Clint Eastwood Explains Why He’s Still Making Movies In His 90s
91-year-old actor and director Clint Eastwood reflects on his long Hollywood career and explains why he continues to make movies in his old age.
Hollywood veteran actor and director Clint Eastwood has revealed why he continues to make movies, even though he’s now 91 years old. Although he had appeared in bit parts in movies and TV throughout the 1950s, it wasn’t until Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western Dollars Trilogy, beginning in 1964, that Eastwood became a star. Then in his 30s, Eastwood would continue to appear in movies over the next six decades and would also become a prominent director known for Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, American Sniper, and The Mule.
Eastwood’s latest film, Cry Macho, which he both stars in and directs, has just been released. It tells the story of a washed-up rodeo star who is recruited to transport a mother and son across the border from Mexico to Texas. The film has received mixed reviews from audiences and critics, with many praising Cry Macho for its self-reflective and emotionally resonant story, while others have criticized it for being overly simplistic and cheaply sentimental.
In a recent interview with The Los Angeles Times, (via CinemaBlend), Eastwood reflected on his long and iconic career as an actor and director. Eastwood addressed why he continues to make movies even though he’s now in his early 90s. The actor said says he isn’t finished with the industry just yet, and implies he’ll continue to work until audiences no longer want to see him. Read Eastwood’s comment below:
“What the hell am I still working for in my 90s? Are people going to start throwing tomatoes at you? I’ve gotten to the point where I wondered if that was enough, but not to the point where I decided it was. If you roll out a few turkeys, they’ll tell you soon enough.”
Eastwood, it seems, doesn’t see why he should stop making movies. Although he’s continued working well past the age when most other directors would have called it quits, there’s nobody telling Eastwood to stop. It appears that the 91-year-old still has stories to tell and, as long as he’s physically capable of directing and acting in films, there’s no reason why he can’t continue to push himself. After all, he is right; nobody is “throwing tomatoes” at him, and Eastwood’s films continue to be financially successful.
Cry Macho, like other films in Eastwood’s filmography, explores themes of masculinity, and attempts to reflect on Eastwood’s past roles as a tough “macho” hero. Much like how 1992’s Unforgiven deconstructed Eastwood’s persona as a hardened cowboy and told the story of an ageing rancher who can barely ride his own horse, Cry Macho explores what it actually means to be “a man.” The film challenges the stoic nature of characters of Eastwood’s past, like the gun-slinging Man With No Name in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, or the criminal-killing cop in Dirty Harry. If Eastwood continues to make films following Cry Macho, he will doing so with nearly seventy years of experience under his belt. As such, he can offer audiences a unique perspective that nobody else in Hollywood can quite capture. For now, viewers can see Eastwood’s unique point of view in Cry Macho, which is now available in theaters and on HBO Max.
