“I thought, I’m going to get punched”: Clint Eastwood Faced Massive Humiliation From Director Who Wanted To Remove Him From A Movie Before $375M Rich Actor Became A Living Legend

What do you call a person that has dedicated their entire life in pursuit of excellence in their craft, bringing revolutions in their respective fields through decades of contributions to them? The answer is a legend, a term that aptly defines what Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood is to the world of cinema in this day and age.

And while he may be one of the stars that is revered as Hollywood royalty, there was a time when he too was starting out in the industry and was practically a nobody. During this time, when he got his first break, he remembers just how scared he was of the director of his film, who was so mad that he thought the star thought he was going to get hurt.

Clint Eastwood Recalled Being Humiliated In His First Film By The Director

For more than half a decade in the history of cinema, there have been just a handful of stars that have even come close to matching the prolific career that Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood can boast of. Both in front of the camera and behind it, the star has proved himself to be something greater than the rest of his peers, which led to the meteoric rise in his popularity and respect that he receives from within the industry and beyond. But this was not always the case, in fact, the star almost lost his first break in the industry when the director didn’t want him in the film.

During his conversations with Paul Nelson in the book Lost Interviews with Clint Eastwood, t he Dirty Harry 

star talked about the first major break that he received, which was a very brief role as a lab technician in Jack Arnold’s 1955 horror flick Revenge Of The Creature.  The only problem that he faced was the fact that the director had decided to remove his scene entirely from the film, and he didn’t know about it when he went down with producer William Alland to talk about it. When he was there, the environment became so tense that the star thought he was going to be punched. He said:

“I thought, I’m going to get punched – he was screaming and yelling – or else I was just going to wilt to the floor. Probably the latter. Alland made me realise that it wasn’t anything against me – the director just didn’t want the scene in the movie, so he didn’t see any reason for shooting it and thought they should cut it out.”

But after reconsideration, the scene was added to the film, which worked out for the best, as the movie became known as the film that kickstarted a cinema legend’s career.

What Was Revenge Of The Creature About?

A sequel to Creature from The Black Lagoon, the film tells the tale of how after surviving being shot in the first film, the Gill Man, who is half fish and half man, is captured and brought to Ocean Harbor Oceanarium in Florida. Here, being studied by Ichthyology student Helen Dobson, the Gill Man is infatuated with her, and after killing its caretaker, stalks her until he finds the right time and kidnaps her while her superior Professor Clete Ferguson attempts to save her from the creature.