After first achieving stardom in the 1960s, Clint Eastwood was always viewed as more of a movie star than an actor, not that there’s any shame in that.
His name and instantly-recognisable visage were about as capable as anyone else’s when it came to putting butts in seats, but his aura and presence tended to hog more of the limelight than his performances. That’s not to say he was constantly batting away accusations that he was wooden, but he was much more of a draw than he was a critical darling.
Even when he segued into directing and became a regular awards season contender, very rarely was it his acting that competed for major prizes. Eastwood has four Academy Awards to his name, all of which are for his filmmaking efforts. In fact, of his 11 nominations in total, only two of them have been acting nods, and he didn’t even earn his first until the 1993 edition of the ceremony.
He’s won four Golden Globes from 13 nominations despite never having even been shortlisted once for an acting prize, not that it’ll ever detract from the sheer breadth of iconic characters he’s played in such a wide range of classic movies. However, maybe it bugged him a little bit, because one of his most famous collaborators revealed that Eastwood didn’t hold himself in the highest regard as thespian.
Don Siegel worked with the star five times between 1968 and 1979, and their partnerships on crime thriller Coogan’s Bluff, Western romance Two Mules for Sister Sara, gothic psychological tale The Beguiled, legendary actioner Dirty Harry, and prison break story Escape from Alcatraz was reflective of their respective eclectic tastes.
Eastwood said Siegel knew more about moviemaking than anybody he’d ever met, but the director wasn’t convinced his regular leading man was aware of his own abilities on-screen. “I found Clint Eastwood very knowledgeable about making pictures, and very good at knowing what to do with the camera,” he said, per Alan Lovell. “I also found that he is inclined to underestimate himself a little as an actor, in terms of the range he can cover.”
Siegel clarified his point by saying “Clint knows what he’s doing when he acts and why he picks material,” which in turn made him “the number one box office star in the world.” Because that’s what people expected and wanted to see from him, though, playing so many “bigger than life” characters didn’t allow him to pull out every weapon in his dramatic arsenal.
It didn’t exactly hold him back from reaching his full potential, either, but it’s curious to hear a director who’d enlisted Eastwood five times over to take top billing in his pictures share his belief that the A-lister and bankable commodity underestimated his own range.