Despite being one of the biggest influences of his professional career, Clint Eastwood wouldn’t make a film with this industry icon.
When it comes to the trailblazers of the film industry, the name of old-time elites of Hollywood comes to mind. Among them, people remember the good old times of Clint Eastwood’s Western films that used to dominate the global film industry with relative ease. Not only with his performances though, the legend is also one of the most decorated filmmakers in history.
With such a varied and illustrious resume that almost no one will be able to match in Hollywood today, people wonder who the icon’s icons were during his days of coming up. The actor, in fact, did reveal that he had met with Alfred Hitchcock, one of his career’s biggest influences, in person to be featured in his film. Alas, that film was never made.
Clint Eastwood Met Alfred Hitchcock For A Film That Would Never Be Made
With his iconic performances in some of the most critically appraised films like Unforgiven and A Fistful of Dollars series in the Western genre, Clint Eastwood became one of Hollywood’s biggest and most legendary stars. Although his fame as an actor was enough to last a lifetime, his shift into filmmaking would further establish him as one of the Greatest of All Time.
And when the star had someone like filmmaker and screenwriter Alfred Hitchcock as his career influence, he was destined for greatness.
In fact, in an interview with EW, the Gran Torino star revealed that he actually met with this icon in the past. He recalled that Hitchcock wanted to make a film with him, for which he was eager to meet him along with the chance to get the script in hand. While they did meet for lunch, the star said he wasn’t sold enough on the story.
Apart from that, he also remembers the lunch meetings in particular, as they were very strange due to the Vertigo filmmaker’s dining habits. He said:
“Hitchcock wanted me to be in one of his films [which, it turned out, would never be made]. I wasn’t nuts about the script. I had lunch with him in his office. When I walked in, he was sitting there very erect and he didn’t even move. Only his eyes did. They followed you across the room. He had the same thing for lunch every day — a steak and some sliced tomatoes.”
Due to some unknown reason, may it be due to Eastwood not being interested anymore or something else, the film that they were talking about would never be made.
Alfred Hitchcock Once Belittled Steven Spielberg’s Legacy
Eastwood isn’t the only filmmaker who considered Hitchcock his significant influence and idol in the industry, the great Steven Spielberg tried on several different occasions to meet Hitchcock in person and tell him just how much he meant to his illustrious filmmaking career.
Sadly, the Psycho director didn’t feel the same way. Actor Bruce Dern, who was part of Hitchcock’s film Marine said that when he wanted to introduce the Jurassic Park director to him, the filmmaker had some very brash and unsavory things to say. He said (via World of Reel):
“He said, ‘Isn’t that the boy who made the fish movie?… I could never sit down and talk to him… because I look at him and feel like such a wh*re.’”
Neither Dern nor Spielberg knows why the legendary filmmaker belittled him and his film Jaws.