there was something worth telling but whatever height they reach as far as public appreciation is strictly up to the public and sometimes they haven’t been appreciated as much and sometimes they are appreciated more than you expect. That part of it is a crapshoot. But I’m not a judge of that – you only do the best you can and then it’s up to someone else to make the judgement on it by going to see it or not going to see it.