It’s hard to find a career so full, well-rounded, involved, and long-lasting as that of Clint Eastwood. However, if you were to ask Eastwood, he thinks there’s a star that shines brighter than his, to the point the Gran Torino star believes it’s Tom Cruise who people will be remembering 100 years from now, even more so than him.
Across almost seven decades of working, Eastwood has made a name for himself as not just an actor, but also a composer and director. At 93, he is still working to this day, chipping away at Juror #2, which is expected to be his final film. After so many impactful years, he sat down with filmmaker and journalist Cameron Crowe to discuss his views on the impact others have had on the industry. Here’s what they had to say.
Clint Eastwood believes Tom Cruise will be most remembered out of them all a century from now
“I met Clint Eastwood once,” Crowe shared with Film School Rejects. “I asked him about Chris Penn because he had worked with Chris Penn on Pale Rider. We were talking about what an amazing guy Chris Penn was, and for some reason, we got on the subject of Tom [Cruise].”
It was at that point, Crow revealed, that “Clint Eastwood said, ‘100 years from now and more, people will look back on this generation of films, and the guy who will stand out more than anyone else will be Tom Cruise.’” Crowe acknowledged that such praise from Eastwood counted for quite a lot – and it was praise that Crowe agreed with.
A star crosses his path
Eastwood and Cruise almost crossed paths back in 2011. There were plans to have Clint Eastwood direct Beyoncé in the third American remake of A Star Is Born, still starring Bradley Cooper. Eastwood had his plans formulated a year before any filming actually commenced. However, those plans hit a big delay when Beyoncé became pregnant.
Eventually, the opportunity arose again to work on this project in earnest. But Eastwood was still ready to move forward with filming, although Cruise was heavily favored for the lead role by Warner Bros. But there was no indication that Cruise was actually interested in the role.