Clint Eastwood
I wanted to grab some quotes from the Clint Eastwood interview that is getting a lot of buzz. Ever since he spoke to that empty chair at the Republican Convention of 2012, trying to demean President Obama, he's been breaking my heart, and now he is pro-Trump. Well, he still made a lot of movies that make up the American culture & mind. Esquire magazine (ESQ) is interviewing both Clint Eastwood (CE) and his actor-son Scott Eastwood (SE).
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ESQ: How do you, Scott, stand next to your old man but become your own man, forge your own identity?
SE: I just do what he does: Keep moving forward. You can't look back or think about that kind of stuff too much. You just keep making movies; hopefully you make some good ones. Probably gonna make some bad ones along the way.
CE: Well, he's smart. He's doing a lot of things, and you learn on every picture. And that's one of the secrets: With everything you do, learn something new about yourself.
SE: I remember something he told me early on. I don't remember how old I was when you told me this, Dad. But you said, "As an actor, I never went back to my trailer. I always hung out on set and learned." That stuck with me. I'm on this Fast and the Furious movie right now, and everyone goes back to their trailer. I stick around and say, "Why you are setting up the shot like this?" I want to learn.
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ESQ: Your characters have become touchstones in the culture, whether it's Reagan invoking "Make my day" or now Trump … I swear he's even practiced your scowl.
CE: Maybe. But he's onto something, because secretly everybody's getting tired of political correctness, kissing up. That's the kiss-ass generation we're in right now. We're really in a pussy generation. Everybody's walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren't called racist. And then when I did Gran Torino, even my associate said, "This is a really good script, but it's politically incorrect." And I said, "Good. Let me read it tonight." The next morning, I came in and I threw it on his desk and I said, "We're starting this immediately."
[...]
ESQ: What troubles you the most?
CE: We're not really … what troubles me is … I guess when I did that silly thing at the Republican convention, talking to the chair …
ESQ: I didn't say it was silly.
CE: It was silly at the time, but I was standing backstage and I'm hearing everybody say the same thing: "Oh, this guy's a great guy." Great, he's a great guy. I've got to say something more. And so I'm listening to an old Neil Diamond thing and he's going, "And no one heard at all / Not even the chair." And I'm thinking, That's Obama. He doesn't go to work. He doesn't go down to Congress and make a deal. What the hell's he doing sitting in the White House? If I were in that job, I'd get down there and make a deal. Sure, Congress are lazy bastards, but so what? You're the top guy. You're the president of the company. It's your responsibility to make sure everybody does well. It's the same with every company in this country, whether it's a two-man company or a two-hundred-man company… . And that's the pussy generation-nobody wants to work.
[...]
CE: When I harken back to my dad, I remember we left Redding and drove down here so he could get a job as a gas jockey at a Standard Station on the corner of PCH and Sunset Boulevard. But you travel five hundred miles, bring your family, rip up everything, and do that because that's the only job that existed. So I think, What would happen if he'd have said, "Oh, I can't do that?" Well, we'd have been begging for sandwiches at somebody's backdoor. Which is, I remember, one of the most affecting things that ever happened in my life. I was a little kid, five years old, and a guy comes to the back of our house and says to my mother, "There's a bunch of wood in the back. Could I chop that up for you, ma'am?" And my mother says, "We don't have money." And he says, "I don't want any money. Just a sandwich."
[Clint goes silent; his eyes well up.]
ESQ: Does that memory haunt you?
CE: It haunts me when I think of all the assholes out there who are complaining. I saw people who really had it bad. There was no welfare to catch, to fill the bill there. The guy just wanted a sandwich. Hopefully later on he got a job somewhere. He was a guy trying to exist, and that's the way people were then.
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ESQ: Clint, do you still describe yourself as a libertarian?
CE: I don't know what I am. I'm a little of everything.
ESQ: Politically, you're the Anti-Pussy party?
SE: That's right. No candy-asses.
CE: Yeah, I'm anti-the pussy generation. Not to be confused with pussy.
SE: All of us are pro-pussy.
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ESQ: Collecting wives is an expensive hobby.
CE: Yeah, cut out the middleman. Just find somebody you hate and buy 'em a house.
SE: I gotta write that down.
CE: When you call your lawyer and you tell 'em, you know, "I'm gonna get married to this girl" and there's a long pause on the other end of the line, you know damn well they're thinking, "How are we gonna set this up, and then how are we gonna dissolve this?"
-- Esquire.com
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ESQ: How do you, Scott, stand next to your old man but become your own man, forge your own identity?
SE: I just do what he does: Keep moving forward. You can't look back or think about that kind of stuff too much. You just keep making movies; hopefully you make some good ones. Probably gonna make some bad ones along the way.
CE: Well, he's smart. He's doing a lot of things, and you learn on every picture. And that's one of the secrets: With everything you do, learn something new about yourself.
SE: I remember something he told me early on. I don't remember how old I was when you told me this, Dad. But you said, "As an actor, I never went back to my trailer. I always hung out on set and learned." That stuck with me. I'm on this Fast and the Furious movie right now, and everyone goes back to their trailer. I stick around and say, "Why you are setting up the shot like this?" I want to learn.
888
ESQ: Your characters have become touchstones in the culture, whether it's Reagan invoking "Make my day" or now Trump … I swear he's even practiced your scowl.
CE: Maybe. But he's onto something, because secretly everybody's getting tired of political correctness, kissing up. That's the kiss-ass generation we're in right now. We're really in a pussy generation. Everybody's walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren't called racist. And then when I did Gran Torino, even my associate said, "This is a really good script, but it's politically incorrect." And I said, "Good. Let me read it tonight." The next morning, I came in and I threw it on his desk and I said, "We're starting this immediately."
[...]
ESQ: What troubles you the most?
CE: We're not really … what troubles me is … I guess when I did that silly thing at the Republican convention, talking to the chair …
ESQ: I didn't say it was silly.
CE: It was silly at the time, but I was standing backstage and I'm hearing everybody say the same thing: "Oh, this guy's a great guy." Great, he's a great guy. I've got to say something more. And so I'm listening to an old Neil Diamond thing and he's going, "And no one heard at all / Not even the chair." And I'm thinking, That's Obama. He doesn't go to work. He doesn't go down to Congress and make a deal. What the hell's he doing sitting in the White House? If I were in that job, I'd get down there and make a deal. Sure, Congress are lazy bastards, but so what? You're the top guy. You're the president of the company. It's your responsibility to make sure everybody does well. It's the same with every company in this country, whether it's a two-man company or a two-hundred-man company… . And that's the pussy generation-nobody wants to work.
[...]
CE: When I harken back to my dad, I remember we left Redding and drove down here so he could get a job as a gas jockey at a Standard Station on the corner of PCH and Sunset Boulevard. But you travel five hundred miles, bring your family, rip up everything, and do that because that's the only job that existed. So I think, What would happen if he'd have said, "Oh, I can't do that?" Well, we'd have been begging for sandwiches at somebody's backdoor. Which is, I remember, one of the most affecting things that ever happened in my life. I was a little kid, five years old, and a guy comes to the back of our house and says to my mother, "There's a bunch of wood in the back. Could I chop that up for you, ma'am?" And my mother says, "We don't have money." And he says, "I don't want any money. Just a sandwich."
[Clint goes silent; his eyes well up.]
ESQ: Does that memory haunt you?
CE: It haunts me when I think of all the assholes out there who are complaining. I saw people who really had it bad. There was no welfare to catch, to fill the bill there. The guy just wanted a sandwich. Hopefully later on he got a job somewhere. He was a guy trying to exist, and that's the way people were then.
888
ESQ: Clint, do you still describe yourself as a libertarian?
CE: I don't know what I am. I'm a little of everything.
ESQ: Politically, you're the Anti-Pussy party?
SE: That's right. No candy-asses.
CE: Yeah, I'm anti-the pussy generation. Not to be confused with pussy.
SE: All of us are pro-pussy.
888
ESQ: Collecting wives is an expensive hobby.
CE: Yeah, cut out the middleman. Just find somebody you hate and buy 'em a house.
SE: I gotta write that down.
CE: When you call your lawyer and you tell 'em, you know, "I'm gonna get married to this girl" and there's a long pause on the other end of the line, you know damn well they're thinking, "How are we gonna set this up, and then how are we gonna dissolve this?"
-- Esquire.com
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