Clint Eastwood at 95 on film-making: do something new, or stay home

Hollywood star Clint Eastwood urged fellow filmmakers to come up with new ideas, observing in a newspaper interview that the movie business is now full of remakes and franchises.
Oscar-winning director Eastwood told Austrian newspaper Kurier he planned to keep working, saying that he was still in good physical shape and hopeful that no one would have to worry about him in that regard "for a long time yet".
Eastwood's most recent film, legal drama Juror#2, came out in the United States last year and the newspaper said he was currently in the pre-production phase for another movie.
When asked for his view on the current state of the film industry, the star of movies such as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Dirty Harry, and director of dozens of films including Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, said:
"I long for the good old days when screenwriters wrote movies like Casablanca in small bungalows on the studio lot. When everyone had a new idea," according to the German text of the interview.
"We live in an era of remakes and franchises. I've shot sequels three times, but I haven't been interested in that for a long while. My philosophy is: do something new or stay at home," added Eastwood, who will turn 95 on Saturday.
Asked where he got his energy from, Eastwood said: "There's no reason why a man can't get better with age. And I have much more experience today. Sure, there are directors who lose their touch at a certain age, but I'm not one of them."
Eastwood, who made World War II thriller Where Eagles Dare in Austria with Welsh actor Richard Burton in the late 1960s, told the paper the secret to his success was that he had always tried something new as a director and an actor.
"As an actor, I was still under contract with a studio, was in the old system, and thus forced to learn something new every year," he said. "And that's why I'll work as long as I can still learn something, or until I'm truly senile."

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The National

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Both of his parents encouraged him and his siblings to pursue their interests, fostering creativity and ambition. As a teenager, Pitt took part in drama classes and school plays but initially studied journalism and advertising at the University of Missouri. Two years into his studies, he decided to pursue a career in acting instead. In 1986, Pitt moved to Los Angeles with just $325 to his name. He worked a variety of jobs including waiting tables and chauffeuring to support himself while attending acting classes. Early roles were small parts in television shows such as Dallas (1987-88) and 21 Jump Street (1988), which gave him exposure, but did not immediately lead to stardom. 1991: Breakthrough with Thelma & Louise Pitt's breakthrough came in 1991 with the release of Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise. 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Khaleej Times

2 days ago

• Khaleej Times

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