CE: The prospect of dating someone in her twenties becomes less
appealing as you get older. At some point in your fife, your tolerance
level goes down and you realize that, with someone much younger, there's
nothing really to talk about. And I think we're at a point now where a
lot of older women take better care of themselves, compared to the 1940s
and '50s when women were programmed to figure it's all over after 30. 1
find a lot of appeal in a woman if she's kept herself well in her forties
and beyond.
I have a friend who's been dating women of the same age since he
was 20. I told him that's great, but what do you say to her afterwards?
If you don't smoke, what do you say? Do you talk about the weather or Jon
Bon Jovi? I don't know. A guy who feels he's older because he dates
someone 45, it's strange. Guys like that, if they have a family and a
daughter, they might end up dating someone their daughter's age or
younger. It's a little confusing. My daughter's 20, and I would find it a
problem if I met a friend of hers and was attracted to her.
PT: Do you sexually neutralize your daughter's friends?
CE: Yes, I think I do so instinctively.
PT: Are you a positive role model?
CE: For who? I guess any movie actor can become a role model for
audiences out there who enjoy him.
PT: Do you feel any responsibility or burden that goes along with
being a role model? Has it influenced you in your public or screen or
private behavior?
CE: Well, I think the only way it has influenced me is to cause me
to try to branch out and do other things. So that people will know that I
am reaching out and trying to be a little more versatile. So they realize
he is not a "Dirty Harry." He doesn't advocate martial law or mayhem -
it's a character.
PT: Is there too much explicit violence in Hollywood films
today?
CE: Probably, yeah.
PT: Why?
CE: Probably because people, when they start making films, take the
element that they think works. Hollywood seems to succumb to fads. Well,
action films do well. Give me violence. Give me a scene where there's a
couple of car chases or shooting and stuff like that. They're forgetting
the fact that there's a basic structure to a story that is essential to
making it really broad and appealing.
PT: Are you referring to the attitude that everything is gratuitous
-the gratuitous sex, gratuitous violence, sort of morally nihilistic,
whatever will work? Whatever we can make a buck on?
CE: Yeah, but I don't know. I hate to be in a position to start
criticizing. It's very, very difficult for me at this point in my life to
say, well, you know these young guys come along, they shouldn't be doing
this shit, considering I've made a career out of mayhem to some degree or
another. But I always like to think that for the most part I was doing it
within the realm of a story and character development, but that's
certainly in the eyes of the beholder and there could be people who take
issue with that.
PT: Do you have any regrets for any of the films you've
made?
CE: You know I can't have regrets because I don't believe in them.
Naturally, everybody has certain things they wish they hadn't done in
life. They wish they hadn't kicked their dog when they were ten or
something. There are many things you can go back and have regrets about.
I don't like doing that. But by the same token I do agree that when you
get to a certain stage in life, you change. And you should change. People
ask if you've changed since such and such? Well, of course I've changed.
Now whether I've changed for the better or for the worse becomes another
point. if a person is constantly evolving, constantly reading new
material and being exposed to new material and growing in life, then
you're becoming, hopefully, a more intelligent and well-rounded
individual. If you're not then something's wrong and you're sliding back
in the other direction.
PT: Getting back to society. What if somebody said to you - like
what happens with some rock stars - that some guy killed somebody, and
when he was taken to court he said, "I did it because of Clint Eastwood.
I saw him use that gun in this way. I saw him blow this guy away and I
was inspired to do the same thing."
CE: Yeah, well, I wouldn't like that at all. And I like to think
that most audiences know the difference. I mean they may go and they may
fantasize, and they may like to be able to say they had a big fantasy
about the Dirty Harry character - not so much the fact that he's a man of
action and that he shoots well, but also the fact that he knows what to
say and do at the right time. Everybody wishes they had the ability to
say, "Go ahead, make my day" at the time. But most people don't. Most
people, the boss gives them a lot of crap and they go out and they say,
"Why didn't I tell him to such and such and so and so;" because they
can't think on their feet that fast. So you get a fantasy character who
thinks on his feet and right away the boss says something to him and he
says, "Your mouthwash ain't making it." Or some little deal like that.
And they fantasize with that and it's kind of a real true escapism.
Because nobody really has that ability unless they happen to be extremely
clever and are attuned to that sort of thing - to be able to come back
and operate that way.
PT: But you said you wouldn't like it if some kid said that he shot
somebody because of you.
CE: No. I wouldn't like it at all.
PT: But would you accept it?
Tags:
alfred hitchcock,
bartlett,
blight,
Clint Eastwood,
cure for cancer,
dirty harry,
entertainment value,
familiar quotations,
film,
first person,
Hollywood,
magnum,
mankind,
morality,
peole,
psyche,
social influence,
stuart fischoff,
violence,
violent films,
violent images,
william jennings bryan
