Most people would be happy to even make it to 91 years of age, never mind still be working. Then again, not everybody has enjoyed the same sort of longevity as Clint Eastwood, who cemented his iconic status in Hollywood half a century ago and hasn’t ever showed any signs of slowing down.
With a string of classics under his belt dating back decades and a trophy cabinet that holds four Academy Awards, Eastwood has more than earned the right to take it easy. While he’s slowed down his output in front of the camera, with Cry Macho marking just his third acting credit in the last decade, he’s either directed, produced, or appeared in a dozen features or documentaries in the last ten years.
In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, the legendary star of the Dollars trilogy, Unforgiven, Dirty Harry, and many more explained why he’s continuing to churn out new films at an age where most of his peers and contemporaries have either long since given up the industry or bitten the dust altogether.
“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.”
Cry Macho may have flopped at the box office this past weekend, but his leading roles in Gran Torino and The Mule combined to earn close to $440 million at the box office. And it’s only been seven years since American Sniper resulted in the biggest hit of his career after hauling in half a billion dollars. Nobody’s going to tell him to stop anytime soon, and it doesn’t look like he’d listen anyway.