This One Fear Made Clint Eastwood Drop Acting and Become a Director Instead

You can have literally nothing to do with the movie industry, and you’d still know who Clint Eastwood is. One of the most iconic movie stars of all time, this man’s been going at it for decades now — first, as an actor, then, as a director.

Both jobs worked out beautifully for Eastwood, solidifying his status as Hollywood’s biggest legend.

But over time, Clint Eastwood’s career was more and more inclined toward directing rather than acting, and few people knew why he’d decided to drop performing borderline entirely.

The answer to this question, however, is rather simple: as he grew older, Eastwood also grew more and more scared he’d have no good roles.

“You know, I do [love acting]. I’ve threatened to quit, but maybe that’s a defense mechanism because there aren’t enough good roles at my age. That’s probably true, and if it is, I’ll stay behind the camera. The reason I started directing 37 years ago was I thought someday I or the audience would probably look at the screen and say, ‘That’s enough of that,'” Eastwood told Film Comment.

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Despite almost cutting off his favorite job, acting, the Hollywood star feels pretty good in the director’s chair, too. Clint Eastwood learned to admire new actors’ work as he watched them, and this, for him, is one of the joys of being a director.

“I had a great experience directing the last film [Mystic River] without being in it. I’m always amazed looking at other actors when they’re conquering the difficulties of different sequences,” Eastwood explained.

Thanks to his fear, the iconic actor turned into a respectable director in his own right, and even despite that, he still sometimes picks acting gigs and shows the new generation of performers how it’s done. In the case of Clint Eastwood, his fear did not let him down — and instead, opened new creative horizons for him.