There are no shortage of actors who moved into directing, but there aren’t many who mastered both to anywhere near the same extent as Clint Eastwood, and by extension, he ended up becoming the measuring stick by which all future stars will be judged.
George Clooney, Ben Affleck, Mel Gibson, Warren Beatty, Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Costner, Sean Penn, and Woody Allen are just some of the names spanning multiple generations who won plenty of acclaim for their efforts on either side of the camera – and in many cases Academy Awards – but it’s the way Eastwood became a trophy-laden legend twice over that sets him apart from the pack.
He was already an iconic superstar before he even made his directorial debut on 1971’s Play Misty for Me, and continued headlining hit movies while maintaining an equal amount of focus on his filmmaking side-line. He never won an Oscar for his on-camera efforts, but he’s got four to his name for directing and producing, and he’s still going strong into his 90s.
Unlike his lifelong best friend and Good Will Hunting collaborator Affleck, Matt Damon has never shown any inclination in directing. He’s happy to write and produce, but he seems to draw the line at wielding the megaphone. That doesn’t mean he can’t view Eastwood as an inspiration, though, especially when he worked with him twice in quick succession on biopic Invictus and supernatural drama Hereafter.
Speaking to the Orange County Examiner, Damon admitted that he “learned something every day with him” during their creative partnership before elaborating on the intangible qualities that have made Eastwood such a titanic presence in cinema history as both an actor and director.
“It’s just his philosophy on work and how he’s managed to be different all the time,” Damon said. “It’s the mark of true artist to defy any categorization for six decades in the movie business. To bathe in the glory of that example is a good reason to want to work with him.” He might not be a director himself, but two of his closest buddies are, and they hold Eastwood in similarly high esteem.
“He is the goal. He is the one who my friends talk about when they talk about where they want to be,” the star continued. “Ben and Clooney; Clint has the career they want.” Just like Eastwood, the A-list trio “want to believe we can do this at a high level for another four decades,” and the legend is living proof that it’s hardly the most far-fetched of aspirations.
It’s a lofty goal considering there aren’t many figures in the annals of Hollywood to have spent a mind-boggling seven decades and change as a household name, but Damon is nonetheless making a decent fist of it having spent more than a quarter of a century as an in-demand talent.