Despite grossing $31.6 million against a budget of $20 million, “Paint Your Wagon” didn’t manage to win Clint Eastwood over.
- Clint Eastwood struggled with conviction for a different kind of work while shooting for Joshua Logan’s “Paint Your Wagon”.
- The movie was Eastwood’s first attempt at a musical and he nearly quit due to the script revisions.
- Morgan Freeman tried to emulate Eastwood during the filming of Million Dollar Baby, inspired by his strong and enigmatic voice
Clint Eastwood has had one of the most distinguished careers in Hollywood. From re-defining the Western dramas with his iconic portrayal of Man with No Name in Dollars Trilogy to exploring complex relationships between parents and children in a unique way through Million Dollar Baby as the director, Eastwood has time and again gone against the trend to bring refreshing ideas to the fore.
His performances and interviews do well to highlight just how convinced and committed he is about his work, but there’s always an anomaly in everyone’s career. For Eastwood, the lack of conviction for a different kind of work emerged while shooting for Joshua Logan’s Paint Your Wagon.
Why Clint Eastwood Came Close to Quitting Joshua Logan’s Movie
At the peak of his stardom, Clint Eastwood was a go-to star for filmmakers looking to create Western-themed movies. The 93-year-old starred in as many as 15 Western films in his career and left fans in awe of his toughness, physical prowess, and skill with guns. As such, one would expect Paint Your Wagon (1969) – another Western movie – to be a pretty straightforward project for him.
However, the Joshua Logan-directed movie was also a musical, starring Eastwood opposite Lee Marvin in the story about two partners in a California gold rush mining town, who fall in love with the same woman. The movie was the actor’s first attempt at a musical and such was his experience that it also turned out to be his last. He told the Empire:
“I was crazy enough to try anything. I’ve always been interested in music, my father was a singer and I had some knowledge of it. Although what I was doing in that picture was not singing.”
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As the script, which originally featured an inter-ethnic romance, went through several rewrites, Eastwood nearly quit.
“I was away shooting Where Eagles Dare, and they flew over (Alan Jay Lerner and director Joshua Logan) and talked me back,” he revealed.
The movie failed to shine at the box office, grossing $31.6 million against a budget of $20 million. Meanwhile, Eastwood’s interview in 2017 suggested that even nearly 40 years later the film didn’t manage to win him over.
Clint Eastwood’s Voice Inspired Morgan Freeman During Million Dollar Baby
While Eastwood’s singing didn’t manage to attract moviegoers to Paint Your Wagon, his strong and enigmatic voice has always been the subject of fascination for his colleagues.
During the filming of Million Dollar Baby back in 2004, Morgan Freeman, who’s known for having a God-like voice, tried to emulate Eastwood’s voice. He told NPR:
“When we went into a makeshift studio and I had the script and we just laid it down, sort of like a timing track. And I always watch Clint get this voice that he uses in the movies. So, I decided on this with I’m going to do the same thing. I’m going to get a Clint Eastwood voice. So, I did it. I just made it about as raspy as I could finally get it. And that was the – I like the quality of that voice.”
In the same interview, Eastwood admitted that he was impressed with the way Freeman voiced Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris, who needed a rough voice to convey the story of his worn-out life.