Clint Eastwood has had a long career spanning over seven decades in Hollywood, with credits in a wide variety of movies. The 92-year-old actor became popular for his roles in the TV Western Rawhide, which led to the Man with No Name trilogy and one of his most commercially successful films, Every Which Way But Loose, which led to the sequel — Any Which Way You Can — in 1980.
Among the many roles he has played, Clint has regrets about some of them, while there’s a sense of pride regarding others. The actor spoke of the movies of interest to The Los Angeles Times, claiming his role in 1992’s Unforgiven as the one he’s most proud of.
Clint Prioritized The Story Over The Role
Speaking of the many film projects that he loved, especially Westerns, Clint shared what his role in Unforgiven meant to him, noting that reading the script comes before his decision to take up the role. “I would never make a Western just to make a Western. It has to be the story,” he said.
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Clint also attributed his success to letting things “go its natural course” rather than ruminating over every single detail. “I also believe in things being the way they are. I’ve had a distinct persona based on certain successes in certain areas, but I don’t know quite why that is or what it is. I also don’t know how to counteract that,” he said. “Maybe it would have wrecked my career if I had been more analytical.”
He added that he loved his role in ‘80s Western Bronco Billy, where he played the lead character alongside Sondra Locke.
Clint Is Not Proud Of His 1969 Musical ‘Paint Your Wagon’
Clint spoke of his role in the 1969 musical Paint Your Wagon and how he considered it a failure — especially considering that it failed at the box office. “I’ve always been interested in music, my father was a singer, and I had some knowledge of it. Although what I was doing in that picture was not singing,” Clint explained.
However, the script did not go as initially planned due to a series of rewrites. According to Clint, the script went from gritty to “much lighter,” lacking the elements that the initial story had. “That was not as pleasant an experience as I was used to,” he said.
Another movie that Clint considered a regret was his 1958 film Ambush at Cimarron Pass. The actor recalled how the film made him reconsider his career in acting, describing it as “probably” the worst film ever made. “I’ve got to go back to school. I’ve got to get a job of other sorts,” he had thought at the time. Despite a couple of failures, Clint pushed through and went on to make a successful film like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.